EMV Liability Shift is Almost Here! What if You are Not Ready?

The upcoming EMV deadline is almost here with October 1, 2015 about 3 weeks away.

Big box retailers, such as Target and WalMart, have already made the shift in accepting EuroPay MasterCard Visa(EMV) Chip Enabled Cards. However, many small businesses are still lagging behind in the adoption of EMV credit card appliances.

A recent study from Software Advice, a site that analyzes POS systems, reported that:

26% of small business retailers are not ready for the deadline
7% don’t even know about it
34% say they don’t have the time to research and implement it
3% say it’s too expensive to adopt
23% say it is unnecessary – SHOCKING!

Small businesses and merchants will most certainly be held responsible for in-store fraud if they have not adopted EMV technology very soon. It really is pretty simple. All they need to do is get and install their upgraded EMV compliant card readers as soon as possible. As long as they use the EMV compliant card readers, they will be protected. Once the liability shift is in place, if the merchant accepts a fraudulent charge by swipe, they will be liable for that charge if the card terminal is not EMV compliant.

forte Customer Service advises that:

The EMV Fraud Liability for fraud losses will shift to whichever party involved in the transaction that has implemented the least secure technology. This financial responsibility could be placed on merchants, merchant acquirers, or issuing banks and financial institutions if they are not EMV-enabled, but if all parties are EMV-enabled, the liability will typically stay with the card issuer.

How can small businesses and merchants prepare for the EMV Liability Shift?

Discuss options with your Point of Sale (POS) providers. Find out the liability shift and what EMV POS terminal options are available for your business to be compliant.

forte payment systems have advised that the VeriFone VX520 is currently the only Forte EMV and NFC compatible solution.

What if you are not ready for the liability shift by October 1st 2015?

If you think you will not be ready to meet the deadline, you need to make sure that you are at least ready to handle payouts resulting from fraud, if your business is held accountable. Budget some of your revenues for fraud losses before the burden of fraud is placed on your business.

Setup some additional checkout procedures to reduce fraud and make sure that you and your employees stick to them. Check IDs and match names to Cards when customers are using a Non EMV, magnetic stripe card for paying. Place additional security cameras that take live video as well as audio of customers paying for their purchases. That will help you collect some evidence on the perpetrators.

As the EMV adoption rate increases, small businesses and merchants who are non-compliant and only accept magnetic striped cards will be the only source of future compromises.

Bottom Line

EMV isn’t a perfect, fraud free solution, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. It will greatly reduce fraud for swiped card transactions. Make it a priority to get upgraded EMV compliant terminals and make the switch to avoid fraud and it’s related costs.

Contact Us for more info on Electronic Payments for your Business. Or take us up on our FREE Merchant Account Analysis offer. We’ll analyze your merchant account rates and let you know how to Save! If you are ready, you may be able to Switch and Save!

EMV Liability Shift is Almost Here! What if You are Not Ready?