I’ve been following this issue pretty closely and from what I can gather it doesn’t look good for the car wash industry. If they require another type reader to read to smart chip card and the ability to enter a pin number it’s going to be a major expense to the car wash operator. I’ll keep my ears to the pavement and keep you posted if I find out anything more.
I don't know about you guy's in the US but here in Canada, all of our chip and pin cards are also pay wave enabled for fast "tap" contactless chip authorizations. This works for all low value transactions under $50 or $100 dollars.
From the WSJ article:
So the EMV standard that we are moving toward isn’t limited to chip and PIN cards, it also includes things like contactless payments, where you can tap the card against the reader, all with the same level of security
I would think contactless, tap style payment readers would be the easiest for companies like
Hamilton to implement.
No costly insert and leave-in style readers and ATM style keypads to retrofit for in-bay cc reader boxes. Gold lines could work the same way or employ the code keypad for pin entry.
As an operator in Canada, chip and pin has been a reality for us for years. All cc and debit cards issued in the last 10+ years have been chip and pin enabled. BUT, the cards could also be swiped using the mag strip and process without signature or pin for low value transactions on older mag readers. This will change as soon as the regulators decide to "turn off" mag strip authorizations. All of the major pay at the pump gas stations have been upgraded to chip and pin over the last two years when the liability shift came into effect up here. ATM's have also been upgraded.
I give my experience in Canada as an example of what's likely coming to the US in the near future. Manufactures have known about the coming changes for years or at least they should have. All one has to do is take a look at EMV established markets and design plug and play interoperable upgradable products that look towards the future.
I have three Goldlines and eight swipe style
Hamilton DTT in-bay readers along with centrally located in-wall receipt printers, with plans to add more, so I'd love to hear of an upgrade path that doesn't make our purchases obsolete.
Thanks for posting the article btw.
Cheers!