Smart Chip Transition: Most Consumers Are Clueless

Smart chip transition

Most people’s first introduction to, and perhaps only interaction with, EMV payment technology has come at the mailbox, not the checkout counter, arriving in the form of an unexpected replacement credit card with a curious, shiny computer chip embedded within it. You see, financial institutions have been fairly responsive to the October 1, 2015 deadline set by Visa and MasterCard for the transition away from magnetic-stripe card security – the backbone of U.S. domestic payment processing since the ‘70s.

The retailer response, however, has been shockingly muted by comparison, which is problematic considering merchants that do not implement EMV-compliant payment terminals are now liable for fraudulent purchases made in their stores. And the roughly $8 billion in fraudulent card purchases made in the U.S. each year certainly represents a mountain of risk for resistant retailers.

In order to better understand the scope of this problem as it exists six months after the transition deadline’s passing and determine whether EMV non-compliance is even on the consumer radar, CardHub conducted a nationally representative survey of 55 major retailers and 1,000 individuals. Please find the results below.

Smart Chip Transition

You can find a few additional highlights below:

42% of retailers have not updated the terminals in any of their stores.
43% of retailers that have experienced data breaches in the past 5 years have not updated their point of sale terminals.
56% of people don’t care if a retailer’s payment terminal is chip-enabled.
41% of people say they don’t have (or don’t know if they have) a smart-chip credit card.
62% of people don’t understand the difference between major card security standards.
41% of people falsely believe debit cards protect them from fraud better than credit cards.

Consumers
Our consumer survey included more questions, the results are listed below: