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Survey: More than half of small businesses not ready for EMV

With less than two months to go before the merchant liability shift, the majority of small businesses aren’t even aware that it's happening.

August 7, 2015

AWells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Indexsurvey conducted July 6–10 has revealed that less than half (49 percent) of small business owners who accept point-of-sale card payments reported being aware of the Oct. 1 liability shift, the date when card issuer and merchants who do not supportEMV chip card technologywill assume liability for any fraudulent point-of-sale card transactions.

Among business owners who accept POS card payments:

• 31 percent said that their existing credit card processing system accepts chip cards;
• 29 percent plan to upgrade for chip card acceptance before October;
• 34 percent said they will upgrade sometime after October; and
• 21 percent say they have no plans to upgrade at any time.

Reasons business owners gave for not updating their terminals before the liability shift include:

• it will not make a difference to their business (48 percent);
• they don't want to incur the costs associated with upgrading (46 percent); and
• they aren't concerned about the liability shift (41 percent).

Business owners are divided about whether the liability shift will reduce fraud Wells Fargo said — 42 percent think it will; 42 percent think it won't.

The quarterly survey also found that cash and check are still preferred payment methods for small businesses:

• 94 percent say they accept cash or checks;
• 41 percent accept debit card payments;
• 35 percent accept POS credit card payments;
• 25 percent accept payments online via credit card;
• 19 percent accept online payments through a provider such as PayPal or Google Checkout; and
• 15 percent accept payments in person using a mobile-enabled card reader.