If you haven't noticed, there's something going on with credit and debit cards. You may just have had your bank re-issue you new cards with a shiny little square. And when you use them at many stores, you must insert your card into a card reader rather than swiping it.
The shiny little squares are called EMV chips and they are already affixed to more than 120 million cards in the US. The deadline for most retailers and card issuers to become compliant, as established by MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express, was Oct. 1, so you're going to start seeing a lot more of the cards and the new card readers since merchants must purchase the new readers in order to remain compliant and accept the new cards.
EMV chips are intended to make it tougher for criminals to steal your information and to exploit retailers' payment systems. Despite the fact that credit card companies are spending millions on the new technology and merchants are being told they must shell out hard earned profits for the equipment change, EMV cards still aren't as safe as we have been led to believe.
According to today's (10/8/15) USA Today, “ 'The new EMV equipment does not stop breaches,' said David French, NRF senior vice president for government relations, in a statement submitted to the House of Representatives’ small business committee. 'Indeed, in many cases it provides no significant benefits either to the business or to the business’ regular customers. It is merely an additional expense small businesses are being told to bear'.” French was giving testimony before Congress. Yes, he told Congress that EMV was no better than what we had been using.
Tell us what you think about the new EMV technology, and how it has impacted you, your business or your clients by posting a comment to this article.