Today I got an email from my credit card provider. My new EMV—chip card—is on its way. Some of my friends have already received and have been using their chip card for months, others have not.
If you are a business that accepts credit cards at point-of sale and you haven’t already updated your POS system to accept EMV, you should consider updating to a system that handles both EMV and NFC (think ApplePay) technology.
EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) credit cards have been around for a while now and have been used in other countries around the world for about a decade. EMV uses the computer chip technology we’ve all heard about—the one that greatly reduces fraud by using a single-use code to validate each transaction instead of the 16 digit account number.
NFC (Near-Field Communication) is a type of wireless technology that allows mobile payments to be made over short distances. It’s the chip technology used by ApplePay, Android Pay, and soon to be launched Samsung Pay (September 28th). Like EMV, NFC technology also utilizes single-use codes to keep your credit card information safe from fraudsters, plus requiring a password to unlock your cellphone adds an additional layer of protection if your device is lost or stolen. ApplePay also takes security a step further by requiring the use of the Touch-ID (thumbprint) home button to complete a transaction.
Migration to chip cards won’t provide additional counterfeit fraud protection when it comes to card-not-present transactions such as phone or online purchases, but will virtually wipe it out at point-of-sale dealings.
Even though it is not mandated that businesses make the transition to EMV compatible systems, on October 1st there is going to be a liability shift from the credit card company to merchants—any business that doesn’t have EMV compatible terminals in place by that deadline will be liable for any fraudulent changes that take place at those terminals.
If you haven’t upgraded your system yet, you’re not alone. I’ve read statistics¹ that estimate 75-80 percent of small to medium size businesses have not yet made the transition, and, as you might have guessed, cost of a new system is a predominant cause for the delay along with lack of time to research and setup the system, and general lack of knowledge on the subject.
Systems that handle both technologies aren’t really any more expensive than the ones that just handle EMV. As long as you’re already upgrading, give your patrons more options for payment. If someone wants to buy something from you, you might as well make it as easy for them as you can.
If you’re looking for EMV compliant options, check out NerdWallet’s blog: POS systems: Find the Best System for Your Small Business.
A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners. Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 10 years.
1, Payment Week, Eight out of Ten Small Businesses are Not Ready for EMV, September 10th, 2015.