Millions of Americans who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are beginning to get new chip-enabled payment cards, as states move away from magnetic-stripe technology in an effort to combat the theft of benefits. New Jersey is the latest state to complete a statewide rollout on Sept. 10, with the state's Department of Human Services announcing that new chip-enabled Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards had been distributed to SNAP and Work First New Jersey recipients across the state. The expansion followed a three-county pilot that recorded more than 100,000 chip transactions and 41,000 tap-to-pay transactions.
The same day, Virginia announced the rollout of its new "chip-and-tap" cards. The Virginia Department of Social Services says cards will be issued between September and December, replacing existing magnetic-stripe-only cards. Recipients' existing benefit balances will automatically transfer to their new cards.
The changes are part of a wider movement to modernize SNAP payment technology after hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits were stolen from recipients using methods including card skimming and cloning. Traditional EBT cards have historically relied heavily on magnetic stripes similar to older debit and credit cards. Criminals can attach "skimming" equipment to payment terminals to capture information stored on the stripe, including card details, then use that information to create cloned cards and drain a recipient's account.
Chip-enabled cards are more secure because the chip creates a unique transaction code each time the card is used, making the payment information far harder to copy and reuse. Contactless "tap" payments use similar technology. The cards may still include a magnetic stripe so they can be used at retailers that have not yet upgraded their payment systems.
The technology does not eliminate every form of benefit theft. Phishing scams can still trick recipients into revealing their card number and PIN, and some retailers may temporarily require customers to swipe until their payment systems are upgraded. The USDA nevertheless says chip cards are harder to copy and make it more difficult to steal SNAP account information.
Changing cards does not change the amount of SNAP they are eligible to receive. Existing balances transfer to the replacement card, although recipients need to follow their state's instructions for activating it and setting a PIN. A Government Accountability Office analysis of USDA data found states replaced more than $320 million in stolen SNAP benefits for nearly 679,000 households between October 1, 2022, and December 20, 2024.
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