[Questions you were too afraid to ask]

There’s a lot of buzz in the payments community about the EMV upgrade. As a retailer you need to be informed enough to act before the October 2015 deadline. Use these questions and answers to make an educated decision about your next steps.

What is an EMV upgrade?
An EMV upgrade involves the way credit cards are processed. Newer cards will have EMV chip and PIN devices that work to prevent fraud. Having a POS that accepts such cards works to protect your company and your customers from fraudulent activity.

If we don’t issue credit cards, do we really need to pay attention to the EMV update?
Yes! One of the biggest changes that comes with the update will be the liability shift. Come October, if fraudulent activity occurs, the entity with the lesser technology will be held liable for losses incurred. For example, if the cardholder has an EMV card but the retailer doesn’t have an updated POS system and hackers mine the cardholder’s data, the retailer is held responsible because of the lesser technology. On the flip side, if a cardholder pays with a credit card that does not have the chip and PIN technology at a retailer with an EMV-enabled POS system and the cardholder’s data is compromised, the credit card issuer is held responsible.

What entities are impacted by the EMV requirements?
The three primary entity types most affected by the update are those entities most likely to rely on credit cards: merchants, banks, and credit card companies.

Is the upgrade mandatory?
No. The upgrade isn’t mandatory, but companies choosing to rely on older, less secure technology will pay the price when hackers behave fraudulently. The liability shift will hold you responsible for any losses that occur due to a security breach. In 2014 those losses totaled more than $148 million for Target.

How does EMV technology work to prevent fraud?
Instead of data being transmitted through the magnetic strip on the back of a credit card, data is transmitted via the EMV chip. The chip automatically assigns a special number to a transaction. That number serves no purpose for hackers since it is unique to only one transaction. In other words, the actual credit card number is not transmitted and vulnerable to a security breach.

How effective is the chip and PIN technology?
The United States is one of the last developed countries to implement EMV technology, which has been around since the early 1990s. Across Europe there are reports that fraudulent activity decreased by more than 70% in countries after the implementation. Those numbers speak for themselves.

As a retailer, what should I do to prepare for the October deadline?
Retailers want to have the most current payment processing technology available. You want yourPOS system to have an EMV card reader, and you want that technology to migrate throughout your company before the October deadline arrives. Waiting until the last minute doesn’t leave time to properly train your staff, and it doesn’t meet customer needs for security when they are already receiving the EMV cards from banks and credit card companies.

Does Bindo offer EMV card readers with the iPad POS?
YES! Sign up today and get a free EMV reader in Spring 2015. That gives you plenty of time to be EMV ready by October.