Do you accept Mastercard at your store? If you do, you will need to make sure your payment terminal (PINpad) is able to accept the new Mastercard 2-Series BIN by June 30, 2017. After this date, Mastercard has announced that they may fine merchants for non-compliance. Read on for more information on why Mastercard is doing this and what you need to do to comply.
UPDATE: To clarify, the ACE Retail software does not control Mastercard compliance. This is completely controlled by your PINpad provided by your payment processor. It is our understanding that most payment processors have already informed their merchants by letter mail. This is a change required by Mastercard and the PINpads that take them. If you do not use payment integration with ACE, you do NOT need to update your ACE Retail software.
What is the 2-Series BIN?
Last year, Mastercard announced that they had run of out of card numbers. To solve this problem, MasterCard decided that they would begin to issue new cards starting with “2.” Unfortunately, this solution has inadvertently caused the following situation for merchants that accept Mastercard:
1) Merchants who have stand-alone payment terminals (PINpads) need to have updated software on their payment terminals. With older PINpads, replacement may even be required.
2) Merchants that use payment integration with the ACE Retail point-of-sale system will also need to make sure that their payment terminals (PINpads) are running updated software that can accept the new 2-Series BIN. If you are using the payment integration feature in the ACE Retail software, you don’t need to worry as the latest version of the software has already been updated to meet the requirements of integrated payment processors. Please note that merchants that have not updated their ACE software in some time may need to contact support@acepos-solutions.com to find out their options.
What should I do now?
1) If you have an older model PINpad, call your merchant service provider to confirm whether it is compliant with the new Mastercard 2-series BIN. If it isn’t, your provider will let you know your options.
2) If you are already waiting for a replacement PINpad, please note that the ACE Retail point-of-sale software does not capture credit card details and does not control what is processed by the PINpad. Customers can still attempt to use their Mastercards with your PINpad. If an employee unknowingly allows a “2” Series card to be used with a non-compliant terminal, according to Mastercard Guidelines, that card will be declined as the PINpad does not have the software yet to recognize it. The risk here is that the decline will flag the Credit Card Processing network that you swiped it and then alert Mastercard.
3) If you already have a new PINpad AND are using the ACE payment integration feature, check to see if your version of the ACE Retail point-of-sale software is higher than 7.374.336. To check what version you are running, simply click “Version” at the bottom of your ACE home screen. If you are running a version of the ACE Retail software that is older than 7.374.336, please contact support@acepos-solutions.com about the cost of updating your point-of-sale software. NOTE: Software updates are free for active support plan members.
Click here for more information regarding the new Mastercard 2-Series BIN.