Worldpay EMV Compliant Chip Processing FAQ

What is EMV?

EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa. It is a global security standard for cards equipped with chips and the authentication technology to process transactions. After several large-scale data breaches and the ease of counterfeiting magnetic cards, US card issuers are migrating to this newer technology to protect consumers and reduce the costs of fraud.

What are the benefits of using EMV?

The biggest benefit of EMV is the reduction in card-present credit card fraud resulting from counterfeit, lost, and stolen cards. EMV also provides inter-operability with the global payments infrastructure – consumers with EMV chip payment cards can use their card on any EMV-compatible payment terminal.

Where can I get a chip reader?

You will need to contact our credit card processing partner channel. You may contact Sheila Wyatt at Sheila.Wyatt@worldpay.us or at 770-375-7236. The chip readers will need to come from the credit card processing gateway as they must be encrypted to be used by the merchant account.

How does the client use an EMV card to make a purchase?

The client will insert the card into a slot in the chip reader. This is known as "card dipping" instead of swiping the card. It will take a little bit longer to process the chip-enabled transaction due to the enhanced security of the communication. The client will need to keep their chip-enabled card in the slot until the removal notification appears and a beep sounds.

If my clients have a chip card, can I swipe it on the chip reader?

No, a chip-enabled card cannot use the magnetic swipe on a chip reader.

Can my clients still use an old magnetic strip card on the chip reader?

Yes. If the card does not have a chip, the chip reader can still process the card by swiping it.

Can I see my member's credit card numbers after upgrading to EMV security?

NO! Once the salon has moved to EMV tokenization, credit card numbers will no longer be visible. The credit card account number has been replaced by a token that is sent to credit card processors and represents the account number. It is far more secure as no account information is stored except for the last 4 digits of the account number.

How easy is it to convert to tokens?

• A new merchant account will need to be setup using our partner channel with First Mile. This can be done through our partner channel when the chip reader is purchased.
• New software will be installed to use the strongly-encrypted stored credit card information. The stored account numbers will need to be converted over to tokens. This will require getting a token for each credit card number. Normally this process takes about 10 seconds per card.
• Changes will also need to be made to the salon's database to add a place to store the tokens. A local salon can upgrade the database and get running fairly quickly. Hosted salons will need to have one of our server administrators upgrade their database on our Central server and ensure that the data changes replicate out to the salons before the conversion to tokens.

Will my clients be charged for getting the tokens?

Yes. Your clients will see a 1 penny charge on their card on their statement.

I am using your hosted SalonTouch.net solution. Can I just test this with one salon?

No, all of the salons use the same database structure and will need to be upgraded at the same time. All salons will need to switch to tokens and will use the chip reader when the conversion is done.
During the conversion process a salon with multiple locations can still use the PoS swipe for their old Worldpay processing account using the old software.