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Just thought I'd do an update.
Yes, you can upgrade to a 'chip & pin' card :)
But you have open a Current Account to do it :(
To open a Current a/c you have to have a regular monthly credit ie salary/wages paid in. To be honest the Woolwich a/c was a disaster/rainy day/holiday fund only and I paid in �40 a week via wage deduction.
I've already stopped any further payments going in, and will do a letter to them to close the account and WHY!
As an aside to this but very relevant, my wife works part time on a Till checkout for a well known supermarket. Since the new cards came out she has had quite a lot of people trying to pay for their weekly shop using them and none of them realising the cards useless for this.
Tempers were getting frayed, which is understanderable, bearing in mind you've just wasted 30 - 60 minutes shopping to be told you cannot have it! A lot of the people didn't have an alternative method to pay so had to walk away and find a Barclays atm