Butcher has no bones to pick with new chip and pin system

From the archive, first published Tuesday 21st Feb 2006.

BUSINESSES in Worcester have seen a smooth transition in the first week customers had to use a pin number to pay with credit cards rather than signing.

Businesses are putting the easy transition down to the fact many of them have been using the chip and pin technology for a year or more.

Cheesemaker and retailer Colin Anstey, who runs Ansteys of Worcester, which has a shop at Worcester Garden Centre, Norton, said: "I think the major thing was concern about memorising numbers. It concerned more of the elderly people but it's amazing how people of all ages have overcome and accepted the chip and pin."

Mr Anstey said the technology - which combats fraud because the embedded chip stores information more securely than the old magnetic strips on cards - had been in use at his shop for six months.

Ian Narraway, who runs IJ Narraway butcher's in St John's, Worcester, said it had been using the technology for around a year.

He said: "Most of our customers - around 75 per cent - are regulars. They are so used to using it that they don't have to ask. I feel it's a lot better because it stops crime."

Christopher Harvey, of the Chamber of Commerce Herefordshire and Worcestershire, said: "I haven't been told of a great flood of customers who are confused and don't remember their pin numbers.

"I'm sure there have been some but it all seems to be going smoothly."

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