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What new "chip" credit cards mean to your wallet

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You may see a replacement in the mail, or a new one altogether: a security chip in your credit or debit card.

The new cards will change a few things including the amount of security behind your credit card and who is responsible if there are fraudulent charges.

The good news for you, the card holder? Not much changes at all, and you get to keep swiping away.

"It means you continue to be liable for zero [payments]. You are protected. Either the bank or the merchant are responsible for the fraud losses," Don Childears of the Colorado Bankers Association explained to  7NEWS reporter Jason Gruenauer.

Every time you swipe, the chip creates a unique code for every transaction, which means it's safer, harder to steal, and impossible to skim.

"All the experts say that this chip can not be duplicated. It's that foolproof," Childears said.

New cards require new machines to read them. If a business doesn't have one by next week and a fraudulent charge is made the business will now have to repay that amount.

Several local family-owned businesses in Denver said they have already purchased and installed those new credit card machines. Others have not.

"We're taking the risk and we realize that, and it may not be a long-term decision to stay this way but for now that may be where we go," Morgan Huston of Birdsall & Co. boutique said.

Companies now face the choice: to spend the money on a new machine or take the risk of liability.

"It's not fair and it's going to impact us a lot. If we were to have a fraudulent charge on a big item, that's going to be a burden on us, that's really detrimental," Huston added.

The garden store and a few other businesses that spoke to 7NEWS said they will likely eventually switch over to the new machines, just not right away.

As for the cards, you will still have to be careful with your plastic, since they do not protect against online fraud.

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