You process transactions with them every day, but do you really know how credit card readers work? What’s actually happening from insert or tap to the completion of a sale? Below, we explain the credit card processing system and take you through how credit card readers work for chip cards, and contactless payments. Knowing how credit card readers work will make you a much more informed small business owner.
How do credit card readers work?
Credit card readers read a customer’s credit card information and securely communicate the transaction data to the banks and credit card networks. Whether they’re traditional credit card terminals or mobile card readers, it’s helpful to understand the credit card processing payment flow—from the moment of insert or tap to the settlement.
Credit card processing explained
Credit card processing with Square can be broken down into three stages: authorization, capture, and settlement. Let’s go through each:
Step 1: Authorization
When a Square seller inserts or taps a customer’s card, the payment request is sent to Square. We then pass the transaction to a financial institution known as the acquiring bank (sometimes called a merchant bank or acquirer). The acquiring bank acts as a go-between and sends the request to the issuing bank (the customer’s credit card company). The issuing bank checks if the customer has enough money or credit for the charge. The issuing bank also uses fraud detection software to check if the transaction is legitimate. If everything checks out, the transaction is authorized and a hold is put on the funds, which shows up as “pending.”
Step 2: Capture
The funds are then moved from the credit card company to the acquiring bank. Lots of payments are moved across together in one big batch, so this part of the process is sometimes known as batching.
Step 3: Settlement
It’s payday. The funds from the credit card sale get settled through Square’s systems and are deposited into the seller’s bank account. Square sellers receive their funds in one to two business days.
How do the actual credit card readers work? Chip card readers function a bit differently in credit card transactions.
How chip (EMV) readers work
What is EMV? EMV®, developed and managed by American Express, Discover, JCB, Mastercard, UnionPay, and Visa, is the global standard for chip cards. Chip cards are far more secure than magstripe cards and have been the standard in most of the world for over a decade.
Chip cards are quite secure because the data on them is dynamically encrypted. This makes it extremely difficult for fraudsters to isolate the cardholder data and extract it into anything meaningful. EMV technology has been proven to help fight fraud. Countries that have already switched to EMV chip cards have seen a dramatic reduction in fraud since phasing out magstripe cards.
Square’s contactless and chip reader allows you to securely take chip card and NFC (contactless) payments and works in conjunction with our free POS app for iOS and Android.
How do chip card readers work?
Each EMV card has an embedded computer chip that stores cardholders’ bank details. However,chip card data keeps changing, which makes it extremely difficult for fraudsters to extract anything useful. When a chip card is inserted into a chip card reader, the chip and reader communicate with each other in an encrypted language. A new code is created for each transaction and the data is encrypted the moment the card is inserted. The encrypted data is then sent to the acquirer as explained above.
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How contactless and NFC readers work
NFC stands for “near field communication. NFC (or “contactless”) payments keep your bank info safe with several layers of security. Like chip cards, NFC data is both encrypted and dynamic, which means it changes for every transaction. Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay are all examples of popular NFC payment apps. Contactless payments like Apple Pay have an added level of security because they require a biometric to unlock the app to initiate the payment. And in the unfortunate case that your phone is stolen, a fraudster wouldn’t be able to get past this fingerprint verification step.
To process NFC payments, customers hold their smartphone over the contactless reader, with their finger on the home button. This triggers the transaction, which, as we mentioned, takes just seconds.
Apple Pay uses a technology known as tokenization, which keeps payment information safe. To set up Apple Pay, you take a photo of your credit card within the app. Apple then transmits the card info to your credit card provider. The card provider then swaps out your card info with a “token,” or random series of numbers. The token is sent to Apple, which sends it to your phone. Because the token and not your actual credit card info is transmitted during each payment, your info is safe and fraudsters can’t do anything with the scrambled info that’s transmitted. A different crytogram is also generated for each transaction. All this makes it extremely difficult for a fraudster to hack.
We’re not your typical merchant service provider. Square charges just 2.5% per swipe, insert, or tap, and 3.3% + 15¢ for each manually entered transaction. There are no long-term contracts, hidden fees, or surprises. So no matter how your customers choose to pay, we’ve got you covered.
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