Merchants in the U.S. began accepting EMV payments (as well as the liability for many fraudulent payment card purchases) in October 2015. Flash forward to 2018, however, and the United States is far from 100% EMV technology adoption. Last year, only 31% of all card-present transactions in the U.S. were processed with EMV-compliant technology.

The hospitality industry has lagged behind other sectors when it comes to accepting EMV payments. If you are one of the many restaurants or bars that has not yet upgraded your payment processing solution to be EMV-compliant, here are five vital facts you need to know about EMV and your business.

1. Your Customers Expect to Use Their Chip Cards

More and more payment cards are now equipped with EMV chips, more consumers are carrying them, and more consumers understand that they are more secure than mag stripe cards. So, the question you are going to hear more often is, “Why don’t you accept them?”

EMV chip cards communicate with EMV-compliant systems. They produce a unique transaction code that can’t be duplicated, so if card data is stolen, it can’t be used to counterfeit cards. Mag stripe cards, on the other hand, are easily duplicated. Your customers may begin to question why you aren’t using the best payment processing technology to help protect their accounts.

2. Fraudulent Charges ARE Your Fault

When the U.S. began accepting EMV payments in October 2015, the liability for fraudulent card-present transactions shifted from the issuing bank to the party in the payment chain with the least EMV-compliant technology. For the first time, merchants (if they didn’t upgrade to EMV) were liable for fraudulent charges.

So basically, if you process a $1,000 charge on an EMV card with a mag stripe reader and it turns out to be a fraudulent charge, your restaurant will receive a chargeback for the amount. The legitimate cardholder can dispute the charge and because you are not an EMV-compliant merchant, you have no legal recourse to dispute it.

3. Security Protects Your Business and Gives You Peace of Mind

The purpose behind EMV technology is to improve payment security—and it works. Mastercard reports that fraud using counterfeit cards has decreased by more than 60%. When all merchants are EMV-compliant, the problem of stolen card data being sold to produce counterfeit cards will be virtually eliminated. No way to use counterfeit cards means no reason to make them.

When you combine EMV with encryption and tokenization solutions you can protect card data (and your business) throughout your payment processing environment. Card-present transactions are protected with EMV. Card data is protected since a token rather than the actual numbers is stored in your system and data is protected in transit and when stored by encryption. With this comprehensive security solution in place, you can avoid a costly and brand-tarnishing data breach.

4. Compatibility with The Way You Do Business

You may have been reluctant to upgrade to EMV because you haven’t been convinced it fits with your restaurant operations or how you process payments. Evergreen Point of Sale offers terminals that free restaurants and bars from the “one-size-fits-all” PIN pad and gives you restaurant friendly options including:

  • PAX S300 and PAX D210 for Heartland Secure (PAX D210 available summer 2018)
  • Verifone VX805 and Ingenico iSC250 for First Data and Shift 4

These terminals are not only EMV-compliant but also give you the capability to accept Apple Pay and Android Pay. They’re also easy-to-use and customer friendly. And if your customers are used to signing a receipt at the table, EMV can accommodate that as well.

5. The Fear of the Unknown Can Put Your Business at Risk

If the cost of an upgrade has been standing in your way, it actually may be less than you think. For restaurants and bars with just a few payment terminals, the upgrade is fairly inexpensive. It could mean just purchasing a new terminal and a software upgrade.

Becoming EMV-compliant is also a good time to evaluate your system for any other issues and resolve them at the same time. Contact Evergreen Point of Sale to learn your options:

With options that serve the unique way you do business, contact Evergreen Point of Sale for a no-obligation consultation to determine if EMV readers are right for you.

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