U.S. Catching Up To Canada With Chip Card Acceptance

While the United States is preparing itself for a move towards EMV cards, or chip cards, Canadians are shrugging their shoulders in a collective “meh”. “Been there, done that,” commented one of our colleagues jokingly last week when hearing of the U.S. move towards chip technology. “Haven’t we been doing that for years?” he asked. Yes, it does feel like we have been accepting chip cards for quite some time in Canada.

Most consumers have practically forgotten about the days when they had to sign slips to pay for their purchases using credit cards. Today, the process of punching in a PIN is incredibly commonplace. For the majority of Canadian shoppers, using a credit card is pretty much the same as using a debit card when it comes to the actual transaction process. “It’s incredibly easy,” mentioned our colleague, “I’m surprised it took so long for the States to catch on.”

Considering this important advancement in our technology, it’s important for Canadian business owners to use up-to-date POS terminals that allow for chip cards to be accepted. At Canadian POS Corporation, we provide our clients with top-of-the-line terminals that accept all types of credit and debit cards as methods of payment. And yes, that includes the “new” chip cards. But what is the main benefit to these cards?

They protect against fraud. Asking your customers to punch in PIN codes instead of signing their signatures helps to ensure that your sales are legitimate ones. Naturally, it’s a lot more difficult to know the PIN of a stolen credit card than it is to forge a signature. On NPR.org, Jim Zarroli comments upon how easy it was for criminals to access customers’ information from the magnetic strips on the back of their cards.

“To protect against fraud, U.S. banks will be issuing credit cards with small computer chips,” he reports, “Americans use their credit cards a lot, and most of the cards they use operate the same way. The credit card is swiped through a machine, and the machine reads the customer\’s personal information, which is stored in a magnetic strip on the back”. Pulling off this type of fraud will be a lot harder once chip cards become the norm in the U.S.

Zarroli goes on to note that “the U.K., Canada and other countries have been using more secure chip credit cards for years now” and questions why the United States has taken so long to get “caught up”. Kevin Yuann of the website, NerdWallet helps to answer that question. Zarroli reveals that Yuann finds that, for some strange reason, Americans have expressed a preference to signing their signatures over punching in PIN numbers.

“U.S. consumers aren\’t used to punching in a PIN when they buy something with their credit cards,” he writes, “Yuann says credit card companies did marketing studies and found out that requiring PINs would actually turn off U.S. customers.” Here, in Canada, the opposite feeling seems to be agreed upon nationwide. “Punching in a PIN is not only easier, but quicker,” our colleague offered, “Why wouldn’t you prefer that?”

If you’re one of the few Canadian business owners to still not utilize a POS terminal that allows for this technology, it’s definitely time for a change. Canadian POS Corporation offers Canadian business owners the opportunity to upgrade from their current terminals to brand new ones through a very easy process. Simply give us a call at 1-877-748-2884 to speak to one of our representatives today. It’s time to adopt the chip!