[TomGuy]

I got a renewal credit card last year with a chip. My former one didn’t.

The chip one is supposed to be more secure, but is also more susceptible to having the data stolen by some independent technological device.

I was happy with the old one. Now, I have to keep the new one in a foil wrap — and worry about the moments and distance when placing it into the card reader.

[palmer]

The credit card chips have no battery and no power inductor coil (unlike RFID). So when they are not connected to a reader, they have no power, and do nothing. Nobody can read them at a distance.

The card readers are more secure. I don't believe it is possible to clone a reader and even if they did they would only get one fraudulent transaction. The private key on the chip is always safe. In contrast the rogue swipe strip readers could read your credit card strip and then make unlimited transactions with the information.