The Washington Post posted a story regarding a survey Square completed with 1,000 U.S. shoppers and their interaction with EMV chip cards. As it is to be expected, many more consumers can now report having used a card with a chip at an EMV enabled merchant:
Square said that about 75 percent of shoppers at its merchants are now using chip cards, up from 40 percent of shoppers at this time last year.
The survey also reported that consumers are not thrilled about the additional wait time or perceived additional wait time that chip- on- chip transactions create:
While transactions made with the chip-enabled cards are more secure than those made with an old-fashioned swipe, a survey from the mobile payments firm Square has found that 91 percent of debit card users and 87 percent of credit card users are frustrated with the new cards. The top reason? The extra security checks for chip cards means they take a while at the register — as anyone who has one can tell you.
This is in contrast to Mercator’s own survey of over 3,000 consumers which has found that while consumers do find the chip transactions take longer, they are convinced that chip is safer and the additional wait time does not bother them.
Square is using their study to push the idea that what the world needs is more contactless, ‘tap and go’ transactions:
Square, in an infographic, heavily pushes the idea that NFC — near-field communication technology that enables wireless payments — is the answer to shoppers’ woes.
Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
Read the full story here
