Small Business Week: The Decline of Magstripe Cards – and What That Means For Your Small Business

Are you an entrepreneur, manager, small-business owner or just a fan of business? Perhaps you dream of starting your own organization or climbing up the corporate ladder. During Small Business Week 2016 the Small Business Administration hosted a series of In-Person and online events designed to help you achieve success as a businessperson. More information is available at www.sba.gov/nsbw/events.

Here’s my takeaways from the Webinar “The Decline of Magstripe Cards—and What That Means for Your Business.”

As described on the webinar’s description, “the payments landscape is changing. New security measures, a decline in the use of traditional magstripe cards, the switch to EMV chip cards and emerging technologies like contactless payments, are forcing a monumental shift in the way people pay. These changes have major implications for businesses of all sizes. Is your business prepared?”

If your business isn’t, it’s not too late yet.

A while back I wrote an article discussing 5 payment terms you need to know NOW. In summary, magnetic stripe cards are easy to be counterfeit and steal the user’s information.

EMV/Chip cards are computerized cards which lessen the risk and are harder to duplicate.

As of October 2015 liability for losses (credit card fraud)  falls unto the vendor accepting magnetic stripe cards IF they (their business) haven’t updated their equipment to accept the EMV/chip card.

The webinar did a fantastic job at describing this liability shift, how the fraud occurs, and ways small business owners can prevent fraudulent use of magnetic stripe cards.  Some examples are incorporating the use of chip card readers, using contactless payments (which are encrypted, use fingerprint technology, offer speed, convenience and security).

The webinar made it a point to discuss the change customer experience (increased security vs. increased processing time; learning curve of using the new technology).

How about you, have you incorporated contactless payments or chip card readers in your business? As a consumer, have you used your chip card or contactless payment? How was the experience?