The simple act of swiping your credit or debit card to pay at stores is about to get more complicated — or annoying if you’re the impatient type.

You can point the finger at something called the counterfeit card liability shift deadline. The deadline only applies to banks and merchants, but, because it kicks in on Oct. 1, it’s fueling a nationwide move to payment technology meant to improve security and reduce fraud.

View the Video Chip cards set to become standard

The technology takes the form of chip cards, also known as EMV cards or smart cards, which contain embedded microprocessors that, unlike the more familiar magnetic stripe cards, transmit unique data with every transaction.

But the added security comes with a cost.

EMV chips set to become standard

For shoppers, the price is a foreign checkout process that takes longer. That’s because chip cards need to be “dipped,” or inserted, into terminals, as opposed to swiped. The smart cards also must be held in place for several seconds, and they take longer to process -- five to 10 seconds longer -- than their dumber predecessors. For merchants, the expense is more literal because they must install new payment terminals.

Even with October around the corner, many retailers aren’t ready. Cue the confusion.

“Issuers have largely gotten the cards into consumers hands, but merchants have not activated terminals or completed migration for chip,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, an industry association that aims to stimulate adoption of chip cards.

“As we get closer to the (liability shift) deadline, there’s going to be a significant ramp up of merchants that are going to enable chip ... and a significant flood of chip-on-chip transactions. If there is any unforeseen problems with cards, merchant terminals or consumers (in understanding how chip cards work), they will be exaggerated by the sheer volume of transactions that will be hitting the market at the same time,” he explained.

Ultimately, the switch to chip is designed to eradicate a very specific type of fraud known as card-present counterfeit card fraud, where criminals use stolen card data to create duplicate cards that can be swiped like the real things. When it comes to chip cards, the U.S. lags the rest of world, particularly Europe where chip cards are the norm. In fact, the EMV standard, named after Europay, MasterCard and Visa, was jointly created by the card networks back in the mid ‘90s.

As the last major country to embrace chip cards, the U.S. absorbs a bulk of the fraud around counterfeit cards. In 2012, global payment card fraud totaled $11.3 billion with the U.S. accounting for more than 47 percent of fraud, or $5.3 billion, according to a 2013 Nilson Report.

It wasn’t until the high-profile payment card breaches at Target in late 2013 and Home Depot in late 2014, that big banks and large retailers were spurred to adopt EMV more aggressively in the U.S.

The path to eliminate counterfeit card fraud in the U.S., however, is one that will be marked by complications. Small businesses, in particular, will be confronted with a major headache come fall.

The liability shift puts the burden on merchants to accept chip cards — or risk footing the bill for fraudulent charges. Beginning Oct. 1, the liability for counterfeit cards used in-store will shift from the card issuers (banks), who cover those costs now, to the merchants if they’re the weakest link in the payment chain.

Mega-merchants like Target and Walmart are ready for the liability shift. Small businesses not so much.

Business owner Ann Kinner has upgraded to the terminal that accepts chip cards but her terminal does not yet have the correct software to accept them. — Misael Virgen

“We have a tremendous number of small merchants that are not even aware that this change is coming,” said Doug Johnson, senior vice president of payments and cyber security policy at the American Bankers Association.

Ann Kinner, owner of Seabreeze Books and Charts in Point Loma, is aware. She also chairs the California leadership council for the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB).

“I happen to be in a position to get a lot of information,” she said. “Unfortunately, for a lot of small businesses, they’re going to be rudely surprised.”

Though informed, even Kinner is still unable to accept chip cards. She has an EMV-ready machine at Seabreeze Books and Charts, but she’s still waiting on the appropriate software required to begin processing the more secure cards. She doesn’t know when she will be able to accept chip cards.

Her situation won’t be atypical. Even proactive small businesses will find themselves reliant on the third-parties providing the hardware and software to enable EMV transactions.

“There are a lot more merchants out there that are in demand (of EMV) than there are people able to service them in a short time frame,” said Vanderhoof. “We have a bit of an excess of demand on the payment processing companies.”

What’s worse, small businesses, given their size, may not be at the top of the service list.

“A merchant may feel like they are trapped,” Vanderhoof said. “They may have an existing partner, have the hardware, but then are dependent on another company to provide the right software.”

In the interim, criminals will seek out smaller merchants.

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“Everyone in the industry is aware ... that small businesses will be the last to upgrade their equipment,” said Avivah Litan, a security analyst at Gartner who studies EMV card issues for the firm. “Everyone knows fraud will migrate to small businesses, because that’s the place where criminals will be able to use counterfeit cards.”

Even larger businesses may drag out support for chip cards.

Many of the nation’s leading retailers aren’t forthcoming on whether they’ll be accepting chip-based cards this October. According to the EMV Migration Report put together by CardHub, a consumer financial resource service, just 17 of the 55 retailers contacted shared information on their EMV policies. The organization reached out to the 50 largest U.S. retailers, as well as five smaller retailers that had been subject to data breaches.

Kmart, Costco, Best Buy, Albertsons, Safeway, Starbucks, Staples, Neiman Marcus and McDonald’s were among the non-transparent merchants.

The EMV Migration Forum, a product of the Smart Card Alliance, estimates that only 25 percent of retailers will be in compliance with the transition deadline.

“Retailers are waiting to see how this shakes out,” said Jill Gonzalez, who helped compile the CardHub report. “I think a lot of retailers ... want to let Walmart and Target handle the expensive (consumer) education.”

Target, for its part, spent roughly $100 million upgrading payment terminals at all of its U.S. stores, completing the transition in full in August of this year. As such, the corporation will serve as the poster child for, and guinea pig of, EMV in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the market is about to flooded with chip cards. The EMV Migration Forum estimates that there will be 600 million chip cards in the U.S. by the end of the year. Some of the nation’s largest banks are rapidly distributing chip cards to members, which means you may already have one or two in your wallet. Chase, for instance, already has more than 60 million credit and debit chip cards in the market nationally. The company expects to have chip cards in hand for more than 70 percent of customers by the end of the year.

Consumers with smaller banks or credit unions may not find themselves in the chip-card club this year. Mission Federal Credit Union has yet to issue chip cards, for instance. The local credit union says it will begin to distribute the smart cards this October. San Diego County Credit Union, on the other hand, finished replacing members’ credit cards with chip cards in August and expects a majority of its members to have EMV debit cards by the end of October

Really, though, consumers don’t have to have the new chip cards. Merchants will still accept the less-secure magnetic stripe cards. And people who do have chip cards will likely find confusion waiting for them at the register.

“Carrying around a wallet full of EMV chip cards and finding a merchant that will accept them reminds me a lot of (Marco Polo),” Vanderhoof wrote in a mid-summer letter to members of the Smart Card Alliance. “I spot a familiar looking EMV chip terminal at the grocery lane or convenience store and I reach out, only to find that the chip experience I am hoping for has disappeared because the terminal is still in magnetic stripe mode.”

Part of the problem is that chip cards require more work for everyone. Merchants with EMV-equipped terminals may decide to train staff to teach customers to dip instead of swipe. Or they may choose not to bother.

“They may prefer just getting you out of the store,” said Gartner’s Litan.

When all is said and done, the U.S. migration to EMV is expected to cost between $6 billion and $8 billion, according to a September Congressional Research Service report. Merchants, who will pay between $100 and $600 per replacement terminal, will be on the hook for around 75 percent of costs.

The billions spent should added up to future savings in fraud loss. Though for all the trouble, EMV still does nothing to thwart online fraud, where credit card fraud is quickly migrating.

“All told — retailers are on the short end of this stick,” Litan wrote in a blog post on the problems with EMV. “They get slower checkout lines and higher online fraud rates, which they have always been liable for.”

If there’s a silver lining, she said, it’s that EMV will likely spur the adoption of mobile payment, Apple Pay in particular, at retailers.

So if the chip and dip proves a hassle, maybe your iPhone can save the day.