Experts Say Hurdles for Gas Pump EMV Conversion Are Worth It

There are still problems at the pump when it comes to credit card security. Gas stations are one of the last holdouts as other merchants and retailers make the move to PCI and EMV compliance. Why are retailers dragging their feet?

In early 2017, Visa and MasterCard moved back the deadline for installing EMV chip card readers at U.S. gas pumps until 2020. The decision was based on talks with retailers who told them it was going to take time to complete multi-billion dollar gas pump upgrades.

Factors That Delay Gas Pump Upgrades
When they announced the delay, the payment processors released a statement explaining their decision, citing the Environmental Protection Agency’s requirements, the shortage of available technicians to complete the upgrades and the additional construction needs that would result from changing the pump’s payment system. For instance, in some cases, older pumps may need to be replaced before adding chip readers, requiring specialized vendors and breaking into concrete.

It’s also an issue of having the funds to complete such an endeavor. At River Hills Automotive in Burnsville, Minnesota, owner Dave Barnes says his pumps are so old they cannot be upgraded to be outfitted with EMV technology. Instead, his four pumps would have to be replaced at a cost of $15,000 apiece.

One Major Benefit of Upgrading to EMV
Even though the compliance deadline is three years away, presenters at a recent retail technology conference told retailers to upgrade their systems to EMV as soon as possible

Steve Scarince of the U.S. Secret Service told the group that since Canada upgraded to EMV technology on a large scale, fraud cases in the United States have risen proportionately. He said this illustrated the success of EMV as a way to prevent in-person fraud and other scams from reaching merchants and their customers. Gas stations have been known to have problems with a fraud practice called skimming, where the criminals will insert a device into the pump that can steal the credit card information in a strip.

Convincing Millennial to Embrace Chip Card Readers

In addition to the high cost of conversion to EMV, retailers are also concerned that customers don’t want EMV at the gas pump. Millennials, as a group, aren’t as interested in EMV as they are in mobile payment and “tap-and-go” options. This is because they perceive both options as quicker than using a chip card reader.

Studies show that baby boomers and Gen-X customers are the biggest fans of EMV. Boomers like knowing the payment systems they use are secure, and Gen-Xers want the newest, most up-to-date technologies that stop identity theft and other fraud.

The presenters told the retailers that while tap-and-go is indeed faster than EMV, the latter actually takes less time per transaction than swiping a credit card at the pump. To convince younger customers to adopt EMV, retailers should point this out, and also tell them the safety benefits of EMV far outweigh the time spent inserting the credit card (as opposed to mobile or tap-and-go).

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Sterling Payment Technologies

Sterling Payment Technologies processes payment transactions for all major credit, debit and fleet card networks, including Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express.

Sterling provides merchants with a complete range of electronic payment processing services, including credit, debit, PIN debit, fleet, gift card, and electronic benefits transfer (EBT).

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