Most Canadian shoppers are unaware that when they swipe their credit card or debit card through a pos terminal they are getting a higher-level of protection than U.S. consumers. This is because Canadian consumers are given credit cards embedded with chip technology, or EMV, which includes a greater layer of security. These chips make it difficult for criminals to fabricate counterfeit cards or sell stolen units, the Charlotte Observer reports.

"There's no question that chip-and-PIN is a much safer technology than signature-based cards, which are a lot easier to replicate," said Diane Brisebois, the president and CEO of the Retail Council of Canada, to the news source.

What is even more striking is that the United States generated about 27 percent of credit card purchases, but accounted for 47 percent of global payment-card fraud, The Nilson Report said in 2011.

When American travel to Toronto or other Canadian cities, their cards work. However, Canadian retailers open their organizations up to risk for fraud and losses. Consequently, when Canadians travel to U.S. cities, they often can't use their cards, especially debit cards, the news source reports.

Many American credit card companies argue that merchants have balked at the cost of switching to EMV technology, but production costs are falling. Currently, EMV chips are falling $3 to $5 per chip card to a dollar or lower.

More recently, Visa began a push to require merchants who allow payment processing to switch to EMV units by 2015. The goal is to improve credit card protection and decrease global fraud. Merchants in Canada have already benefited greatly from the added protection EMV chips provide, now it's time for the rest of the world to catch up.