How EMV Chips Work in Contactless Payments

“EMV” is an acronym for “Europay, Mastercard, Visa.” These mega credit card companies are instigators in the development of convenient and secure transactions. The computer chip on your credit or debit card is dubbed as the “EMV Chip” due to its adherence to EMV standards.

The EMV chip, or “Smart Chip,” is an alternative to magnetic strips. It’s proven to be more secure than its counterpart. EMV chips also have an ability that mag strips can’t match: contactless payment processing.

How Do EMV Chips Work?

EMV chips create unique data that cannot be duplicated. This means that an EMV chip can’t be copied because its data is encrypted and can change over time. Mag strips, on the other hand, hold stagnant data that allows easy duplication. EMV chips trump mag strips in security and fraud prevention.

EMV chips can use a signature or a pin to further authenticate a transaction. Chip-and-pin is the more secure option. These authentication methods are applications that payment terminals enable.

All a customer needs to do to process a transaction is to insert the chip portion of their card into a terminal. This activates the chip to start the authentication process in the POS.

Contactless Payments

Your EMV chip card is probably not the first time you’ve used contactless technology. Contactless payments are the result of contactless bus and ID cards evolving.

NFC and EMV

Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology enables EMV chips to process contactless payments. NFC terminals can interact with the card’s data just like inserting a chip.

Radiowaves make NFC possible. RFID, dubbed “radio frequency identification,” is the wireless technology that detects the EMV chip in a card.

Phones for Contactless Payments

iPhones can detect NFC fields from terminals and present your card information. The device will create an encrypted one-time transaction code just as EMV chips do. However, the phone will only send information when the user presents authentication.

The phone will not send the card’s actual information, but use a Device Account Number to process the transaction.

For iPhones, fingerprint and face identification technology allows users to pay on-the-spot. This makes fraud difficult even if somebody tries to use the phone to make an NFC payment.

Are EMV Contactless Payments Safer?

People who use contactless payment methods either with a card or via a device has a lower chance of having their card information compromised. The one-time transaction codes that EMV creates can’t be duplicated and further used without authentication. In addition, the authentication methods of pin, fingerprint, and face ID makes contactless more secure than a magnetic strip and a signature.

Revitpay offers a wide array of contactless POS terminals. Give your customers a quick, seamless option to check out by utilizing contactless payments. Contact us today for more information on terminals and other merchant services.