Chips in credit & debit cards

Suddenly, the banks & credit unions behind my cards are telling me they're about to replace my cards with new ones with "chips" and deactivate the old ones. The only kind of chip I know of that anybody ever put in those things was RFID, and those seemed to die out quickly when they first came out because anybody walking by could scan the information on them. I presume these aren't those, because those were stupid and the instructions for using these talk about putting the card physically inside the reader instead of just waving it somewhere near it. But then, still, what's the point of changing from the old system, and why is this happening all at once from multiple sources with no options given and no prior news that it was coming? They claim the security is better, but don't say how (along with not saying how information is physically sent & received, which was exactly what made the last kind of "chip" I heard of less secure).

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1mYbPGb