Old style: mag stripe used to access the account. many places don't check the signature properly, so even if you can't take cash out of cashpoints people can still use stolen ones. if your money went missing it's trivial to check the signature used by crooks and prove that it wasn't the owner who used it.
new style: all done with pin numbers(eventually, once the dual mag strip and chip and pin has been reduced to just chip and pin). someone steals your card, or robs you at knifepoint and says `what's the pin`. i'm going to give him the pin rather than be murdered, thanks. does the bank take this as a breach of the `keep the pin secret` part of my contract and hold me accountable/responsible for any stolen money? if so then i think i'm better off with the old system, aren't i?
anyone one know the answer to this one?