NEW YORK – Credit card fraud in the United States is at epidemic levels. Last year, the U.S. accounted for more fraud than the rest of the world combined. And the fraud rates are accelerating. EMV technology, which has shown to greatly reduce in-store fraud in the Europe, is finally being rolled out in the United States with an impending deadline in October, when retailers will be liable for in-store fraud for cards that have chips on them.

Much has been written about EMV, here in NACS Daily and throughout the media—both card companies and retailers are woefully behind when it comes to getting the new EMV-enabled cards into user’s wallets and installing the EMV-capable POS systems at retail locations.

An article in Chain Store Age this week, authored by Sushil da Silva, co-founder by Highline, a provider of cloud-based mobile software for retailers, suggests a brief checklist for retailers to help accelerate the move to EMV. The author points out that some retailers are already seeing high usage of EMV with those transactions accounting for more than 40% of all transactions.

Da Silva points out that these are much higher numbers than expected, demonstrating that consumers are armed with the new secure chip cards and are out in stores using them. At the same time, an Associated Press-GfK survey released last week showed that only about 10% of consumers have received the new chip-enabled cards, and only about a third of that group had actually used the EMV functionality.

Regardless, EMV is coming and da Silva suggests these tips for retailers who are making the change to EMV:

1. If credit card payments are integrated with their POS software call the POS vendor and ask what for specific recommendations for upgrading. Do they require new hardware for processing EMV cards? Will their software be ready in time for the October 15 deadline? If not, when? Regardless, ask what steps to take in order to become compliant.
2. If credit card payments are separate, shop around for options. Call your payment processor and ask the same questions as above. If your payment processor isn't ready or won't be ready for many months after the deadline you should shop around.
3. Ask your processor if they support Apple Pay, which lets customers securely pay with their phones. If you're going to upgrade hardware now, you may as well get Apple Pay too. Most processors advanced enough to do EMV now also support Apple Pay.
4. Treat the EMV requirement as an opportunity. If your existing software vendor or processor isn't ready, chances are you are on an obsolete platform. Shop around for a modern, ideally cloud-based mobile system.
5. Look for a deal. Some new systems offer the latest in cloud/mobile technology but don't require any investment in hardware.

For more on implementing EMV, attend the “Are You Prepared for EMV?” session at the NACS Show on Tuesday, October 13.