Fraud on bank cards has fallen nearly a third in Britain since the introduction of chip and pin security.
The new cards, introduced in Ireland recently, have been available in Britain over the past 18 months and are now used in most transactions.
Credit and debit card fraud is a common problem globally and last year cost Irish consumers €9.6 million.
The introduction of the chip and pin credit card system, where the cardholder inputs a personal security number into a card scanning machine to activate their payment instead of signing a printed receipt, reduces some of the risks of this sort of fraud.
Fraud on lost and counterfeit cards in Britain slipped to £89.9 million in the first six months of 2005 from £126.6 million in the same period the year before, according to the Association of Payment Clearing Services (APACS).
From February 14th, 2006, holders of the new cards will be obliged to use the personal identification number, said APACS.
From that date retailers will be able to refuse customers the option of using their signature to verify payment.
Additional reporting: Reuters