Sales Strategy

Don’t Let Fraud Ruin Your Holiday Sales: Chip Card Processing Begins October 1 September 16, 2015 (0 comments)

Merrick, NY—The deadline for all U.S. businesses to convert their credit-card processing systems to the EMV chip card is October 1—less than two weeks away—and just as the start of the most important selling season for jewelers kicks off.

EMV stands for Eurocard/Mastercard/Visa, and it is a global standard for cards equipped with computer chips and the technology used to authenticate chip-card transactions, according to an article on Creditcards.com.

Retailers who don’t implement new processing systems by that date can still accept credit cards as usual—but may be left holding the bag for a fraudulent purchase. And for jewelers or any other merchants with high-ticket items, that loss can be significant. After October 1—the deadline created by major U.S. credit card issuers MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express—the liability for card-present fraud will shift to whichever party is the least EMV-compliant in a fraudulent transaction, says Creditcards.com.

Your current credit-card processing vendor should already be working with you to get your equipment compliant; if not, ask them to meet the deadline--or consider finding a new processor if they're not ready.

Read an earlier Centurion article about jewelers and chip cards here.