AUSTIN, Texas — It's no secret gas stations have had trouble with skimmers in the past. But Austin gas stations will begin switching their policies to combat the skimmers issue.
It might be one of the last things you think about when you're filling up, but thinking about how secure you're being with your credit card at the pumps is important.
"I don't think twice," said Katy Tiernan "I just do what it tells me."
At Randalls gas stations like the one on the corner of Ben White and Machaca Road, they're changing things up a bit.
"Yea, if you put your card in it holds it in place instead of you being able to pull it out," said Cody Craven.
"Yea it wasn't a swipe," said Tracy Trevino. "Then I didn't realize it was a chip reader."
Randalls changed its card readers from the traditional magnetic strip reader to chip readers, much like the ones you see inside stores. However, soon you'll start seeing it at every gas station nationwide.
"The national deadline to get this done is 2020, so we wanted to get ahead of the curve. So we've had them in for a few weeks now," said Martin West, an employee with Randalls. "And obviously credit card security is a big thing and so this is just an added layer of security that we offer our customers when they come to our fuel centers."
If a station doesn't switch, it will be responsible for any thefts that happen from magnetic strip cards.
Customers KVUE spoke with seemed to have a positive outlook on the change.
"Yea no, I support the chip and the extra security all day long," said Trevino.
"I feel safer knowing that my information isn't gonna get stolen with a chip reader," said Tiernan.
"I would definitely like to have the extra security," said Craven.