As you may or may not be aware, as of October 1, 2015 businesses and Credit card companies need to switch to the new Chip Compliant Cards and Card readers in order to protect themselves from losses incurred by credit card fraud. These new cards will essentially talk with the issuing bank to ensure that the card itself is a real card issued by that bank.
The move to Smart Cards is being done to bring the U.S. into sync with the rest of the world. This move also shifts the liability of the risk of loss from the issuing banks to YOU and YOUR processing company. Depending on who is the LEAST compliant will determine who holds the burden of loss. In other words, if you accept a credit cards on your old magnetic strip reader after October 1st and that card was fraudulent, you/your business will keep that lost sale on your books – no longer will the credit card company indemnify you for that loss.
So, if you haven’t already, you will need to purchase a new Credit Card EMV reader that will bring your Credit Card terminal into compliance with the new technology. So where do you get them?? Here’s a list. If I missed a system or service you are using, please let me know and I will be happy to research that EMV reader availability for you.
• QuickBooks Desktop – Intuit will have their card reader for their merchant service system available in Sept – date unknown at this point. I will let you know as soon as this becomes available.
• QuickBooks Point of Sale – An EMV reader is available for use with POS 2011, 2012 & 2013. This can be purchased online at http://quickbooks.intuit.com/pos-hardware/ You’d want the PIN Pad with Integrated Card Swipe3
Intuit will have new readers available sometime in Sept for use with POS 2015
• If you are using Square to process payments, They have this available now for $29.00 and I’ve provided the link below
https://squareup.com/shop/reader
• If you are using PhoneSwipe, these readers are NOT yet available. As of this morning, no target date is scheduled but they said they will be notifying each customer within the next month to tell them how they can get a new EMV compliant reader. They are aware of the Oct 1st deadline but are still working with a proto-type device. PhoneSwipe was also not sure if they would be providing this free of charge or if there would be a cost associated with this new reader.
If you have any additional questions, don’t hesitate to contact us here at LKM Accounting at (608) 239-4907
Update: (08/25/2015)
Square has posted a “Reserve your Reader” site. The cost of the new Device, which is very cool if I must say, is $49 but gets you ready for the next phase of pay methods – the “Tap and Go” method. This Contactless method uses your phone device with Apple pay and Chase Freedom (just to name a couple) and eliminates the need for Cash and Card. Here’s the link to reserve your new updated reader device… Remember, you need to be ready for this by October 1st!
Here’s the Link to the Square site: https://squareup.com/contactless-chip-reader/
Update: (12/01/2015)
QuickBooks – What you should know:
- Intuit is working with its partners to offer EMV-ready versions of QuickBooks Payments mobile, desktop and point of sale solutions, which work with QuickBooks GoPayment, QuickBooks for Desktop 2016, QuickBooks Online, and QuickBooks Point of Sale v12.
- Intuit is extending the EMV liability shift by six months for its QuickBooks Payments customers to allow everyone more time to transition. If you are a QuickBooks Payments customer and unknowingly accept a counterfeit EMV card using your magnetic stripe reader, Intuit will assume your liability for the fraud until March 31, 2016.
- Information on the new QuickBooks USB EMV Card Reader for use with Desktop 2016, QuickBooks Online, and QuickBooks Point of Sale v12, will be available soon.
For more information on QuickBooks and EMV readers: http://qbservices.net/faq-emv-chip-card-payment-technology/
PhoneSwipe:
- Although PhoneSwipe has the EMV capable readers, the software for these is not yet active. They expect everything to be functional by 1st Quarter 2016. The readers will be contactless as well as swipe.
Update (05/12/2016)
Square reader is now available – check out their site for details on purchasing your card reader at: https://squareup.com/contactless-chip-reader
