The way you pay with a credit card will start to change on October 1 - here's what you should know

Paying with a credit card has become like clockwork for most of us. We don't even have to think about swiping the plastic in our wallets.

Come October 1, 2015, things will start to change, due to the nationwide migration to EMV technology.

With EMV - which stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa - you'll start "dipping" your credit and debit cards into a terminal slot.

Rather than reading the magnetic stripe on the back of your card, payment processing systems will read a microchip on the front of your card, which aims to improve security and reduce fraud.

Here's what you should know as the October 1 deadline approaches:

This article was written by Business Insider without the involvement of Merrill Lynch.