The Pitfalls of Not Upgrading Your EMV Readers Now

EMV machines are designed to protect both consumers and retailers: they protect consumers from credit card fraud and retailers from liability for that fraud. Although Visa and MasterCard decided to extend the deadline for gas station owners to replace all their old card readers with EMV machines, there’s a big problem with waiting until 2020.

Because gas stations were the only retailers granted an extension, almost every other retailer has already switched over to EMV machines, which leaves gas stations in a vulnerable position. Fraudsters know that gas stations are more likely than other retailers to maintain their system of swiping credit cards, so they’re more likely to target gas stations. In fact, security experts have seen a rise in card skimming at gas stations in just the past couple of years. If you own a gas station and you haven’t yet switched to EMV readers, your business could be at risk.

Waiting until the last moment also means you don’t have time to adjust if anything goes wrong. Given the frustrations of many retailers and consumers in the first switch to EMV readers, gas station owners would be well advised to learn from those mistakes and plan ahead. By switching to an EMV reader sooner, rather than later, you give yourself time to foresee and account for any problems that might arise, and adjust as new problems present themselves both during and after the transition. Then, while your competitors are scrambling to get their EMV readers installed, you’ll be ahead of the game with your equipment installed, in use, and all the kinks worked out.

Remember that the transition can be the worst part. Nobody likes change, but once it has been made, it quickly becomes the new normal as everyone adjusts. 

The good news is that, because all the other retailers have already had to switch to EMV readers, gas station owners don’t have to worry about training their customers when they switch over. They’ll already know how to use them from having used them everywhere else they’ve been shopping, which eliminates a lot of the headaches of making the transition.

Please contact us at 404-255-1770 for more information on the benefits of upgrading to EMV, or to finance your EMV upgrade. 
 

3565 Piedmont Road, NE Building 1 Suite 430 Atlanta, GA 30305 877-527-0383