EMV still a struggle for small businesses, here’s why

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Data out from Manta indicates that most (65%) small business owners don’t realize they could be putting their business at risk because they don’t fully understand the liability of not using EMV chip cards. Nearly as many (56%) say they aren’t using chip cards at all, and about 25% say they ‘aren’t sure’ whether their system accepts chip cards.

“As of October 2015, the U.S. officially switched over to EMV chip cards. As a result, businesses are now liable for any consumer fraud costs that result in using counterfeit cards or should a data breach occur. However, our research finds that a year later the majority of small business owners – 56% – still do not have POS systems that accept EMV cards,” said John Swanciger, Manta CEO. “Yet, over one-third (36%) of small business owners say they wouldn’t be able to withstand the expense of being liable for fraud costs. To eliminate the risk of a breach or fraud treating their business, small business owners should make implementing new, EMV-compatible point of sale systems a priority, especially because our research shows that 77% of small business owners who made the transition said it was a smooth one,” John Swanciger, CEO, Manta.

Why are so many SMBs holding back on EMV? Some because they don’t understand the benefits of using EMV based chip cards, but others because they are worried about the hassle of changing over. The good news on that? Of the businesses who have switched, most (77%) say the changeover was seamless.

Other reasons for not accepted chip cards are that the business doesn’t process credit card payments (35%), but a full one-third also state they don’t understand what EMV tech is or how it impacts their business.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kristina Knight-1
Kristina Knight, Journalist , BA
Content Writer & Editor
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Kristina Knight is a freelance writer with more than 15 years of experience writing on varied topics. Kristina’s focus for the past 10 years has been the small business, online marketing, and banking sectors, however, she keeps things interesting by writing about her experiences as an adoptive mom, parenting, and education issues. Kristina’s work has appeared with BizReport.com, NBC News, Soaps.com, DisasterNewsNetwork, and many more publications.