Dive Brief:
- Fewer than six in 10 (59%) consumers have received a chip-and-PIN (EMV) card ahead of the Oct. 1 deadline, says an ACI Worldwide survey.
- Another 59% don’t understand why the new cards are being implemented, and 67% don’t know how EMV will impact their shopping behavior.
- Young consumers had a better understanding of the change, while affluent households with more than $100,000 in annual income were most likely to have received an EMV card, with 55% reporting receipt.
Dive Insight:
The much-anticipated shift to EMV cards is not going as quickly as onlookers would hope.
“With less than a month to go until the EMV liability shift, a staggering number of consumers are neither educated on nor aware of EMV; they don’t know why they have new chip-enabled cards,” said Mike Braatz, senior vice president of Payments Risk Management for ACI Worldwide, in a statement. Poor EMV outreach is likely to lead to dissatisfied customers during the holiday season, Braatz added.
It’s not just consumers who are behind the curve, either. A separate survey from POS system comparison site Software Advice reported earlier this month that only 22% of small businesses will be prepared to accept EMV cards by Oct. 1. The widespread lack of preparedness among issuing banks, retailers, and consumers is likely to produce problems ranging from the annoying (widespread slowdowns at checkout) to the alarming (fraudulent card activity that’s no longer covered by card agreements).
