Will I be required to switch to EMV technology? Is it a federal law?
EMV is NOT a federal law. It is “liability shift” imposed by the credit card companies. After October 1st, 2015, merchants who do not have an EMV card terminal will become liable for counterfeit/stolen ‘smart’ or ‘chip’ cards that they accept in their store using a traditional magnetic strip reader instead of an EMV payment terminal. It is up to you to decide if the increase in liability risk is worth the cost of upgrading to EMV.
Will magnetic stripes stop working after October 1st?
No. Merchants without EMV terminals will still be able to process credit cards using magnetic stripes (with the increased fraud liability mentioned above). Also, if a non-EMV card (i.e. no chip) is presented at an EMV terminal, the card may be swiped as well. If an EMV card is presented at an EMV terminal, but the magnetic stripe is swiped, the terminal will most likely sense that it is an EMV card and prompt the user to insert the card into the EMV slot instead, so the chip can be read.
Does MicroBiz for Cloud support integrated EMV payments with other payment processors?
Not at the current time. Mercury is the only EMV compliant integrated payment processing service supported at the current time with MicroBiz Cloud. We are working on connecting with other payment processors and payment terminals using the payment middleware integrated with MicroBiz, but this will not be available by the October 1st deadline. We plan to announce additional EMV compliant processor/terminal solutions as they become available in the future.
What Are the Details on the Mercury Offering?
| Processors available |
Mercury Payments, a division of Vantiv |
| Card processing fees |
Negotiated with Vantiv |
| Software to install? |
No, Mercury is connected through a payment middleware pre-integrated with MicroBiz Cloud. With Mercury, there is no separate charge for this middleware. |
| Terminal connection |
The Z6 terminal connects to your store network via an Ethernet connection. Your POS device (iPad, PC, Mac) must connect to the same network through a wireless or Ethernet connection, allowing the POS device to recognize the Z6 terminal on the network. The POS device then securely sends and receives messages to and from the Z6 terminal through your store network. |
| Supports EMV (chip card processing)? |
Yes |
| Manually enter card numbers on terminal? |
Yes |
| Supports terminal signature capture? |
Coming soon, but not yet supported by MicroBiz Cloud |
| Supports NFC Payments? |
Yes, the Z6 terminals accept NFC-based payments (ApplePay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay). |
| Terminal rental available? |
Mercury offers leasing options. Please contact Mercury for details. |
| Can the terminal device be used a customer/pole display? |
Planned, but not yet supported by MicroBiz Cloud |
| Terminal outright purchase available? |
Yes. The Z6 has a suggested retail price of $199, but is usually sold at a discount if purchased with a merchant account. Please contact Mercury for actual pricing and any special offers. |
| Ongoing monthly gateway or terminal service fee? |
No (other than terminal rental cost if rented) |
| Can a single terminal be shared by more than one computer? |
No, each POS station needs its own payment terminal. |
| Turnaround time to get terminals |
Contact Mercury for availability. Currently there is a backlog. |
Does MicroBiz provide the terminals?
MicroBiz does not sell the terminals directly. You must contact Mercury or your Mercury reseller to purchase the supported payment terminals. At this time we can only offer support of the Dejavoo Z6 terminal. Terminals must be encrypted with the security algorithm of Mercury, so we do not recommend purchasing unencrypted terminals elsewhere. Terminals without the Mercury encryption will not work on an integrated basis with MicroBiz Cloud.
What if I currently have integrated payments with MicroBiz using the BridgePay gateway and a different processor, such as WorldPay?
You can continue to use the BridgePay gateway with your current processor and card swipes. They will continue to operate after October 1st without any service interruption. However, transactions processed through BridgePay using a traditional credit card swipe will NOT be EMV compliant, so you may be exposed to the liability shift highlighted above.
Why Aren’t You Using BridgePay for EMV?
A few months ago we learned the BridgePay was going to be unable to be certified for EMV with many of the processors used by our customers, such as Global and WorldPay, by the October 1st deadline. Given these development delays at BridgePay,we needed to look elsewhere for a solution with a better chance of being in place by the October 1st deadline, and decided to go with an integration with Vantiv’s Mercury Payments processing service. We realize that this will be an inconvenience and create some issues for our customers using BridgePay to connect with other processors, but felt that it was more important to be in a position to have something in place by the October 1st deadline.
Will Other Processors and Terminals be Added?
As noted above, we are working on a middleware to replace BridgePay to allow our customers to connect with other processors on an integrated basis. We we plan to announce additional EMV compliant processor/terminal solutions as they become available in the future.
Other Questions? Please call MicroBiz sales at (702) 749-5353 (option 1 for sales) or email sales@microbiz.com. |
