PCI QIR Certification and What it Means

PCI QIR Certification and What it Means

Is Your Merchant and POS Provider QIR Certified?

Visa requires all merchants including Level 4 merchants (small businesses) to have their payment processing devices and systems installed by Qualified Integrator and Reseller (QIR).  That means ensuring your EMV or chip reader and/or software used in your business is installed, maintained, and serviced by Qualified PCI Certified Technicians.  Small businesses tend to be more susceptible to fraud thus more at risk. ACCORDING TO VISA, since EMV adoption, credit card theft has dropped about 76%. 

The Difference Between EMV and the Old Magnetic Swipe Process

Although an EMV (or chip) reader can be slightly slower than the old card swipe, it is safer for the cardholder and the merchant. This is because the magnetic strip once carried all of your account information, and it was easy to copy. The new chip technology creates a unique code from with communicates that  “this amount of money from this card was used for this transaction and this one only.” Thus removing the ability to reuse the information because of the unique code generated from the chip. Make sure you are using credit card terminals and or software systems that already have this technology-enabled. 

Why do you need a QIR-certified Payment Provider to Install Your POS System? 

The biggest reason is, securing your data. Only qualified professionals should install or troubleshoot your Point of Sale System or credit card terminals. This we where restaurants become vulnerable and open to malware. The POS goes down and someone does a quick fix or remotes in and leaves a firewall open or with an easy-to-hack password. Also, Skimmers can be placed within a machine and sold to unsuspecting merchants resulting in stolen information and potential fines. 

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has a certification for eligible resellers to give the business owner peace of mind. The customer’s information is secure when making transactions. In addition, the technicians installing and servicing your terminals are trained to do so with the most up-to-date standards, no matter the size of your company. 

PCI DSS recommends always checking your current or new providers to ensure they maintain the highest security standards. We make sure our team at Card Systems is PCI certified.  Even though filling out the form every year and doing a security scan can be painful at times with cameras and other connections in your business, it helps protect you and your customers. It is just common sense like closing your front door, locking it, and then checking it from time to time.

Search by country, region, or state on the PCI SSC Qualified Integrator & Reseller List.

Top 3 Reasons merchants are slow to Adopt EMV Cards and why they should re-think this carefully

Top 3 Reasons merchants are slow to Adopt EMV Cards and why they should re-think this carefully

There are over 8 million merchants in the US and less than 1/8 have deployed EMV devices to accept the chip cards.  Consumers are still perplexed to see so many merchants taping up their chip devices…. Why?   Large scale adoption is more complex than the Associations predicted for a number of reasons.

Our top 3…

  1. Longer checkout times leading to fear of customer abandonment.
  2. The challenging  tip environment…salons, taxis and especially restaurants.  Even though we do not like watching our card walk off with some stranger…the alternative, walking back to the terminal, is not palatable for these businesses.   In addition, many Restaurateurs are not keen on outfitting their “new hires” and staff with these more expensive pay at the table devices.
  3. Large  POS  companies waited too long to certify or even develop new systems integrated with EMV technology and the specifications required by the Associations have changed.  Programmers are behind and chances are certifications are still in process.

Embrace new technology!  It will help you sell more, manage more effectively and grow.

At the very least, use a temporary solution…add a chip terminal as a backup.  You need it at least until your system becomes EMV ready.  I have two phones so clients can reach me…and I can hear them clearly.  When it comes to making it easy for your customers to pay, why wouldn’t you have a backup?

Let’s face it, we are one of the last countries to embrace the chip; we should have been the first!  It is time to adopt new technology not only for the added security and possibility of increased chargebacks, but to improve your approval rates.  By the way, you could be losing business right now due to your non-EMV device.

Other countries took years to adopt and embrace EMV as I suspect it will take ours.  All of us need to train, educate and adapt to the ever-changing payments space.    This may mean your customers may have to leave their card in the slot for an additional 20-30 seconds, however, it is a more secure form of payment and a worthy investment for any business.

Would you like to capture more of your customers’ information at the Point of Sale?

 

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