If the pay station at your wash only accepts mag strips for payment, it is becoming obsolete. Not in terms of parts, but in terms of compliance to Payment Card Industry rules and regulations.
All merchants were supposed to be upgraded to chip & tap capable equipment by April of 2021. Visa, MasterCard, and other payment platforms have been somewhat lenient about this for a variety of reasons, but they've been buckling down. They are doing this by increasing fees, rejecting more transactions, and allowing more charge backs. This is because mag strips are less secure, allowing for more fraudulent purchases and increased risks for the card companies.
Switching from your existing merchant services provider, no matter who they are, will not fix the situation. That may, in fact, make it worse because new merchants are often put under far more scrutiny than existing merchants.
Plus, it's about to get serious.
MasterCard is now telling US banks and card issuers to start removing mag strips from their cards in 2027. By 2029, MasterCard will not issue any cards with a mag strip. This is a pretty big deal considering MasterCard processes over 1/4 of credit card purchases in the US and worldwide. This number does not even include the banks who issue MasterCard for debit cards. Visa has not set a timeline to do the same, but if history is anything to go by, they will follow closely behind MasterCard. With most cards having expiration dates 3 or 4 years out, this means mag strips will be mostly gone by 2033.
Unfortunately, the only real solution is to update your car wash tellers and self-serve meter boxes to ones that are chip & tap capable. For some versions of tellers and meter boxes, this may require replacing the entire unit, for others upgrade boxes may be available.
We at Every Bay are committed to keeping your wash operational and remaining compliant with regulations. If you have any questions on how this may affect your business, don’t hesitate to reach out and talk to us. We are prepared to upgrade any system you have with Chip/Tap capabilities.
Give us a call at 719-649-8019 or send us an email at service@everybaycws.com to discuss your concerns.
Want to read about it more? Check out these sources.
https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/stories/2021/swiping-left-on-magnetic-stripes.html
https://merchantadvocate.com/magneticstripes/
