What are Smart Cards and how to they affect your business?

A Smart or EMV card is a standard credit card that contain a built in microchip that looks similar to the microchip contained on a mobile phone SIM card.  The microchip contains the same data as the traditional magnetic stripe on a credit card but offers a more secure way to store the information and is much harder to duplicate.  This type of card has been widely used though out the world for a number of years due to the additional transaction security it offers, however, the United States has been slow to adopt to this technology and despite EMV technology being far superior.

In March 2012, Visa, MasterCard and Discover announced EMV card migration plans for the US market with American Express following suit in June 2012 which include mandatory EMV implementation dates for merchants starting in October 2015.  For merchant who are not EMV compliant by the specified dates, the card brands will shift chargeback liability on transactions that were previously protected (ex: retail transactions under $25.00, fuel purchases under $75.00) from the card issuing bank to the merchant.  This EMV migration only applies to merchants who are processing card present type transactions.

In response to the migration to EMV cards PayHub is offering a full line of cost effective EMV compliant equipment. PayHub has been closely monitoring the shift to EMV cards and is ready to answer any questions that our clients may have.  Give us a call!

Important EMV migration dates:

·         American Express is implementing a liability shift for point of sale terminals in October, 2015.[36] For pay at the pump, at gas stations, the liability shift is October, 2017.

·         Discover is implementing a liability shift on 1 October 2015. For pay at the pump at gas stations, the liability shift is 1 October 2017.[28]

·         Maestro is implementing a liability shift of 19 April 2013, for international cards used in the United States.[37]

·         MasterCard is implementing a liability shift for point of sale terminals in October, 2015.[36] For pay at the pump, at gas stations, the liability shift is October, 2017. For ATMs, the liability shift date is in October 2016.[38]

·         Visa is implementing a liability shift for point of sale terminals on 1 October 2015. For pay at the pump, at gas stations, the liability shift is 1 October 2017.[39] For ATMs, the liability shift date is 1 October 2017.