PNC Bank To Upgrade ATMs For Added Security

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- PNC is upgrading all 9,000 of its ATMs to make them more secure, says PNC senior vice president Ken Justice.

"A lot of people have received new cards in the mail that have a chip on them," Justice told KDKA money editor Jon Delano on Wednesday.

Just like the new chip credit cards, a chip on the debit card used at automatic teller machines offers extra protection if, and only if, the ATM has been upgraded to receive the chip card.

"It reduces the opportunity for fraudsters that try and skim card data," said Justice.

The chip cannot really be copied.

"In the old environment, it was much easier to copy the data that's on the mag stripe that's on the back of your card, and then someone could make a copy of your card and then they go to the ATM," noted Justice.

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Owners of old ATMs have until Oct. 1 to upgrade to the chip technology or the ATM owner, rather than the credit card company, will assume liability for any fraud.

Now not every PNC customer has received their chip-encoded ATM debit card.

But, no worries, the old card will still works at the ATM even after the Oct. 1 switchover.

PNC's Justice says this is only the first of upcoming changes at ATMs over the next year or so.

Watch for future ATMs to be able to give you the denominations -- fives, tens, twentys -- that you want.

And then someday, cards will disappear altogether.

"What you'll see us trying to work on is the ability for a customer to use their mobile phone instead of a card to perform their transactions," noted Justice.