Large chip vs small chip credit cards

Is there a difference between the two accepting payments?

It can be a confusing process when it comes to accepting credit and debit cards at your small business. And recently, the process for accepting credit cards has changed. Today, businesses should be accepting EMV chip credit cards. However, there’s a slight aesthetic difference between the types of EMV chip credit cards. So in this article, we’ll take a look at EMV as a whole and at large and small chip credit cards. Then we’ll answer the question: is there a difference? To start, let’s learn about EMV chip cards.

What is an EMV chip card?

EMV is a technology that stands for Europay, Mastercard, and Visa. This technology is now on all cards, including other card network cards like American Express and Discover. These chip cards use EMV chip technology, a security feature that makes it more difficult for thieves to steal credit card information. EMV chip-enabled card readers allow customers to insert their credit or debit cards for more secure transactions.

EMV chips contain secure algorithms that generate new authentication codes for every transaction. These codes are then sent to the issuing bank, which confirms the transaction before processing, helping prevent credit card fraud.

This security feature is a significant advancement in credit card processing. Before EMV chips, merchants swiped the card’s magnetic stripe to process card-present transactions and get a customer’s signature, verifying that they were the cardholder and authorizing the transaction. They’d then compare the signature to the signature on the back of the credit or debit card. However, this approach has some security risks because many cardholders wouldn’t sign the backs of their cards. Sometimes, merchants wouldn’t check these signatures, rendering the process less effective.

But with EMV chip cards, there’s an added layer of security. There are two verification modes for these chip cards: Chip-and-Signature and Chip-and-PIN. While these sound obvious, one requires the cardholder to sign while the other requires the cardholder to input a PIN.

What are the types of EMV chips?

When it comes to EMV chips, there are two different types of physical chips you’ll notice on an EMV-enabled credit or debit card. You’ll either see 6 contact or 8 contact chips. While these may seem different, for all intents and purposes, they function the same way. On 8-contact chip cards, the bottom two pins are not currently active and are reserved for future use. Here’s the breakdown of the utility of each of the pin structures:

8 pin structure:

6 pin structure:

 As you can see, they contain similar properties. These different pin structures are just different ways of accomplishing the same goal – more secure card transactions. As a small business owner, the way you accept these cards isn’t defined by the number of pins each card has. If you have an EMV card reader, you’ll be able to take payments from either card configuration. And to your customers, it makes no difference to them, either. The most important thing is utilizing the EMV technology to promote more secure transactions.

Ready to work with a payment processor who can help you accept EMV card payments?

Heartland is the point of sale, payments and payroll solution of choice for entrepreneurs that need human-centered technology to sell more, keep customers coming back and spend less time in the back office. Nearly 1,000,000 businesses trust us to guide them through market changes and technology challenges, so they can stay competitive and focus on building remarkable businesses instead of managing the daily grind. Learn more at heartland.us..