Only about a third of US business are ready for the change.
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The added hassle might motivate consumers to use phones to make wireless NFC (near-field communication) payments, which is quicker.
On Thursday, the USA credit card industry and merchants faced a deadline on Thursday to make progress with the transition to cards with chip technology, EMV technology. A majority of card-accepting USA merchants may now be liable for fraudulent transactions if they are not EMV-compliant.
The goal is to offer added security by using EMV technology. Chip technology will only help prevent credit card fraud at terminals in stores.
However, because many merchants have yet to install terminals capable of reading chip cards, even new EMV-enabled cards often have a magnetic stripe so you can swipe your card the old way.
The official EMV liability shift schedule was announced by Visa in August of 2011, giving our economy-which arguably can not function without card payments-just over four years to complete the Herculean task of changing from a magnetic stripe to chip card architecture.
Since July, Waterbury-based Webster Bank has been issuing new EMV debit cards to its customers as replacements for their old Webster Visa Debit Cards.
The new EMV cards and readers could lead to delays and confusion at the checkout. “While many retailers have not yet upgraded their terminals, big-box merchants such as Walmart and Target are ready for October. 1”. “We’re excited to be fully certified with First Data so that we can begin enabling merchants to accept chip card payments on their mobile devices”.
It all has to do with new chip-embedded cards.
As it becomes more hard to skim and copy physical cards, many experts actually predict an increase in online fraud. Consumers will now dip the card into the machine, instead of swiping it. This process will take a little bit longer, because the card stays in the machine for the whole transaction.
Many small businesses in Maine have yet to install the chip readers, which cost $300 to $600 each, said Curtis Picard, president of the Retail Association of Maine. If you haven’t received a new chip card already, you’ll probably get one in the near future.
“They’re really putting all the risk on the business owner, so you’re really in a bad position if you don’t get the new machines”, said Fenton.
Justin Taylor, an account representative for Banc Card of America, said retailers all around the county are being held accountable for fraud if they don’t comply by October 1st.
The new technology costs merchants about $500.
“I ordered the Square chip reader a while ago and I keep getting emails from them saying that they don’t have it available yet”, Walstra said.
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“I think there will be a learning curve for consumers… because it’s a big change in using something that we’ve been using the same way for decades, ” says Matt Schulz, senior industry analyst for CreditCards.com. The process involves installing new hardware and software, as well as obtaining a certification from the card issuers.
