How To Sell Educational Institutions On EMV
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
A white paper by Heartland Payment Systems, titled EMV and Educational Institutions: What You Need To Know outlines the benefits of EMV solutions at educational institutions and provides some important information for VARs trying to help their education IT clients.
As of October 1, 2015, liability for fraudulent card transactions shifts to the merchant if they do not have EMV-enabled payment technology. The Heartland white paper aims to “provide high-level information” that can help drive the successful implementation of EMV for payment acceptance at educational institutions.
One of the topics of the paper is whether EMV is practical for educational institutions. The authors of the paper state, “At first glance, the financial value to an educational institution is questionable, as one must consider the liability shift mandated by the card brands and the volume of fraudulent cards that a typical business receives today versus the cost of installing an EMV-enabled terminal.”
The paper, however, suggests that the incidence of card fraud at educational institutions, like that at small retailers, could increase as tier 1 merchants implement EMV and criminals instead use fraudulent cards at businesses that do not have the technology.
The paper states, “Educational institutions will want to be viewed as a safe place to conduct commerce and will be influenced by the growing awareness of their students and those visiting the campus.”
Heartland says schools can accept EMV cards in two ways: a contact transaction (inserting a card into a reader integrated with a terminal or a PIN pad) or a contactless transaction (tapping a card at the terminal or PIN pad). Choosing technology to support contactless transactions can also enable the school to offer mobile wallet payments such as Apple Pay, Softcard and Google Wallet.
Discussing options with your education IT clients can lead to opportunities to update their payments systems, as well to provide solutions to keep payments of all types secure.
To request a copy of the white paper, click here.