Card technology terminology gets thrown around interchangeably. Most merchants know they should accept chip and tap. Fewer know why, or what changes about their liability when they do. The short version: accepting modern payment methods isn't just a customer experience upgrade — it's a chargeback liability shield.
EMV (chip)
EMV stands for Europay, Mastercard, Visa — the three networks that built the chip standard. The chip generates a unique cryptogram for every transaction, which makes counterfeiting effectively impossible.
Since October 2015 in the US, the liability for counterfeit card fraud has shifted to whichever party hasn't upgraded. If you swipe a card that had a chip and the transaction turns out to be counterfeit, your business eats the chargeback. Inserting the chip puts that liability back on the issuing bank.
NFC and contactless
NFC (near-field communication) is the radio technology behind contactless payments. "Tap to pay" uses NFC whether the customer is tapping a physical card, an Apple Watch, or a phone with Apple Pay or Google Pay.
NFC transactions carry the same EMV cryptogram protection as chip insertions, so they get the same liability shift — and they're faster (sub-second) and don't require physical contact, which matters for both throughput and hygiene.
Mobile wallets are the most secure payment method you can accept
Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay don't transmit the actual card number. They send a tokenized device-specific number plus a one-time cryptogram, authenticated by the phone's biometrics.
From a fraud standpoint, this is the strongest authentication available at the point of sale. Issuers approve mobile wallet transactions at higher rates and dispute them less often.
What this means for your terminal choice
Any terminal sold after 2017 supports chip + NFC. If you're still running a swipe-only terminal — even one that's still working — every counterfeit-card chargeback is yours to pay. The cost of a chargeback (the disputed amount + a $15–$25 fee + lost product) is almost always more than upgrading.
If you're adding a second register, choose a model that supports chip, NFC, and ideally PIN debit. The marginal cost is small and the fraud protection is significant.
If your current terminal doesn't accept tap, you're leaving fraud protection on the table and slowing down every checkout. Any modern terminal — and most phones via Tap to Pay — will close the gap.