Despite ‘chip’ card deadline, many businesses not ready

Despite an Oct. 1 deadline for businesses to voluntarily switch to new card readers, many small businesses are struggling to make changes.

Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover are encouraging banks to issue smart chip-enabled cards, known as EMV cards, and retailers to install new equipment to process EMV card payments.

Starting Thursday, instead of credit card companies taking responsibility for fraudulent purchases, the burden will be on businesses or banks — whichever is less compliant with the new standards.

Many small businesses in downtown Colorado Springs don’t yet have EMV card readers, citing difficulties getting the reader to work with current point-of-sale systems.

The owner of Terra Verde, Chris Sondermann, told KRDO NewsChannel 13 that the process has been frustrating.

“We started the process I’d say six months ago. We wanted to make sure we were on board and compliant with the new system as soon as we could,” Sondermann said. “It has been frustrating because we haven’t been able to gather the information we need even though we’ve been trying really hard to do that. So it has been, I have to say, not an easy process.”

Bambino’s Pizza, a brand-new shop located in downtown Colorado Springs, has a chip-enabled card reader in place.

“We went ahead and upgraded right away,” said owner Suzette Megyeri. “The smart card seems safer to me and easier. I just hope it doesn’t cost the merchant a lot of money for the hardware.”

According to a CreditCards.com poll, about 60 percent of American cardholders don’t have an EMV credit or debit card. Banks have hundreds of millions of cards to replace and consumers can expect to receive one by the end of the year if they haven’t already. EMV debit cards are expected to roll out at a slower pace.

Although consumers should be more protected from fraud with an EMV card, the liability shift will not affect the consumer.

“They will still be reimbursed for any unauthorized transaction on their account, so there’s really no difference in terms of change in liability when it comes to the consumer,” said Doug Johnson with the American Bankers Association.

Gas stations will have until 2017 to comply with the new standards.