The use of chip and PIN credit card payment is to be rolled out during the next year and by the end of 2004 is predicted to make up two thirds of card payments, according to the card company.

Colin Grannell, managing director of Visa told the BBC: “As we go into 2005 that number will pick up quite quickly.”

So far 150,000 terminals by British banks have been installed in shops across Britain so far, leaving 350,000 left to fit.

Trials of the technology, where consumers type in an identification number instead of a signature, have been underway since May last year.

However, Sandra Quinn of the Association for Payment Clearing Services explained: “‘Our target for the end of this year is for the majority of transactions to be chip and pin, and we reckon that in 2005 itself, the vast majority of transactions will be chip and pin.

“We know that by the end of this year, nine out of 10 of us as cardholders will have a card . . . we are very confident that we will meet our target.”