With the EMV-At-The-Pump Deadline Looming, a Retrofit Kit Promises to Ease Installation

With the deadline for EMV-at-the-pump compliance up to four days away—and with a shortage of installation technicians slowing compliance—Sound Payments Petro Solutions, a provider of technology solutions for the petroleum industry, announced Monday it is partnering with fuel-dispenser parts specialist Freedom Electronics to provide preconfigured EMV retrofit kits to simplify installation.

The new kits are intended to make it easier for gas stations and convenience stores to enable their pumps to accept EMV cards. The deadline for EMV compliance at the pump is April 16 for all the major card brands except Visa, which set it at April 17.

The retrofit kits are expected to add $100 to $200 dollars to the cost of bringing a pump into compliance. Sound Payments’ Sound Easy Pump EMV retrofit payment solution costs less than $1,000 per fueling point, or an estimated one-third of the cost of competing retrofit kits.

A shortage of technicians to install EMV at the pump has been a problem plaguing the petroleum industry for more than a year as station and convenience stores owners that put off installing at-pump EMV scramble to meet the new deadline. The action is especially urgent as industry experts do not expect another extension from Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. 

“Finding a technician to install EMV at the pump is not easy today,” says Bill Pittman senior vice president of Petro Solutions at Jacksonville, Fla.-based Sound Payments. “This is a solution that can be sold as an upgrade and easily installed” by technicians that don’t necessarily specialize in EMV installation, he adds.

The new kit supports contactless payment via card tap or NFC, QR code scanning, PIN-on-glass, remote key injection, magnetic stripe readers, and EMV chip and PIN. Sound Easy Pump is also Visa Ready-certified for an “optimal” tap-to-pay experience, the company says.

The kit is compatible with Advantage, Encore 300, Encore 500, Encore 500S, Encore 700S, Vista, and Ovation-1 pumps, which do not require a lot of customization at installation. “These are more plug-and-play models,” says Pittman. “When it comes to EMV, a lot of independent stations owners are usually being sold on replacing the entire pump, which is expensive. Our aim is to disrupt the industry with a more economical solution.”