EMV Credit Card Microchips: What’s the Big Deal?

08 Jul EMV Credit Card Microchips: What’s the Big Deal?

As a merchant, you might have heard some buzz over the past year or so about EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa), but really don’t have a handle on what it’s all about. EMV is a standard established by the three global credit network providers for the use of integrated circuit cards or “chip cards” . These special chip cards are used for touch-less payment in leu of swiping at the terminal. They are supposed to be much more secure than the standard magnetic strip and are said to allow for greater security with internet-based transactions as well. Fast. Convenient. Secure. Why aren’t we all using it?

First, the terminals that can read the EMV cards are more expensive than standard magnetic strip terminals. Second, there is still debate on a common code for properly routing debit card transactions as in the U.S. where there are multiple debit networks. This hasn’t been an issue in Europe, where EMV has been widely adopted, as there is a single debit network. Third, there are concerns that even with the increased security that EMV offers, there is still the potential for hackers to break through. Many in the industry are asking that if this technology is cracked, will the switch to the new technology have been worth it?

So, at this point we seem to be at a standstill in the U.S. over EMV adoption. As your merchant service advocate, we at AdvoCharge can’t promote the switch to EMV for our merchants until we see, at the very least, a common code for debit. At that point, we’ll re-evaluate our position and let you know our perspective, but for now, hold tight!