Page 36 - GS190402

Education

2019: A year of challenge is so great, preparations are already underway
to meet the deadline.
opportunity for U.S. Implementation challenges have also meant that skimming

– stealing card details via hardware attached to payment
petroleum retailers terminals – has grown at an alarming rate. The issue is
so extensive that last Thanksgiving the U.S. Secret Service
launched Operation Deep Impact to tackle credit card
skimming devices (following similar smaller initiatives
on Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day).
Before the end of the month over 200 skimming devices
had been found and an estimated $6 million of fraud had
been prevented.

With individual merchants starting to gain reputations
for their susceptibility to fraud, independents who don’t
switch to EMV face the real risk of reputational harm. As
By O.B. Rawls a result, ISOs can expect an uptick in requests for help
Paysafe Group making the change, especially from smaller independents.
Going cashless
hings are looking up for U.S. gas stations. In
2018, vehicle registrations hit 276 million – up While cash is still a force to be reckoned with, alternative
6 million from 2017, according to Hedges Co. payment methods are hot on its heels. The average
T And that number is set to rise to 281 million in American now carries $42 in cash – $8 less than in 2017.
2019 largely thanks to the country’s continued economic A majority expect to carry less in two years’ time Paysafe
health and an employment boom, Bloomberg reported. found.
Commercial vehicles and individuals are racking up more
miles too. By contrast, the popularity of alternative payment methods
is on the rise. Our researchers found that 61 percent of U.S.
Clearly, 2019 is shaping up to be a year of opportunities. consumers prefer to shop in places that accept contactless
And not just for the big chains. Independent gas payments. According to Juniper Research, two of every
stations will benefit too. That said, to catch the wave, five cards are expected to be contactless-enabled by 2021,
independents must first come to grips with the shifting so appetite for the technology, as well as mobile payments,
payments landscape and customers’ changing needs and can only continue to grow.
expectations.
Merchants, including gas station owners, are keen to
Recently, Paysafe researched the main challenges satisfy the demand: 23 percent plan to start accepting
independent gas stations face when it comes to payments contactless within the next two years; 33 percent plan to
and how ISOs can support them. Here’s what we learned. start taking mobile wallet payments, which will increase
acceptance to 62 percent.
Getting to grips with EMV

Card fraud remains a pervasive problem in the United Given that implementing the two technologies comes with
States. When we interviewed consumers for our 2018 Lost similar challenges, independents may find that upgrading
in Transaction report, 34 percent told us they’d been victims to EMV and contactless-enabled technology at the same
of fraud, with the average loss clocking in at $303. In 2018 time will be more cost-effective.
alone, 60 million cards were compromised. To surcharge, or not to surcharge?

Card fraud remains prevalent for two main reasons. First, With gas stations earning as little as 25 cents per gallon
many customers still use their card’s magnetic stripe, of fuel, surcharges on credit card payments are often a
often because EMV-enabled card readers aren’t available. matter of survival. At the same time, discounts are often
Second, skimming is on the rise. applied to cash payments to incentivize them.
The shift to EMV-enabled terminals, the deadline for However, surcharges are far from well received, especially
which is scheduled for October 2020, has been hugely by younger generations accustomed to cashless payments.
challenging for independent gas stations due to the cost, Even among older generations, we found that consumers
a dearth of skilled installation technicians and problems feel increasingly confident using their preferred method
integrating with legacy pay-at-pump infrastructure. to pay. And they’re taking less and less kindly to being
The latter is especially problematic, since 72 percent forced to use one payment method over another.
of Americans prefer to pay at the pump. Because the
36