The following article has been reproduced from the CStore Decisions article, Upgrading to EMV? It’s Later Than You Think, written by Thomas Mulloy that appeared online on October 2, 2019.

Panel experts warn that now is the time to start the long process of upgrading your pumps to EMV standards.

The EMV liability shift as it has come to be known as will take place on October 1, 2020. This deadline is when fuel retailers will have to install or upgrade their locations with the more secure chip card reader technology that uses cryptography to keep credit card information safe and prevent fraud.

This deadline will create a major liability shift from the card-issuing banks to pushing nearly all credit card fraud to retailers who do not upgrade their pumps to the new, more secure technology.

And for those not familiar with EMV, it’s an actual company, EMVCo. that stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa. It was formed by those credit card issuing banks; American Express, Discover, JCB, Mastercard, UnionPay and Visa to address fraud prevention within the industry with the result being the chip card that most consumers have already been using inside the c-store and other retail environments.

And while the deadline has been extended once already, for those retailers undecided about whether to upgrade or not, it looms just over a year away!

Session panelist and Folk Oil Vice President Jim Linton warned those reluctant retailers it’s later than they think, warning that lead times for upgrading current dispensers could take as much as six months! Linton should know as Folk Oil has updated 100% of its pumps at all 35 of its multi-branded locations. He’s seen many of the things that can go wrong and delay the process.

Linda Toth, director of standards for non-profit c-store and petroleum market technology advocate Conexxus, said a study by her group found that 58% of retailers who have yet to upgrade believe they won’t make the liability shift deadline. And 25% said they have no idea when they’ll upgrade.

If you haven’t upgraded yet, your biggest question is: Is it worth it to upgrade? We at the Kennedy Company agree with this panel’s findings; yes, it most certainly is! If you have the “wait and see” attitude, you will find it will be much tougher to get the necessary equipment and skilled technicians to perform the needed upgrades as we get closer to the deadline and AFTER the deadline, YOU – THE RETAILER will be responsible for pretty much all the fraud payback!

Also, the longer retailers wait, the more difficult and costly it will get to upgrade and if your reluctance to upgrade causes you to miss the deadline altogether, there is a very strong likelihood fraud payback charges will be far more costly than the upgrade itself!

If you haven’t upgraded your location(s) to EMV yet, looking to stay ahead in the game and would like to upgrade today, contact us at 1.800.451.4021.

The John W. Kennedy Company appreciates your business and continued support!

This article has been reproduced from Convenience Store Decisions first appearing on April 2, 2015

Mobile payment technology and going paperless will impact point-of-sale (POS) and back office trends in 2015. But, the big focus this year for convenience stores is the Oct. 1, 2015 deadline to become compliant with EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) chip technology.

U.S. retailers are expected to spend more than $8 billion on POS devices, ATMs and credit/debit cards to convert to the EMV standard, according to a study by Javelin Strategy and Research.

The cost to retailers is staggering, but convenience store stakeholders have expressed their commitment to maintaining security standards and are among the leading industries to adopt new POS technology.

Flash Foods Inc., which has 172 stores in Georgia and Florida, has used scanning, POS and back office technology since 1997.

“With scanning at our locations, we also utilize a business intelligence software that allows our marketing, operations, financial and loss prevention departments to get alerts and do reporting on all POS transactions and events,” said Jenny Bullard, chief information officer for Flash Foods.
Flash Foods launched its ‘Rewards in a Flash’ loyalty program in 2005, and in 2008 introduced an Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment card called ‘Go Blue.’

“That allows us to process payment outside of the credit card processors, eliminating credit card interchange fees. In 2014, we launched our Flash Foods Mobile App that enables mobile payment with Go Blue,” she said.

MOBILE OPTIONS
More convenience stores are offering mobile payment options through their own cards as well as outside mobile systems, like ApplePay. “Mobile is the future of payments,” said Stephen Orfei, general manager, PCI Security Standards Council. “It’s exciting to see its potential being realized securely with recent advancements in the space and use of technologies like tokenization.”

Orfei said EMV chip migration is a great opportunity for convenience stores to look at overall POS terminal security and technology.

“The PCI PIN Transaction Security standard provides robust security protections and a secure foundation for businesses to accept new payment technologies—such as mobile—and take advantage of additional security layers like point-to-point encryption and tokenization,” Orfei said.

Flash Foods is among the many convenience store companies already in the throes of EMV migration.

“To meet the October EMV deadline we are installing EMV capable pin pads in all our locations. There will need to be updates to our POS and our credit card processor software to make EMV work,” Bullard said. “As for the October 2017 deadline for fuel pumps, we are still in the planning stages to meet that deadline. Because of older pumps at some our locations that will have to be replaced, the cost for meeting that deadline is concerning.”

Security will continue to be a factor in all POS and back office decisions within the convenience store industry.

“With rules and regulations from PCI changing every year as we have seen with PCI 3.0 updates, software and segregation of the credit card environment will continue to challenge the software solutions companies as well as retailers that use their product,” Bullard said.

You can view the original article at http://www.cstoredecisions.com/2015/04/02/emv-deadline-leads-pos-trends/#_

Feel free to call us at 800.451.4021 if we can help you with EMV or any of your service station needs!

Thank you for your continued support!

Tag Archives: Credit Card

Upgrading to EMV? It’s Later Than You Think

Panel experts warn that now is the time to start the long process of upgrading your pumps to EMV standards.

EMV Deadline Leads POS Trends

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