EMV compliant POS systems developed specifically for petroleum and convenience retailers.

Heartland Payment Systems and The Pinnacle Corp. have launched the first Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) compliant point-of-sale (POS) system for petroleum retailers. Petro retailers can now meet the global standard for credit payment cards based on chip card technology.

Heartland and Pinnacle’s Palm POS system provides petro retailers with the highest level of protection available against card-present data fraud and will accept EMV chip-cards for indoor and contact transactions.

Petro retailer Lynch Oil of Burley, Idaho is upgrading its POS system to accept EMV payments with the help of Heartland and Pinnacle. When completed, the company will be the first petro retailer to use the EMV POS system at six Mr. Gas locations in southern Idaho.

“We do our best to be the first to offer the most effective advancements in card payments and point-of-sale systems especially when it enhances our customers’ experiences at our Mr. Gas locations and protects their card data from hackers. Pinnacle and Heartland help enable us to be the first petroleum retailer to have a POS system for EMV acceptance in the U.S.,” Nick Lynch, owner, Lynch Oil, and president, Mr. Gas.

Key Highlights/Facts

• To be compliant with payment network EMV requirements, petro retailers were encouraged to upgrade indoor POS software and hardware by October 2015 and outdoor pay-at-the-pump equipment by October 2017.
• EMV compliance is not a U.S. government mandate and it is up to petro retailers to implement EMV-enabled terminals. However, petro retailers that decide to implement EMV technology will avoid liability for counterfeit card-present data fraud while boosting consumer confidence.
• The Pinnacle Palm POS is the fastest, most robust touch screen point-of-sale in the market. Designed and developed specifically for the convenience petroleum industry, the Palm POS touch screen interface and modular flexibility ensures petro merchants’ operations are smooth and consumers receive superior service.
• The Heartland and Pinnacle Palm POS solution has been EMV certified by American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa. Cardholders can now use their EMV credit cards at appropriate petro retailers equipped with Heartland and the Pinnacle Palm POS solution.
• Heartland and the Pinnacle Palm POS solution is available today for petro and convenience store merchants. Merchants can contact their Heartland relationship manager or a member of the Heartland petro/c-store team at 888-963-3600.

“I am pleased that the industry is finally seeing an implementable certification to meet the compliance date. We have lots of retailers who have made, and continue to make, significant investments in equipment upgrades, but cannot avoid the liability shift due to lack of certification,” said Gray Taylor, executive director, Conexxus. “The fact that our industry has but one fully-certified solution one month after indoor liability shift and 23 months before Automated Fuel Dispensers shift, shows how inadequately implementation was planned for our market. Despite the late specifications and convoluted certification process, it is great to see how Conexxus members – like Pinnacle and Heartland – are pushing through it all to deliver solutions.”

“Leading the way in this enormous, industry-wide project to deliver end-to-end, fully integrated point-of-sale to payment host EMV transaction processing capability exemplifies our commitment to our clients and the industry to be the best technology partner option available,” said Drew Mize, chief operating officer, Pinnacle Corp. “EMV has been a tough road for every technology supplier in our space and it’s far from over, but to be the first retail convenience specific point-of-sale platform to achieve a fully integrated EMV certification from the card brands demonstrates our nimbleness and ability to keep our clients on the leading edge competitively, whether that’s adding to the top-line or reducing potential fraud liability expenses.”

“Our collaboration with Pinnacle has resulted in us being the first to offer an integrated point-of-sale system compliant with EMV for petroleum retailers,” said Michael Lawler, president, Strategic Markets Group, Heartland. “Petro and convenience store merchants will want to be viewed as a safe place to shop and will be influenced by the growing awareness of their customers. Those that do implement an EMV POS solution, like Lynch Oil, may benefit from a reduction in card fraud, decreased requests for copies in relation to chargebacks, fewer disputes and the opportunity to update terminals for other capabilities like Near Field Communication contactless acceptance.”