EMV Solutions for Restaurants



While there are some EMV solutions for restaurants that integrate with existing POS systems, strangely enough not all of them are fully integrated. The difference between an integrated solution and non-integrated solution can be very important depending on the size of the restaurant and how much reliance is placed on the POS system for such things as inventory management, getting reports on which items are selling the most or least, tracking taxes and reporting tips.

Some POS systems only recently began offering EMV solutions for restaurants and some of those solutions are expensive and offered through a third provider, not even the POS company. Such is the case with the Micros POS system which was acquired by Oracle. Whether they were more focused on their acquisition or going through some sort of restructuring post-merger, it’s not quite sure. What is sure, is that they did not provide businesses with an EMV solution prior to the October 1, 2015 deadline set by the card brands.

The EMV liability shift was meant to force business in the United States to upgrade their payment systems and greatly reduce losses by banks caused by credit card fraud. Sometime in 2014 the card brands and banks go together and started issuing the new credit cards with the computer chip on them. Today it is rare to see a credit card without a computer chip on it, even though they still have the magnetic stripe on the back.

Talech POS System Fully Integrated EMV

The Talech POS system is one of the more reasonably priced, fully integrated EMV solution for restaurants. It works well with small or even larger restaurants ad can handle heavy volume. With thousands of units in operation today, its cloud based system is reliable and can work with several different processors including Elavon.

Some of its more requested features are table mapping, coursing and gift cards.  Talech can even be used for pay at the table, which is very important considering that there are strong indications that banks will soon be requiring credit cards to have a PIN (personal identification number). Mastercard announced at the end of 2017 that cardholders will no longer have to provide a signature for any purchases in the United States and Canada after April 2018. The change will apply to both debit and credit cards. Soon Chip and PIN will be the norm and chip ad signature will be a thing of the past.

FreedomPay Becomes the First to Provide EMV Solutions for Restaurants

In 2014, FreedomPay, Inc. earned PCI Validation for its Point to Point Encryption solution (P2PE). FreedomPay was the first fully functional platform solution in North America to achieve PCI Validation, including support for NFC (near field communications such as contactless payment) and EMV (chip cards) payments. Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedompay

Neither Micros nor Oracle provided a timely POS solution, but they weren’t the only POS company that failed to meet the deadline and provide EMV solutions for restaurants. There were many more. Third-party software company, FreedomPay, Inc. did come up with the solution prior to the deadline, but it was hard to get the word out fast enough to so many businesses.. Unfortunately, with such huge demand most restaurants didn’t meet the deadline and were hit with chargebacks and fraudulent card charges they hadn’t considered.  

Non-Integrated EMV Solutions for Restaurants

Many owners were frantically searching for an integrated EMV solution for their POS system to combat fraudulent card transactions. Some restaurant owners simply put in a separate terminal and processed the transaction separately from the POS system.

This makes the restaurant’s administrative work more difficult since the terminal and POS system are not communication with each other. Tip adjust becomes more time consuming and tracking things like inventory, taxes and tips becomes more time consuming as well. Also, wait staff would have to print out an itemized bill from the POS system and the dollar amount of the bill from the credit card terminal adding a bit more work to the process.

Encryption and Tokenization

As a result of FreedomPay’s efforts, the ordering, payment and credit card processing functions take place securely and seamlessly with one of the best integrated EMV solutions for restaurants.

Some of FreedomPay’s features include:

• Encryption at initiation and during the payment authorization process;
• Tokenization for additional security between terminal and the credit card processor’s servers;
• Use of the FreedomPay gateway to connect with the appropriate credit card processor; and
• Greatly reduced yearly PCI compliance process.

The encryption provides the needed safety and security to protect against data breaches at the POS system level. Incorporating this encryption technology means the cardholder’s credit card information is extremely secure and virtually impossible to obtain through memory scrape software or be stolen by hackers or unscrupulous employees.

The use of tokenization is an additional safety feature to protect sensitive credit card data. The credit card data is not stored or processed via the POS system, it remains encrypted in transit to Elavon’s payment servers and it is only decrypted at Elavon’s secure data center. The same is true whether the transaction is occurring on a Micros POS system used in the restaurant industry or a Micros property management system (PMS) used in the hospitality industry.

Data Breaches Usually Occur at the POS System

Surprisingly, data breaches and attacks historically come from POS breaches. Terminals are viewed as very secure unless physically tampered with by someone. Most experts agree that processing should only take place at the credit card terminal, not at the or through the POS system, regardless of the POS system being used, the exception being terminals that can process chip cards and are EMV certified. Terminals utilize advanced algorithms contained on a chip credit card to confirm that the credit card is authentic and validly issued. Most POS systems require a credit card to be swiped for payment and cannot accept chip cards. The use of encryption and tokenization are the main protection against malware and other software that may breach the point of sale system.

Superior Service and Competitive Pricing

We are happy to provide free consultations to businesses of all sizes and industries. the EMV solutions for restaurants and retail businesses as well. Please feel free to contact Joseph LaRocco at 203-599-1928 for more information on how we can help you save money on your processing costs with a secure EMV solution as well as any other related services you may need.

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