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Use EMV Credit Card Readers in Your Business You've possibly seen advertisement for cutting-edge credit cards with small chips. Rather than swiping a magnetic strip credit card, the customer in the commercial would place the chip into a terminal or flash the chip in front of a reader and enter a PIN number. What are EMV cards, and why should we be using them? According to Businessweek, the chips are harder to hack and counterfeit than regular striped credit cards. Here are 5 reasons you should switch to an EMV card and why merchants should switch to EMV terminals ASAP: # 1: EMV Cards are Smarter It could not look like much, but every one of those little gold chips on an EMV card contains an embedded microprocessor, a sort of small computer that offers solid security features and other capabilities not feasible with conventional magnetic stripe cards, according toEMVCo. When inserted into a terminal, the reader has the ability to trade data with the card easier. With contactless EMV cards, the reader reads the chip and allows an exchange of data via radio frequency without the card ever leaving behind the customer's hand. Research has shown that a contactless transaction can be approximately 53% faster than a standard magnetic stripe credit card payment, and 63% much faster than utilizing cash. # 2: EMV Cards are More secure EMV cards are considered more secure because it's harder to copy account numbers and security codes from chips than from magnetic strip cards. EMV cards also create a unique code for each transaction, making them more difficult to hack or counterfeit. # 3: EMV Cards are Becoming A lot more Accessible in the United States It's taken long than data security professionals would have liked, but EMV cards are slowly becoming more accessible in the U.S. Most major credit card companies are now making credit cards with EMV chips, like the Chase with their Sapphire Preferred Card, along with American Express and Citi Bank, according to NerdWallet. # 4: EMV Cards are the International Standard If you're going on vacation in http://takeonlinepayments.com/fattmerchant/ or Europe, you better have a EMV credit card. EMV cards are the standard worldwide, to the point where some merchants no longer accept our magnetic striped cards. According to Businessweek, companies have been slow-moving to welcome the a lot more secure payment systems that have been commonly used in Europe and Asia for years, mostly because of the expenditure and a lack of synchronization among retailers, credit card providers, and financial institutions. # 5: By October 2015, Merchants That do not Take EMV Will be Held Liable for Counterfeit Fraud According to Forbes, merchants and retailers have until October 2015 to upgrade to EMV systems. If they do not switch over by that time, credit card networks will, "... hold that an issuer or merchant who does not support EMV will assume the liability for counterfeit card transactions. If a merchant has not adopted, at least, the contact chip terminals and a contact chip card is presented, liability for counterfeit fraud will shift to the merchant's acquirer." If you're a merchant, that means you would be held liable for any fraud that happens to a customer's EMV chip card. Changing to a EMV credit card and terminal is a great idea for customers and merchants alike, particularly by 2015.