Category: POS System Information

Tablet based or traditional POS systems

Tablet POS systems have appealed to many business owners due to the perceived low cost compared to traditional POS systems. However, POS systems typically require a surprisingly significant up-front investment in addition to an ongoing monthly service fee. Some merchants have become disenchanted with tablet pos systems because of the lack of support offered by their providers. Merchants can’t afford to wait for someone to get back to them if their system has a problem or they need additional training for new staff. Harbortouch has had time to learn our customers’ needs and establish the support infrastructure required. We offer 24/7 customer support and extensive training and support resources.

Sep 8, 2015

The Impact of EMV Cards

While the U.S. has been slow to adopt EMV credit cards, or what some call ‘smart credit cards’ , that is about to change. The big card providers (Europay, Mastercard, and Visa), have announced a roll out of EMV technology in October 2015, a change that will help decrease fraud and allow card providers more control of off-line transaction approvals. The cards will feature an embedded chip that can literally communicate with the card’s bank servers..

The Cost

While few experts criticize the technology itself, there are critics of the implementation essentially because of its high cost. EMV cards will impact business, specifically retail business, by costing the retail industry a large portion of the $7 billion dollar price tag. Shouldering so much expense is going to be a significant burden for the retail industry, with new pos equipment being a significant portion of the outlay.

Aug 25, 2015

Harbortouch’s tablet POS system!

Harbortouch, a leading provider of point of sale (POS) system and merchant processor, has entered the tablet pos system market with their new Harbortouch Echo, a sleek, built-for-purpose POS system. Unlike other tablet pos systems on the market, Harbortouch Echo combines the power and functionality of a traditional POS system with the simplicity and sleek design of a tablet-based system. Like Harbortouch’s full featured POS system, the Harbortouch Elite, both systems are offered as part of the company’s ground-breaking free POS program.
There is a lot of attention surrounding tablet-based POS systems currently. Unfortunately, many of the tablet based pos systems on the market have some serious limitations. Many of the systems offer underpowered consumer hardware and have limited software functionality on both the front and back-end. Many similar types of systems lack key features that businesses need to operate efficiently and offer limited reporting capabilities. Harbortouch Echo delivers an answer to these problems as more of a hybrid of traditional pos systems and the newer, smaller tablet based systems offering the features of the larger, more effective system in a smaller, more compact product.

Aug 18, 2015

Why are EMV cards more secure?

You’ll see a small metallic square on the new EMV cards. That’s a computer chip, and it’s the difference in this new generation of credit and debit cards. Unlike magnetic stripe cards, when an EMV card is used for payment, the computer chip embedded in the card creates an unique transaction code that is not used again.

The magnetic stripes on the older style cards contain unchanging data. Whoever accesses that data gains access to the sensitive information necessary to make purchases. This makes traditional cards prime targets for counterfeiters and thieves, who then use it to gain cash from the card. Because the data is unchanging, it can be replicated multiple times, compounding the losses.

Aug 11, 2015

EMV October deadline:

The EMV October deadline for compliance is fast approaching! There are many good reasons for merchants to change over to the new credit card processors as quickly as possible, not the least of which is increased liability if they don’t. Experts do expect the roll out of the new card readers and technology to span several months if not years. 50-70% of businesses are expected to be in compliance by the end of 2015, with another 5-10% coming on board each month thereafter.

It’s also estimated that somewhere between 600 million and a billion EMV cards will be issued by the first of 2016, with 40% of those predicted to be debit cards and the rest credit cards. Debit cards are predicted to roll out slower due to the banks having to upgrade their software to accommodate the new chip technology.

Jul 27, 2015