EMV - Chip & Pin / Chip & Sig

 

What is EMV?

EMV stands for Europay/MasterCard/Visa. EMV credit cards were designed and introduced to reduce fraud occurring in magnetic-stripe face-to-face environments, by using chips embedded into credit cards that use secret cryptographic keys to generate authentication and authorization data. EMV was first formed in 1993 in Europe and has been implemented in many countries, but not in the United States.

 

Why EMV?

EMV cards create a moving target that is difficult to counterfeit. The current style credit card with a mag stripe on the back have data that can be duplicated and used fraudulently over and over until a person or a computer catches the fraud. EMV chip cards create a unique dynamic transaction code that can only be used in a single transaction. This makes it very difficult to be profitable in a counterfeiting operation. EMV alone will not eliminate fraud, but experts expect a significant reduction. Credit card fraud in the US has doubled in the past seven years as criminals have shied away from countries that have deployed EMV cards and focused on the U.S. where EMV has not yet been deployed.

 

How will a rental store process credit card transactions?

Transactions will be processed almost the same way they are today; except your customer will insert their card into a reader where the chip is read and processed rather than swiping to read the mag stripe. Not all cards will require a pin and most likely be chip & signature in the beginning. The credit card issuer will determine whether a pin or signature will be required. Experts estimate that very few credit cards will require a pin in the initial phase in to EMV. Once the transition to EMV is well underway you will see a rise in pin required cards.

 

Do I have to be EMV compliant?

No you do not. However, after the October deadline, responsibility for fraud on a face-to-face transactions will fall to the party that is the least EMV compliant.

 

What about phone transactions?

There will be no change, at this time, to phone transactions (MOTO) and there is no timeline for changes to phone transactions. Liability will remain the same.

 

Does Point of Rental support EMV?

Yes, v2015 will support EMV through VeriFone Point processing platform. Currently we support credit card integration through PCCharge (you would most likely have mag swipes attached to the side of your monitor) or VeriFone terminals (like what you would use at a self-checkout lane at the grocery store).

PCCharge will not support EMV transactions. To be EMV compliant you will have to use VeriFone terminals.

If credit card processing is not integrated with your Point of Rental software you will want to talk with your processor about EMV and how it will affect your business.

 

If you are integrated:

Those who use PCCharge, you will be impacted the most with a slightly different process and different terminals. Similar to the self-checkout lane at the grocery store, in Point of Rental you will create a contract and take a payment. If that payment is by credit card, Point of Rental will pass the payment transaction to the VeriFone terminal for final processing and approval. (Face to face and phone orders). In addition, PCI compliance requirements are much easier with VeriFone terminals

 

*Canadian Users: Verifone has not certified PWC with the processors in Canada. It is on the development roadmap after EMV certifications are complete in the US. Will most likely be available in 2016.