Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 1:11PM ET - Canadian Markets close in 2 hours and 49 minutes.
Sometimes our credit cards seem to have minds of their own. Starting next year, they actually will. Visa and MasterCard are replacing the cards we've used for years with new ones containing paper-thin computer chips. Allen Wright, director of chip initiatives at Visa Canada, says the new cards will be able to store information, do math calculations — and stop counterfeiters in their tracks.
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Wright says most new Canadian cards won't have antennae in them, although they may be added later. He also assures us that the new chips will hold the exact same information that's encoded on the card you have now. But he acknowledges that chip cards can hold much more data than that, and that marketers could eventually use this extra functionality to track your purchases in loyalty programs. If that has you worried, keep in mind that the new cards will keep their old magnetic strips for a few years yet. That means they'll still work perfectly well should your card's microchip get accidentally crushed, pierced or fried.
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| Mortgages Type | Rate |
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