The nationwide switch to EMV chip cards is well underway. A recent Creditcards.com survey found that nearly seventy percent of U.S. credit cardholders now carry a chip card.
As a seller, you need to set yourself up to accept chip cards. Why? For one, they’re much more secure than magnetic stripe cards—in spades. But perhaps more pressingly, under the liability shift, you could now be on the hook for certain types of fraudulent transactions if your business isn’t EMV-compliant.
Even so, sellers are dragging their feet when it comes to upgrading their payments terminals to accept chip cards. According to research from the Strawhecker Group, just between 22 percent and 37 percent of retailers have adopted the technology.
Why aren’t businesses getting on the EMV bandwagon? Primarily, cost concerns. In a recent survey by Software Advice, a reviews site for iPad POS systems, SMB retailers that haven’t adopted EMV were asked why they had yet to transition. Thirty-three percent said that switching everything out was too expensive for their business.
This isn’t unreasonable. For small businesses, getting set up with EMV terminals can be pretty expensive. On average, upgrading to accept EMV costs between $500 and $1,000, which isn’t just penny change. That expense, coupled with the hassle of switching out payments terminals, can be a major blocker for some businesses.
But becoming EMV-compliant doesn’t have to be so expensive or cumbersome. Square’s new EMV chip card reader is $49 and doesn’t require an extensive set-up process. It works directly with the mobile device you already have, so there’s no need to go out and buy a bunch of other expensive hardware to get set up. The reader also accepts NFC payments like Apple Pay and Android Pay, which are just as secure as chip cards, but much more convenient and faster to process.
Upgrading to accept new payments technologies can seem daunting, but given their security advantages (not to mention the liability shift), it’s something to prioritize. Luckily, with affordable and simple solutions like Square, you won’t need to skip a beat to get EMV-compliant.
Learn More About Square
Square creates tools that help sellers of all sizes start, run, and grow their businesses. The new Square reader accepts all forms of payment, including EMV chip cards and NFC mobile payments like Apple Pay.
