Why you should accept both EMV and Contactless/NFC enabled credit cards

To protect consumers and reduce the costs of credit card processing fraud in the US, banks and credit card issuers have pushed the liability of fraudulent transactions to merchants who have out of date credit card processing technology.

The deadline to update your credit card processing ecosystem is October 1^st 2015.

So by October 1^st 2015, any payment processing technology that does not accept EMV Chip & Pin technology is out of date, leaving merchants liable for any fraudulent transactions on their network.

‍What does this mean for you?

‍If a counterfeit or compromised card is used at your business and your point of sale system is not setup with EMV technology, you are liable for card-present fraud and all costs associated with it.

In the United States, an estimated 1.2 billion credit and debit cards will be upgraded in 2015. Consumers who get EMV chip and PIN credit and debit cards will be able to and want to use their cards right away.

Your business will need to implement new in-store technology and internal processing systems that are certified to comply with the standards of EMV technology.

As a merchant you also have the opportunity to support contactless and mobile payment transactions by using dual-interface card acceptance technology.

The great thing about EMV cards is they can also support contactless card reading or NFC. So rather than having a customer dip a credit card and use the embedded chip, customers can tap and pay. This is a much more consumer friendly option because it’s faster, more convenient and very secure.

Although the first priority of the liability shift is to successfully migrate your business to EMV you can easily get ahead of the game by implementing a solution a solution that supports both EMV and contactless.

‍So why accept both EMV and Contactless? Save money from doing the job once

‍Implementing this solution will save you from doing the same work twice while satisfying the growing customer demand of modern payments technology.

Although dual-interface terminals are slightly more expensive, upgrading will be cheaper as the overall setup costs will be less, and will only need to replace your payments ecosystem once.

Finally, most EMV enabled cards will also have contactless built in, so it would be a mistake to not give your customers both options.

Keep in mind this is an investment; you’re not only helping protect your customers from fraud, you’re also making it much easier for customers to pay by giving them more options.

‍Increase your businesses security

‍EMV and Contactless are equally safe and secure. Each transaction is single use, therefore fraud techniques like skimming or reading is extremely difficult. Contactless only works when cards or mobile devices are held very close to your dual-interface terminal making it near impossible for any information to be intercepted by fraudsters.

‍Customer convenience

‍Contactless payments are a lot more convenient for your customers. Tapping to pay is faster and easier, and there’s no need to sign or use a pin.

Customers can also use their phones to make payments. Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay are being adopted by “higher end” more affluent consumers. The growth in this category is inevitable and these customers are not only looking forward to use the technology, but spend more.

‍Your business can integrate incentive programs

‍Most mobile payment solutions have the benefit of adding loyalty programs for businesses. Loyalty programs add value to your customer, which gives them a reason to return to your business. This will help increase revenue by creating more loyal customers.

‍Contactless and EMV enabled terminals wont change right away

‍The technology that can accept these forms of payments has been globally available for years. By making the investment now, your business will stay ahead of your competitors for years to come.

‍Interested in learning more about how to switch to a better solution?

‍Give us a call.