Good News at the Pump

As fuel costs continue to rise, further eroding consumers’ discretionary income, there is a glimmer of hope from a new technology that is making card transactions at the pump more secure.

At the NACS show held in Atlanta last month, VeriFone Holdings, Clearwater, Fla., introduced its Secure PumpPAY solution for upgrading gas-pump card payments to meet the Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards.

PumpPAY is a universal solution that works with pumps manufactured by virtually all U.S. and most European suppliers and has been installed at initial sites in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States. The solution includes an ATM-style keypad and reads magnetic-stripe credit and debit cards, as well as all major contactless-payment devices.

As of Jan. 1, 2009, all new self-service pumps must have PCI-approved PIN-entry devices and, beginning July 1, 2010, all card transactions at pumps must be protected with advanced encryption.