Study: Consumers not ready to pay with EMV

NAPLES, Fla. — In the 1970s, Saturday Night Live had a cast of comedians that were called the “Not Ready for Prime Time Players.” In 2015, U.S. retailers have a cast of customers that could be called the “Not Ready for EMV Payers.”



According to a new survey from payment provider ACI, six in 10 (59%) of consumers have not yet received EMV-compliant, chip-enabled payment cards. And of the 41% who have received chip-enabled cards, 23% have not received any information from their banks or retailers about EMV. Sixty-seven percent of surveyed consumers do not understand EMV or how it will affect them.



EMV awareness, which does not connote understanding, shows interesting demographic trends, The age groups with the highest awareness is 55-to-64 (86%), even beating “digital native” 18-to-35-year-old millennials (80%). This is followed by 35-to-44-year-olds (75%), with awareness dropping to 66% among 45-to-54-year-olds and 65-plus.



While 55% of respondents with a household income of $100,000 or more per year have received chip-enabled cards, 80% of respondents with a household income less than $35,000 per year have not even received information on EMV.



Regionally, consumers in the Western U.S. who received chip-enabled card were most likely to think they did because of a data breach (25%), followed by consumers in the Northeast (17%), Midwest (10%) and South (7%).



Sixteen percent of respondents in the Northeast had requested chip-enabled cards, followed by consumers in the South (10%), West (8%) and Midwest (1%).



Retailers are even less ready for EMV than consumers, according to one recent study. Only 27% of U.S. merchants will be EMV-ready by the October 1st liability shift, down from the 34% estimated in March, according to a survey by The Strawhecker Group.



In addition, the most recent numbers announced by Visa indicate that less than one-fifth (18%) of their 720 million debit and credit cards as of July contain a new embedded chip and will be ready for the Oct. 1 EMV deadline.

For more insights, see the infographic below.