Aimee Byron, assistant credit manager with Consolidated
Electrical Distributors, Inc., and Melisa Grimes, credit and
collections manager at Phoenix Textile Corp., were among
those polled by NACM who argued that the money saved by
reducing or eliminating fraudulent charges “would pay for
itself.” Either way, Fountain believes there’s a bit of inevitability involved. “You have to be compliant by 2015 or you’ll
become liable for fraud activity. The line is in the sand,” said
Fountain, who predicts that in a few years, getting a plastic
credit card with a magstripe will be as difficult as a formerlypopular coupon strip for a loan is today. Magstripes will
become a relic not only for fraud safety reasons, but also
because, as Fountain believes, chip-based technology will be
incorporated into cellular phone application platforms, which
will essentially be used as