Consumers may be able to adapt to longer checkout times caused by EMV usage, says a new Ingenico Group report. When the U.S. first rolled out new EMV standards, many predicted that consumers would not have the patience to use EMV enabled cards that required them to place cards in POS readers and wait for verification. So far this has not been the case. Still other payment processing professionals think that consumer patience will run out, and there will be a rise in contactless payment processing by the end of the year.
Greg Burch, VP of strategic initiatives at Ingenico, believes that consumers are more willing to wait in line to ensure that their information is more secure at the POS. There’s about 750,000 (17%) of brick and mortar merchants that have the ability to accept EMV cards. Currently, most merchants have instituted EMV readers that require consumers to insert cards into terminal chip readers while the device reads the cards. However, this process takes more time than the traditional magnetic strip cards.
But there are faster EMV chip reading technologies that may overtake contact-only card readers. Contactless cards use near-field communication (NFC) to interact with a POS reader with only a swipe of the hand. However most retailers have decided to forego this technology because contact-only card processors are far less expensive. Almost all new EMV terminals have NFC capabilities that can be activated with a simple software download. But for now, most merchants are content to be PCI (payment card industry) compliant and EMV compliant.
Still a growing number of financial institutions and merchants are using contact-less readers, and Burch believes that consumers and certain types of merchants will start to demand NFC. Merchants in fast-food outlets and grocery chains may be the first to demand contact-less card readers as soon as the end of the year.
EMV compliance has transformed the way the Americans pay, but most are willing to deal with inconveniences to secure their financial information in an age where the credit of so many have been ruined. If your business is in credit repair services, you’ll need competent payment processing services. EMB will help you get your credit repair merchant account started.