Do you need to process credit cards wirelessly?

In the past there was only one option when it came to truly mobile processing, the cellular credit card terminal. While these devices work great and offer fast stable processing, they can be expensive and usually come with additional monthly cellular fees from a wireless provider. As technology has progressed so have the wireless processing options, like the smartphone or tablet. These devices use an existing smart device and convert it into a credit card terminal.

Square popularized smartphone and tablet processing which is now the fastest growing wireless processing option today. There are currently multiple options when it comes to processing a transaction on a smartphone, and many people don’t realize their existing merchant service provider probably has smartphone processing options already available. If your business has looked at accepting wireless payments in the past and decided it was cost prohibited then it might be time to take another look. We currently offer MS Mobile for our current and new merchant account customers. MS Mobile uses an anti spin card reader that plugs into a headphone jack. Unlike other mobile specific providers, MS Mobile customers still get the same 24 / 7 support for their equipment and services and a dedicated account manager whom they can correspond with for any future needs.

Dejavoo Z9 WiFi Credit Card Terminal

“I thought a Wifi terminal would have a battery?”

We can’t tell you how many times over the years we’ve spoken to merchants who want a terminal they can connect to Wifi, but for years the only offerings were Ethernet based devices. Wifi terminals are becoming more prevalent which is wonderful for those of us who don’t want to run yet another wire to the checkout counter. Many of the Wifi devices miss the mark by leaving out key features that would otherwise make them a go to terminal for almost any merchant. Dejavoo’s Z9 seems like it was designed to be the exception. The Z9’s is a very capable terminal with all the bells and whistles you would expect and a price tag comparable to other terminals with its features.

The Features:

The Z9 Wifi is a small handheld terminal with a 3.5″ color touch screen and built in printer. Dejavoo outfitted this new device not only with features that will keep it relevant for years, but also one of the Wifi cards available in credit card terminals today. As you should expect it supports EMV so it’s ready for the October 1st liability shift and the Z9 is also enabled with NFC so you’re ready to accept contactless payments like ApplePay and Android Pay without additional hardware. One of our favorite features, normally only found on cellular based terminals, is a built in battery, which is hugely beneficial for mobile businesses. This means, if the merchant has access to a WPA-2 or better encrypted Wifi connection, they don’t need to maintain a wireless fee to a cellular provider to use a robust terminal.

Optional Docking Station:

Like everything that’s designed to be small and mobile, WiFi terminals have their drawbacks, however Dejavoo has done a good job of overcoming those with their optional docking station that expands the terminals capabilities. While the terminal itself doesn’t have any connectivity ports like a traditional phone line or Ethernet, the docking station provides those and more. It even adds Bluetooth support allowing it to be wirelessly connected to a separate printer that can hold a much larger paper roll.

Conclusion:

We have been very impressed by the Z9 Wifi after playing with it the past few weeks. It’s a small, easy to use, mobile terminal and with the optional docking station it goes from a compact terminal to an all-around great fit for most any business. The Wifi terminal itself carries a price tag of just $350 which for a Wifi device with EMV, NFC, and a battery, is exceptional. The optional docking station is an additional $85, but for merchants who have a storefront and do mobile events as well, you get a device that is both a small mobile terminal and a counter top work horse.

FANF or Fixed Acquirer Network Fee yet another cost riding on your merchant account.

What is the Fixed Acquirer Network Fee?

After the Durbin Amendment added new regulations regarding payment processing, Visa came up with the Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF) to offset their lost revenue. These new charges that went into effect in April 2012 were one of two sliding scale fee structures, one being based on the number of locations, and the second being based on dollar volume processed in a month. For card present businesses, excluding fast food, the fee will be based on a business’s number of locations, ranging from $2.00 to $85.00 monthly per location. For card not present businesses and fast food the fee is based on monthly processing volume, ranging from $2.00 to $40,000.00 per month. Clearly most businesses are going to stay on the lower side of these ranges and shouldn’t fear a $40,000 FANF fee, as you would need to be processing more than $400 million a month in credit cards.

Can I be exempt from this fee?

Yes! But most businesses will not qualify. There is only one Merchant Category Code (MCC), 8398, that is exempt from paying FANF. MCC 8398 is the code for Fundraising for Charitable and Social Service Organizations. If more than 50% of credit card volume is not for fundraising then the merchant is no longer exempt from paying the fee. Note: Visa is watching closely for miss-categorized businesses as many companies think they qualify under this MCC when they do not.

There is one other exemption, but again probably not going to work out for you… Low to no processing, if you process less than $200 in a month the FANF is $0.00 and charged at 0.15% of volume between $200 and $1250 for card present merchants.

Basically either your business fits perfectly into MCC 8398 or you’re paying FANF.

See full cost tables for Visa’s FANF fee

FANF or Fixed Acquirer Network Fee yet another cost riding on your merchant account.

What is the Fixed Acquirer Network Fee?

After the Durbin Amendment added new regulations regarding payment processing, Visa came up with the Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF) to offset their lost revenue. These new charges that went into effect in April 2012 were one of two sliding scale fee structures, one being based on the number of locations, and the second being based on dollar volume processed in a month. For card present businesses, excluding fast food, the fee will be based on a business’s number of locations, ranging from $2.00 to $85.00 monthly per location. For card not present businesses and fast food the fee is based on monthly processing volume, ranging from $2.00 to $40,000.00 per month. Clearly most businesses are going to stay on the lower side of these ranges and shouldn’t fear a $40,000 FANF fee, as you would need to be processing more than $400 million a month in credit cards.

Can I be exempt from this fee?

Yes! But most businesses will not qualify. There is only one Merchant Category Code (MCC), 8398, that is exempt from paying FANF. MCC 8398 is the code for Fundraising for Charitable and Social Service Organizations. If more than 50% of credit card volume is not for fundraising then the merchant is no longer exempt from paying the fee. Note: Visa is watching closely for miss-categorized businesses as many companies think they qualify under this MCC when they do not.

There is one other exemption, but again probably not going to work out for you… Low to no processing, if you process less than $200 in a month the FANF is $0.00 and charged at 0.15% of volume between $200 and $1250 for card present merchants.

Basically either your business fits perfectly into MCC 8398 or you’re paying FANF.

What is Apple Pay all about, do I need to accept Apple Pay, and do I need new equipment?

Apple Pay was rolled out fall of 2014 with headlines blasting out how it was going to change the payment industry. Now that it’s been out for six months and the hype has died down, it’s time to decide to accept Apple Pay or ignore it as a passing fancy.

Apple Pay is another attempt at a mobile wallet payment solutions using Near Field Communication or “NFC”. Earlier attempts at a mobile wallet included Walmart, Chase, PayPal, and Google, however none of these wallets gained widespread acceptance. Apple is now taking a stab at mobile payments with their Apple Pay service, which is designed to allow iPhone users to store their credit cards on a phone app system and use existing NFC technology to process transactions. This can be done through a merchant’s credit card terminal as long as they have the right system in place. NFC technology can also be used on many of the new EMV compatible credit cards currently being rolled out. These cards you may have noticed have a chip embedded in the card itself so the card doesn’t have to be actually swiped on the terminal. It can simply be waved close to the terminal reader around 15 inches and it will be read as if you actually swiped the card. By using the existing credit card networks this has allowed Apple Pay to grow faster and be accepted in more places than any of the other previous attempts at a mobile wallet.

There are a few big box retailers who have tried to develop their own systems to circumvent the credit card networks or have boycotted Apple Pay. Best Buy and Walmart are two examples of companies attempting their own mobile systems and CVS Pharmacy and Rite-Aid have actually turned off all NFC capable payment devices. This effectively stopped Apple Pay from working at their stores. Although Apple certainly isn’t the first company in the digital wallet / mobile payments space, they are thus far the most successful in the least amount of time. The buzz and hype around their service has really helped to increase the number of businesses accepting those payments. With an iPhone that supports Apple Pay one can simply add their current credit cards into the device through the Passbook app, and after a quick verification with the card issuer, the iPhone is ready to make payments at more than 700,000 locations.

The other benefit of Apple Pay is if you get the right equipment, it will work perfectly with the new EMV credit cards. The October 1st EMV deadline is approaching, so we encourage merchants to have the ability to accept NFC / Apple Pay payments and get EMV compliant at the same time.

The terminals we recommend for EMV and Apple Pay are:
Verifone VX520 – $220.00 (Free with a new merchant account)
Ingenico ICT250 – $235.00 (Free with a new merchant account)
First Data FD130 – $326.00(Free with a new merchant account)
Clover POS System (Starting at $1100 or $49 per month lease, up to $500 credit with a new merchant account)
Shopkeep POS System (From $600 – $1200 depending on features, up to $500 credit with a new merchant account)

Which Apple products support Apple Pay?

For In Store purchases the options today are the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, however later this month the Apple Watch will launch enabling users who buy it to take advantage of Apple Pay on an IPhone 5, 5c, or 5s. Keep in mind that the iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3 also support Apple Pay, but at this time it’s only for Apple app purchases. Going forward we expect most new Apple product to have NFC built-in, meaning more devices will support Apple Pay.

How is Apple Pay Secure?

You might be surprised to know that when using Apple Pay, credit card numbers are not stored on the device or even on an Apple server. When someone adds a credit card to Passbook during the registration process, the card is issued an unique token stored only in the that device’s secure element. Since the device doesn’t store the credit card numbers, it and the point of sale hardware use the token and a transaction specific security code to seek approval from the card issuer. This means card data is never shared between the card holder and the merchant, which from a security stand point is a big deal. If someone, either an employee or a nearby third party is trying to scan card numbers, the only information they could hope to get would be unusable for future transactions.

What if an iPhone is lost or stolen? If an phone does end up in the wrong hands, the owner no longer needs to cancel all of their cards such as when someone loses their wallet. If they have enabled the Find My iPhone feature, they have options like locking the phone so it’s unusable, and/or completely wiping all data from the device. Even if someone gains access to the phone they would still need the owner’s finger print to process the payment.

Compared to traditional credit and debit card transactions, Apple Pay offers substantially better security for both the merchant accepting the payment and the customer making it.

How do I accept Apple Pay?

Accepting Apple Pay requires that you have an NFC enabled credit card terminal or Point of Sale, and a processor who supports it. If you have recently purchased a terminal, there are ways to verify if it has the ability to accept NFC, or Contactless payments. Your processor should be able to assist you in that process. If you have a credit card terminal that’s more than a year or two old it’s likely that you will need a new terminal or a stand-alone NFC peripheral to accept Apple Pay. The Merchant Equipment Store is able to help you make the best decision to match your needs.

The bottom line is that it looks likes Apple Pay is may be the first and only worth mobile wallet that has so far been made available to consumers. Apple, by using the existing credit card systems has made it relatively easy for merchants to accept Apple Pay payments. Banks, stores, and companies are jumping on the bandwagon and eagerly pledging their support for Apple Pay. But more importantly, if you haven’t upgraded your equipment to accept the new EMV cards, you can do so and at the same time enable yourself to accept the Apple Pay transactions.

Find out more about Apple Pay or get a free Apple Pay acceptance sticker, or call (888) 528.0058 with questions or for more information.

Clover POS System	Verifone VX520	First Data FD130
Related information: Digital Trends Apple Pay

You’ve probably heard about new changes to the processing industry by now, called EMV.

EMV is the global standard for processing a credit card and stands for Europay, Mastercard, and Visa, but more importantly, EMV is just a more secure method of processing a credit card payment through a credit card reader. Each credit card will have an embedded microchip. These chips will hold all of the card holder information and act as a mini computer. The EMV cards are inserted into a slot instead of swiping through a magnetic card reader. making it extremely difficult to duplicate. The card and the reader securely transfer information back and forth to the card issuer during the sales process which will help increase security and reduce fraud. EMV is also known as chip and PIN or chip and signature depending on whether a person PIN number is required when processing a transaction.

How does EMV affect my business?

Due to increasing fraud over the past 2 decades, card associations in the US have mandated that EMV be adopted in the US. What EMV does is make it extremely difficult for a retail business to accept a forged credit card. Some business types, such as gas stations and other unattended products, are more likely to be victims of accepting forged credit cards, but fraud is a problem that affects every business and EMV will go a long way to reducing these types of fraud. For online and businesses that accept transactions primarily over the phone, EMV will have very little effect in the short term. However, it is anticipated that in the future, EMV technology will be incorporated to on-line or card not present processing. The bottom line is the more businesses that switch to EMV and the more card holders who have EMV cards, the less likely it will be for any card to be illegally copied. It is very easy to duplicate a payment card with a magnetic stripe but extremely difficult, on the verge of impossible, to duplicate a chip embedded card. The migration to EMV cards is geared specifically towards decreasing chargebacks and fraud in the United States.

On October of 2015, a liability shift will occur, specifically with respect to fraudulent transactions on cards that have been illegally copied. As of now, when a merchant swipes a card which later turns out to have been illegally forged, the bank that issued the card is responsible for reimbursing the card holder for any fraudulent charges to their account. In October, this will change, and a merchant will assume liability if they do not accept EMV transactions. In the interim, US credit cards will be issued with both the chip embedded and the magnetic stripe until EMV or an alternative is created for card not present transactions, and the majority of merchants have adopted EMV.

Am I required to buy a new EMV terminal?

At this time you are not required to support the new EMV technology. But bear in mind that you will be the weakest link in the credit card payment flow and will be increasingly more susceptible to credit card fraud. As the US migrates to this new technology, criminals will inherently target the systems with the most vulnerable security. It is estimated that by October of 2015 70% of all cards will have been replaced with chip enabled cards, and it’s already being reported that fraud is on the rise ahead of US EMV implementation.

Many terminals deployed in the past five years are already chip capable and may only need to be reprogrammed, so not all merchants will need to upgrade their processing equipment. As of now, most point of sale systems are not EMV ready.

What if I don’t upgrade my equipment?

Normally, a card issuer is liable for fraudulent transactions resulting from forged or copied credit cards. After October, 1st 2015 merchants not compliant with the EMV chipped card technology will assume this liability.

What are my options for accepting EMV cards?

The Merchant Store carries several different terminals and Point of Sales systems that are EMV compatible. We recommend the VeriFone VX520 EMV, the First Data FD130, and the First Data Clover POS system. The VeriFone VX520 with EMV capability retails for under $200, the FD130 under $350. The Clover POS system starts at $1,100 or $49.95 per month to lease for a single station, full featured POS system with a printer.
Additional Resources

Mastercard EMV
Visa EMV Readiness Guide ^pdf

Are you missing some of your Deposits?

It could be the IRS!

From time to time we hear horror stories from merchants with deposits that seem to be missing money. Several weeks ago we heard from such a merchant with this experience.

He said the scariest part initially is that no one knew where his money went. His processor could see his batches, and his funding reports, and everything added up. But when it came to his bank statements he was missing about 30% from each deposit. He told us he was just sick when he added up all the missing funds and it came out to around $30,000. It took him and his processor more than a week to sort out where the funds had gone, and once found, he learned that he was not going to be able to access those fund until the following year.

Where did his money go you might wonder? This merchant was a victim of the new IRS regulations which allow the IRS to place an account on a mandatory 28% withholding. In 2008, buried in the middle of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act was a provision that had nothing to do with housing but was a new requirement that banks and credit processors must now report payments to the IRS. The rule, which took effect in 2012, was meant to “improve voluntary tax compliance” by business taxpayers to help the IRS determine whether their tax returns are correct and complete. This is where the 1099-k was born.

Merchants are now required to complete a W-9 form for their credit card processor, if in the prior calendar year, they received payments:

• from payment card transactions (e.g., debit, credit or stored-value cards), and/or
• in settlement of third-party payment network transactions above the minimum reporting thresholds of –
  • gross payments that exceed $20,000 AND
  • more than 200 such transactions

So now it is required that your merchant account provider collect and verify every merchant TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number). At the end of the year, merchant account providers file 1099-k forms reporting annual gross payments processed by credit or debit cards to the IRS. Not only must the TIN match but the address and name must match exactly to the IRS or there will be what is called a TIN mismatch. If the mismatch is not corrected by the end of the year (starting in 2014) then the processor is required to withhold 28% of the merchant account deposits. In addition some states have jumped on the bandwagon (California for one example) and require the processor to withhold an additional 10%.

The deadline to impose the penalty for most major credit cards was initially required to begin in 2012. However, the IRS postponed the requirement until October 2014. If a merchant’s TIN was not valid by this time, they will start to see revenue withheld. Any merchant who receives a “B” notice initiated by the IRS will have 30 days to respond prior to mandatory IRS-directed withholding of a minimum of 28% of gross sales.

The crux of the whole situation, is that IRS guidelines do not permit the held funds to be immediately returned to the merchant. But rather, the merchant can re-acquire them when they file their tax return. Unfortunately, businesses aren’t going to file their current year tax return until sometime in the following year at the very earliest. Additionally, the way this revenue is treated, it is very possible that the funds being held are simply used to offset any tax owed to the IRS at the time of their filing. To summarize, the way this money is held is an extremely painful burden to a merchant who was anticipating their normal sales revenue to be in their bank account.

Where can a merchant find out if they have a TIN mismatch?

A merchant’s name and TIN should match those used on the tax return in order to match the IRS database. The merchant account provider should have been sending notifications via mail, email, phone, and/or fax, in addition to special statement messages if a merchant is in risk of having their money withheld. Many processors also offer an online merchant portal where merchants can go to verify this information.

If you have any doubt please contact your agent or your processing company. If the IRS begins withholding there is no way to get the funds released until you file your return the following year. You can stop the withholding by becoming compliant but you won’t get the monies that have been held until you file your return.

In the event that your money is held, we strongly suggest speaking to a knowledgeable CPA or tax attorney so that you can fully understand the implication of having money held this way.

It could be the IRS!

From time to time we hear horror stories from merchants with deposits that seem to be missing money. Several weeks ago we heard from such a merchant with this experience.

He said the scariest part initially is that no one knew where his money went. His processor could see his batches, and his funding reports, and everything added up. But when it came to his bank statements he was missing about 30% from each deposit. He told us he was just sick when he added up all the missing funds and it came out to around $30,000. It took him and his processor more than a week to sort out where the funds had gone, and once found, he learned that he was not going to be able to access those fund until the following year.

Where did his money go you might wonder? This merchant was a victim of the new IRS regulations which allow the IRS to place an account on a mandatory 28% withholding. In 2008, buried in the middle of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act was a provision that had nothing to do with housing but was a new requirement that banks and credit processors must now report payments to the IRS. The rule, which took effect in 2012, was meant to “improve voluntary tax compliance” by business taxpayers to help the IRS determine whether their tax returns are correct and complete. This is where the 1099-k was born.

Merchants are now required to complete a W-9 form for their credit card processor, if in the prior calendar year, they received payments:

• from payment card transactions (e.g., debit, credit or stored-value cards), and/or
• in settlement of third-party payment network transactions above the minimum reporting thresholds of –
  • gross payments that exceed $20,000 AND
  • more than 200 such transactions

So now it is required that your merchant account provider collect and verify every merchant TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number). At the end of the year, merchant account providers file 1099-k forms reporting annual gross payments processed by credit or debit cards to the IRS. Not only must the TIN match but the address and name must match exactly to the IRS or there will be what is called a TIN mismatch. If the mismatch is not corrected by the end of the year (starting in 2014) then the processor is required to withhold 28% of the merchant account deposits. In addition some states have jumped on the bandwagon (California for one example) and require the processor to withhold an additional 10%.

The deadline to impose the penalty for most major credit cards was initially required to begin in 2012. However, the IRS postponed the requirement until October 2014. If a merchant’s TIN was not valid by this time, they will start to see revenue withheld. Any merchant who receives a “B” notice initiated by the IRS will have 30 days to respond prior to mandatory IRS-directed withholding of a minimum of 28% of gross sales.

The crux of the whole situation, is that IRS guidelines do not permit the held funds to be immediately returned to the merchant. But rather, the merchant can re-acquire them when they file their tax return. Unfortunately, businesses aren’t going to file their current year tax return until sometime in the following year at the very earliest. Additionally, the way this revenue is treated, it is very possible that the funds being held are simply used to offset any tax owed to the IRS at the time of their filing. To summarize, the way this money is held is an extremely painful burden to a merchant who was anticipating their normal sales revenue to be in their bank account.

Where can a merchant find out if they have a TIN mismatch?

A merchant’s name and TIN should match those used on the tax return in order to match the IRS database. The merchant account provider should have been sending notifications via mail, email, phone, and/or fax, in addition to special statement messages if a merchant is in risk of having their money withheld. Many processors also offer an online merchant portal where merchants can go to verify this information.

If you have any doubt please contact your agent or your processing company. If the IRS begins withholding there is no way to get the funds released until you file your return the following year. You can stop the withholding by becoming compliant but you won’t get the monies that have been held until you file your return.

In the event that your money is held, we strongly suggest speaking to a knowledgeable CPA or tax attorney so that you can fully understand the implication of having money held this way.

What is Apple Pay all about, do I need to accept Apple Pay and do I need new equipment?

Apple Pay was rolled out fall of 2014 with headlines blasting out how it was going to change the payment industry. Now that it’s been out for six months and the hype has died down, it’s time to decide to accept Apple Pay or ignore it as a passing fancy.

Apple Pay is another attempt at a mobile wallet payment solutions using Near Field Communication or “NFC”. Earlier attempts at a mobile wallet included Walmart, Chase, PayPal, and Google wallet did not gain widespread acceptance. Apple is now taking a stab at mobile payments with their Apple Pay service, which is designed to allow iPhone users to store their credit cards on a phone app system and use existing NFC technology to process transactions. This can be done through a merchant’s credit card terminal as long as they have the right system in place. NFC technology can also be used on many of the new EMV compatible credit cards currently being rolled out. These cards you may have noticed have a chip embedded in the card itself so the card doesn’t have to be actually swiped on the terminal. It can simply be waved close to the terminal reader around 15 inches and it will be read as if you actually swiped the card. By using the existing credit card networks this has allowed Apple Pay to grow faster and be accepted in more places than any of the other previous attempts at a mobile wallet.

There are a few big box retailers who have tried to develop their own systems to circumvent the credit card networks or have boycotted Apple Pay. Best Buy and Walmart are two examples of companies attempting their own mobile systems and CVS Pharmacy and Rite-Aid have actually turned off all NFC capable payment devices. This effectively stopped Apple Pay from working at their stores. Although Apple certainly isn’t the first company in the digital wallet / mobile payments space, they are thus far the most successful in the least amount of time. The buzz and hype around their service has really helped to increase the number of businesses accepting those payments. If you have an iPhone that supports Apple Pay you can simply add your current credit cards into the device through the Passbook app, and after a quick verification with your card issuer, you are ready to make payments with your phone at more than 700,000 locations.

The other benefit of Apple Pay is if you get the right equipment, it will work perfectly with the new EMV credit cards. By October 1st you must be able to process EMV credit cards so you might as well get the right equipment (EMV newsletter Link) to accept Apple Pay and be EMV compliant at the same time.

The terminals we recommend for EMV and Apple Pay are:
Verifone VX520
Ingenico ICT250
First Data FD130 (FirstData Only)
Clover POS System (FirstData Only)

Which Apple products support Apple Pay?

For In Store purchases your options today are the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, however later this month the Apple Watch will launch enabling users who buy it to take advantage of Apple Pay on an IPhone 5, 5c, or 5s. Keep in mind that the iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3 also support Apple Pay, but at this time it’s only for Apple app purchases. Going forward we expect almost every new Apple product to have NFC built-in, meaning more devices will support Apple Pay.

How is Apple Pay Secure?

You might be surprised to know that when using Apple Pay, credit card numbers are not stored on the device or on an Apple server. When you add a credit card to Passbook during the registration process the card is issued an unique Device Account Number stored only in the that device’s Secure Element. Since the device doesn’t store the credit card numbers, it and the point of sale hardware use the Device Account Number and a transaction specific security code to seek approval from the card issuer. This means card data is never shared between the cardholder and the merchant, which from a security standpoint is a big deal. If someone, either an employee or a nearby third party is trying to scan card numbers, the only information they could hope to get would be useless.

What if your iPhone is lost or stolen? If your phone does end up in the wrong hands, you no longer need to cancel all those cards. If you have enabled Find My iPhone you have options like locking your phone so it’s unusable, and/or completely wiping all data from the device. Even if someone gains access to your phone they would still need your fingerprint to process the payment.

How do I accept Apple Pay?

Accepting Apple Pay requires that you have an NFC enabled credit card terminal or Point of Sale, and a processor who supports it. If you have recently purchased a terminal there are ways to verify if it has the ability to accept NFC, or Contactless payments. Your processor should be able to assist you in that process. If you have a credit card terminal that’s more than a couple years old it’s likely that you will need a new terminal or NFC peripheral to accept Apple Pay.

The bottom line is it looks likes Apple Pay is here to stay. Apple, by using the existing credit card systems has made it relatively easy for merchants to accept Apple Pay payments. Banks, stores, and companies are jumping on the bandwagon and eagerly pledging their support for Apple Pay.

But more importantly, if you haven’t upgraded your equipment to accept the new EMV cards, you can do so and at the same time enable yourself to accept the Apple Pay transactions.

We just got word that VeriFone is discontinuing their PC Charge software. Apparently due to EMV, PC Charge will discontinue all new support contracts Oct 1st, 2015. We will continue selling and shipping PC Charge software until we are out however, VeriFone will stop shipping new copies in May of 2015. After that, the only PC Charge available will be what vendors have in their stock.

Existing support contracts will be honored but once their time has ended, VeriFone will not allow them to be renewed.

This comes as a bit of a shock to us. There are tens of thousands of businesses using PC charge. There are also many POS systems that use PC Charge in the background to process payments. It’s not clear exactly how many businesses will be affected by this, but many don’t even know their POS system uses PC Charge in the background.

This is a very rapid wind down of PC Charge considering how many merchants are likely using it. If you are currently using PC Charge for your processing or if you know your POS system uses it, we strongly suggest to start looking for another processing method as soon as possible. This is especially important if you manage customers, or use the other PC Charge features, as migrating to another system may be complicated.

For alternative POS Systems, we are offering the Clover POS for merchants processing through First Data and Shopkeep POS for merchants on any platform, both built on tablet operating systems at a significant discount over most traditional PC based POS systems.

What is all this talk about EMV and Credit Cards?

You’ve probably heard about new changes to the processing industry by now, called EMV.

EMV is the global standard for processing a credit card and stands for Europay, Mastercard, and Visa, but more importantly, EMV is just a more secure method of processing a credit card payment through a credit card reader. Each credit card will have an embedded microchip. These chips will hold all of the card holder information and act as a mini computer. The EMV cards are inserted into a slot instead of swiping through a magnetic card reader. making it extremely difficult to duplicate. The card and the reader securely transfer information back and forth to the card issuer during the sales process which will help increase security and reduce fraud. EMV is also known as chip and PIN and chip and signature.

How does EMV affect my business?

Due to increasing fraud over the past 2 decades, card associations in the US have mandated that EMV be adopted in the US. What EMV does is make it extremely difficult for a retail business to accept a forged credit card. Some business types, such as gas stations and other unattended products, are more likely to be victims of accepting forged credit cards, but fraud is a problem that affects every business and EMV will go a long way to reducing these types of fraud. For online and businesses that accept transactions primarily over the phone, EMV will have very little effect in the short term. However, it is anticipated that in the future, EMV technology will be incorporated to on-line or card not present processing. The bottom line is the more businesses that switch to EMV and the more card holders who have EMV cards, the less likely it will be for any card to be illegally copied. It is very easy to duplicate a payment card with a magnetic stripe but extremely difficult, on the verve of impossible, to duplicate a chip embedded card. The migration to EMV cards is geared specifically towards decreasing chargebacks and fraud in the United States.

On October of 2015, a liability shift will occur, specifically with respect to fraudulent transactions on cards that have been illegally copied. As of now, when a merchant swipes a card which later turns out to have been illegally forged, the bank that issued the card is responsible for reimbursing the card holder for any fraudulent charges to their account. In October, this will change, and a merchant will assume liability if they do not accept EMV transactions. In the interim, US credit cards will be issued with both the chip embedded and the magnetic stripe until EMV or an alternative is created for card not present transactions, and the majority of merchants have adopted EMV.

Am I required to buy a new EMV terminal?

At this time you are not required to support the new EMV technology. But bear in mind that you will be the weakest link in the credit card payment flow and will be increasingly more susceptible to credit card fraud. As the US migrates to this new technology, criminals will inherently target the systems with the most vulnerable security. It is estimated that by October of 2015 70% of all cards will have been replaced with chip enabled cards, and it’s already being reported that fraud is on the rise ahead of US EMV implementation.

Many terminals deployed in the past five years are already chip capable and may only need to be reprogrammed, so not all merchants will need to upgrade their processing equipment. As of now, most point of sale systems are not EMV ready.

What if I don’t upgrade my equipment?

Normally, a card issuer is liable for fraudulent transactions resulting from forged or copied credit cards. After October, 1st 2015 merchants not compliant with the EMV chip card technology will assume this liability.

What are my options for accepting EMV cards?

To find out if your credit card terminal is EMV compatible, check with one of the Merchant Equipment Store experts (888) 528.0058 or contact your current processor.

The Merchant Equipment Store carries several different terminals and Point of Sales systems that are EMV compatible. We recommend the VeriFone VX520 EMV, the FD130, and the First Data Clover POS system . The VeriFone VX520 with EMV capability retails for under $200, The First Data only FD130 retails for around $330 and includes a contactless reader for Apple Pay and other NFC mobile payments. The Clover POS system starts at $1,100 or $49.95 per month to lease.

Additional Resources:

Mastercard EMV

Visa EMV Readiness Guide ^pdf