Are EMV Cards More Secure Than Traditional Credit Cards?

If you are still hanging on to your magnetic strip card processing system rather than changing over to EMV card processing you might need to rethink your approach.

Not only are EMV cards the direction in which card payment technology is evolving to become the norm in time to come, but EMV cards offer greater protection to cardholders and merchants. Most banks are in the process of re-issuing magnetic strip cards with EMV cards as we speak.

So what are EMV cards actually?

EMV stands for “Europay Mastercard Visa,” and it is a global standard of technology that features credit, and debit cards embedded with microprocessor chips that store and protect cardholder data. It is a joint effort between these three international giants in the card payment industry to improve security and ensure global acceptance of their cards. It is fast becoming the global standard for all card payments.

Microprocessor chips increase security and minimize fraud. The technology protects the sensitive payment data transmitted with every card transaction. Chip-enabled cards secure data much more aggressively than magnetic strip cards do. The microprocessor in each card supports dynamic authentication and verification at the point of sale, while magnetic strip cards have static data that can easily be copied by skimming the information with a simple device. Once the data has been skimmed, it can be reproduced and transferred to counterfeit cards that may not raise any immediate red flags with merchants.

You can still process magnetic strip cards:

Once you have made the switch to EMV card processing, you can still accept payments from customers who have magnetic strip cards. Your merchant account services provider can assist you by supplying information and equipment to ensure the seamless transition of your card processing system. The equipment will look familiar to the cardholder and the merchant because EMV cards don’t look very different from magnetic strip cards. It is the behind-the-scenes technology where most of the difference lies.

And switching to EMV processing will save you money!

The technology makes massive inroads into fraud prevention, and that means that merchants will have less card fraud and save on the related chargebacks to merchants. Accepting EMV cards will definitely result in additional cost savings for merchants.

Most card brands are encouraging the switchover to chip-enabled cards by ensuring that EMV cardholders can pay at participating businesses. An initiative by American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa has been to issue rules and guideline encouraging processors and merchants to implement EMV chip technology. And these rules include some negatives via liability shifts for fraudulent card transactions. Any merchant or processor that does not support EMV chip technology can potentially be liable for the cost of some kinds of fraud.

For more information about EMV card security versus traditional credit and debit cards, or to open a merchant account, please call (888) 924-2743 or go to Charge.com.