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After the recent EMV liability shift, you’re probably finding yourself staring at your old credit card machine, wondering if it will make a good paper weight, and worrying about the cost of buying a new machine. Lucky for you, the transition doesn’t have to be an expensive one, but it pays to be educated as you consider this important upgrade. Here’s what you need to know in the form of a brief FAQ.

Where Can I Buy an EMV Credit Card Terminal?

• All the same places you can buy or rent a non-EMV terminal, for the most part. While some merchant services providers are telling merchants that “for security reasons” all EMV purchases must come directly from your processing company, this isn’t exactly true. The vast majority of the time supported EMV machines can be reprogramed just like their non-EMV predecessors. While credit card terminal tampering has occurred in the past, it is not common and is even less easily achieved with new EMV terminals.Terminals have built-in anti-tampering features to prevent this. Of course you should buy from a reputable seller, just as you would for any important electronics purchase. But that said, your provider is free to either (a) charge a high reprograming fee, or (b) simply refuse to reprogram outside machines. While they can reprogram, there’s no law saying that they have to. So you may be stuck having to purchase the machine directly, unless you switch providers. Personally, I think refusal to reprogram and over-charging for machines is a mark of a dishonest provider, and they may be overcharging you elsewhere as well.

Do I Need NFC to Have an EMV-Compliant Credit Card Machine?

• Absolutely not! And if you don’t think you’ll need NFC, then don’t bother getting a machine with NFC built in. NFC (Near Field Communication) is the technology used by Apple Pay and other digital wallets for contactless payments. It could be a godsend for fast-paced business as adoption increases among consumers. But a ton of businesses really won’t have any use for it in the foreseeable future. That won’t stop merchant services providers from trying to upsell you on NFC, though. NFC EMV terminals can be considerably more expensive than standard EMV terminals, so if you don’t need it don’t get it. You should at the very least compare prices. Also, if it turns out in a year or two that Apple Pay has taken over the world, that’s no problem. You can buy a separate NFC reader without replacing your existing EMV terminal.