With the EMV fraud liability shift in place, you need to understand what happens if you’re not compliant; and how it can affect your business.
No matter how hard you try to wish it away, the EMV change is here. But if you decide not to convert, we at North American Bancard want you to know some of the risks and how credit card fraud will be handled.
As of Oct. 1, 2015, the liability for counterfeit transactions has shifted to the party that offers the lowest level of security, meaning a merchant is liable if they haven't deployed EMV card readers. According to creditcards.com, any parties not EMV-ready after October 2015 could face much higher costs in the event of a large data breach.
With all of that in mind, the pluses of converting to an EMV-ready machine seem to outweigh the minuses. With more than 120 million Americans in possession of an EMV card, and a projected 600 million EMV-cards in circulation by the end of the year, your consumers are going to expect to use their EMV-card for each transaction. And, as their financial institutions explain to them the added security that an EMV-card offers, they might think twice about shopping at a business that isn’t EMV-capable.
If you don’t want to lose a customer over not being EMV-ready, you should contact your North sales agent about getting a new EMV-capable POS for your business. Once you get the machine, here are a few tips on getting the most out of it:
- Dip. Both. For the foreseeable future, EMV-chip cards will also have the standard magnetic stripe on the back for those merchants who haven’t completed the EMV transition yet. But, if the machine is EMV-ready and the customer swipes their card like they have for years, the machine will request that the customer “dip” their card. “Dipping” is the process of inserting an EMV card into the EMV slot and allowing the microprocessor chip to connect with the terminal to complete the transaction.
- Give it time. Unlike the standard swipe, the EMV process of dipping the card takes a few seconds. These extra few moments are needed to allow the chip to communicate with the terminal so it can make sure the terminal is legitimate, and the terminal can do the same for the card. Interrupting this communication by taking the card out will cause the transaction to be declined. Customers will have to either sign or enter a PIN number for each purchase made with an EMV card. The card issuer determines which method that needs to be used.
For more information on how North can help you make the transition to becoming EMV-ready, please contact us or call 877-840-1952.
