I’m sure most of you are aware of the popular game show with Vanna White and Pat Sajak, Wheel of Fortune. That’s where game show contestants try to solve a puzzle and ask Pat if they can buy a vowel in order to get more clues. Well each time I’ve entered a chain store that I have come across here in Florida and in my travels to Wisconsin, I have to laugh and say, “Pat, can I please buy a CLUE?” That’s because these retailers have conveniently placed red tape over their EMV (European Master Card and Visa) Chip reader devices. Seriously? In one case the cashier asked to see my driver’s license. I showed it to her, a lot of good that did. She didn’t compare my name on it to the name on my credit card. “That’s me alright”, I said. Apparently I didn’t look like I was carrying a fraudulent card.
Well, here we are two months into the dead line for merchants to update their equipment to EMV or be held responsible for charge backs they have never seen before. That would include chip imbedded credit cards that have been swiped and are either lost, stolen or fraudulent. In one case I was trying to educate an existing merchant on this process. He told me this was all a ruse by our company, in order to get everyone to buy new equipment. Trust me this is not a ruse. This has been implemented by Master Card and Visa not Card Systems.
Do you know that half of the world’s credit card fraud happens in the US? Did you know that the US only does a quarter of the credit card transactions? Think about it.
Do you think your business is immune to these chargebacks? Have you also taken into consideration the chargeback fee associate with these? In most cases that fee is about $20.00 per chargeback. Can your business survive that impact? Don’t deny yourself that EMV is here to stay. The only thing you can do to protect your business is to comply with an EMV chip enabled device and most important of all, USE IT!
