Why Gas Stations And Convenience Stores Need To Get Ready For The 2020 EMV Deadline

Though the deadline is a few years away, gas stations and their owners need to be working towards EMV compliance sooner rather than later.

The good news is when EMV is properly deployed, it can prevent fraud with a combination of chip technology and the ability to block almost all cloned credit and debit cards. Previously, gas stations were given a deadline to be fully compliant by October of this year, which put enormous pressure on the pump to install new terminals and often times, entirely new gas pumps. Luckily, Visa and Mastercard announced last December that the deadline would be pushed to 2020 for gas stations to become fully compliant, giving them three more years to get everything in order.

Though this delay comes as a relief for many gas station owners, there is still a lot of time and energy that is needed to become EMV compliant. For one, EMV integration takes significant resources that will require gas stations to completely re-wire every gas pump connection to support Ethernet connectivity. Second, gas stations will need to face EMV certification for every pump. Each upgraded pump will need to be tested and verified, as well as re-certified when the time comes. Experts estimate that gas stations could be looking at a cost of $30,000 just to upgrade their entire establishment. 

Though the deadline is a few years away, gas stations and their owners need to be working towards EMV compliance sooner rather than later. Fraudulent activity at the pumps is on the rise. In order to combat this type of activity while in the compliance process, gas station owners and consumers need to be vigilant to fraudulent behavior. Working towards becoming compliant early could say a lot of headache for gas stations and convenience stores.