Many small business owners are behind on EMV adoption. However a new survey by Manta, an online small business community site, shows that more than 28 percent of owners that accept credit cards do not know how the new EMV chip card payment technology affects their business or even know about the new form of payment at all, according to The Washington Post.

This survey consisted of 1,609 small business owners and covered the lack of awareness about EMV chip cards.  The Los Angeles Times reports that 40 percent of the owners surveyed are not affected by this switch to chip card readers because they currently do not accept credit cards.  Also, card-not-present merchant types, such as ecommerce or recurring payments and those that manually key phone orders are not impacted by liability shift rule changes being put in place to encourage adoption of new EMV chip card terminals.

However, for those merchants operating in face-to-face, card-present, point of sale environments, these small business owners should know that there isn't technically an EMV deadline and terminal upgrades are not mandatory. Instead the card industry is introducing new rules to govern card present fraud chargeback to prevent certain types of credit fraud. Instead of being a deadline, it is more commonly referred to as an EMV liability shift, as it will redirect where liability lies if fraud does occur. After this October shift, merchants that have not yet implemented chip card capable hardware and software will now be liable in the case of card-present counterfeit or stolen card transactions.

Right now, Vantage merchants can receive a free Dejavoo Z8 or Z9 terminal on loan as part of Vantage's Terminal Service Program. Interested parties can click here to learn more about the details of this beneficial program. Being fully informed about changes in payment technology can be difficult for many small businesses, which is why we encourage you to bookmark www.vantagecard.com/emv as a resource for more about EMV and the pending liability shift.