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Hit the Gas on Outdoor EMV Upgrade

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If you are a gas station or c-store owner, it is likely that by now you have heard that the deadline for the liability shift has been pushed back to April 2021. The liability shift means that store owners will become 100% financially liable for chargebacks associated with fraudulent transactions at your location(s). Currently, that cost is shared with the credit card processing companies.

Even though the deadline has been pushed back 6 months, there are plenty of reasons to hit the gas and get your upgrade complete sooner rather than later. A primary reason is that it will be the more responsible move for projected costs, since chargeback liabilities are expected to increase over time. Conexxus predicts credit card fraud at automated fuel dispenser fraud will increase from $367 million in 2019 to $451 million in 2020. With a projected increase in fraud at the pump of just under a $100 million over the next year, making sure your business is in position for the outdoor EMV upgrade sooner rather than later is a smart business decision.

As more locations work towards the upgrade, hackers and card scammers will begin to target non-compliant stores and avoid ones that are already EMV-compliant. Furthermore, non-compliant stores will be less attractive to customers due to the fear of potential high levels of fraudulent activity. Those who take action ahead of the deadline will be in a position to ensure their gas stations and c-stores can withstand the threat of increased hacker activity and maintain the security and loyalty of their customers.

The cost of getting EMV compliance in place is not insignificant, and although this is a major factor preventing some gas station and c-store owners from moving forward, there is a much greater cost that comes with not acting ahead of the deadline. Conexxus also anticipates potential chargebacks for noncompliant pumps over next the 7 years will exceed $201K per site; meaning the expenses will only continue to grow over time. It may sound daunting to maintain business-as-usual while planning to undertake such a large upgrade, but there are many key benefits of attaining outdoor EMV compliance as well.

The top two reasons to establish a plan to implement compliance are: improved security and fraud reduction. As stated earlier, the fraudulent attacks on pump systems that are unprotected will increase with time. In the long term, there will be a reduced cost of chargebacks by avoiding the liability shift, and this, in addition to customer card security and brand protection will lead to continued customer loyalty for your business.

A Managed Network Service Provider (MNSP) can help make the transition easier. Working with an MNSP has many benefits that can simplify and improve the transition.

  1. Emphasis on partnership – Working with an MNSP like Hughes brings in partners that would be otherwise difficult to establish. Without access to compliance with the Verifone mandate and Gilbarco recommendation, there is no other way to get a certified solution.
  2. Security and support – Having an MNSP to work for you will ensure ongoing security and support for your Gilbarco or Verifone POS system. Your employees and other store personnel will never feel alone when problems arise, as they will have a number to contact a support team standing by, just a call away for instant help when required.
  3. Qualified expertise – Feel confident that the people working on your critical systems are knowledgeable, capable, and experienced with the deployment, operation, and maintenance of the POS switch as well as with network security. Verifone and Gilbarco certification ensure a baseline of required skills, and an MNSP like Hughes offers this with our partnership.

To make the outdoor EMV adoption process go more smoothly and ensure that the solution functions well, an MNSP also offers solutions that are likely unattainable if attempting the upgrade alone. You need a network strong enough to support all of your business and customer needs, and an MNSP can optimize network performance and ensure sufficient bandwidth to enable EMV transactions and all other applications to perform as required. In addition to this your MNSP can also offer a failover network in the event the primary connection doesn’t work.

By choosing to work with an MNSP, you seize the opportunity to significantly improve the network and enable new business capabilities instead of just achieving compliance.