FicWad

You've probably seen advertisement for state-of-the-art credit cards with small chips. Rather than swiping a magnetic strip credit card, the customer in the commercial would put the chip into a terminal or flash the chip in front of a reader and input a PIN number. But what are EMV cards, and why should we be using them?
EMV stands for Europay, Mastercard, and Visa. EMV chips were introduced to help reduce fraud. According to Businessweek, the chips are harder to hack and counterfeit than regular striped credit cards. Here are 5 reasons you should switch to an EMV card and why merchants should switch to EMV terminals ASAP:
# 1: EMV Cards are Smarter
It might not look like much, but every one of those little gold chips on an EMV card contains an embedded microprocessor, a type of small computer that provides strong security features and other capabilities not possible with traditional magnetic stripe cards, according toEMVCo. With contactless EMV cards, the reader reads the chip and allows an exchange of data via radio frequency without the card ever leaving the customer's hand.
# 2: EMV Cards are Much safer
Try to remember those huge security breaches from Target and other companies earlier this year? They probably would not have happened if those big name retailers had switched to EMV systems faster. EMV cards are taken into consideration more secure because it's harder to copy account numbers and security codes from chips than from magnetic strip cards. EMV cards also create a unique code for each and every transaction, making them more difficult to hack or " payment processing provider":https://www.facebook.com/Ecommerce-Simplified-997464833627504/ .
# 3: EMV Cards are Becoming A lot more Obtainable in the United States
It's taken long than data security professionals would have liked, but EMV cards are slowly becoming more accessible in the U.S. Most major credit card companies are now making credit cards with EMV chips, like the Chase with their Sapphire Preferred Card, along with American Express and Citi Bank, according to NerdWallet.
# 4: EMV Cards are the International Standard
If you're going on vacation in Asia or Europe, you better have a EMV credit card. EMV cards are the standard worldwide, to the point where some merchants no longer accept our magnetic striped cards. According to Businessweek, companies have been slow to welcome the more secure payment systems that have been widely used in Europe and Asia for years, mostly because of the expenditure and a lack of synchronization among retailers, credit card providers, and financial institutions.
# 5: By October 2015, Merchants That do not Take EMV Will be Held Liable for Counterfeit Fraud
If they do not change by that time, credit card networks will, "... hold that an issuer or merchant who does not provide EMV will assume the liability for counterfeit card transactions. If you're a merchant, that means you would be held liable for any fraud that occurs to a customer's EMV chip card.
So changing to a EMV credit card and terminal is a terrific idea for customers and merchants alike, especially by 2015.