Disabling Signature and Pin for FIS Global (Formerly Worldpay, Vantiv, and MPS) & Elavon Merchants

Posted by Dawn Dawning, Training Specialist

Yet another way to prepare for social distancing at POS is to eliminate the need for customers to enter a PIN or to capture a signature when processing card payments through your EMV payment devices.

Disabling the Signature Capture Required Threshold in TAM

This is accomplished by defining a threshold at which signature capture is required in TAM.  Important! Before changing these thresholds or disabling signature capture, always check with your financial institutions for the applicable threshold requirements (both bank and governmental). There may be liability implications to changing this threshold amount. If the merchant allows the cardholder to bypass their signature, then fraud liability might shift back to you, the merchant.

1. Log into TAM Office select Point of Sale and Tenders.
2. Once the Tenders screen opens, highlight and double-click on a Credit Card Tender (American Express, Discover, Mastercard/Visa).
3. Enter a threshold of 9,999 in the Require Signature Threshold Amount field.
4. Click Update to save your changes.
5. If licensed for multiple locations on one database, system will display additional prompt apply update to all locations
   1. Click Yes to apply it to all locations.
   2. Click No to apply update to single location.
6. Repeat until all credit card signature thresholds have been updated.

The threshold amount should be set to your specific financial institution’s current and on-going guidelines.  Adjusting the threshold per the above instructions will automatically by-pass the capturing of the customer’s signature for all credit card payments under $9,999.

Disabling PIN Entry for FIS Global (Formerly Worldpay, Vantiv, and MPS) & Elavon Merchants

This is accomplished by enabling an option to bypass PIN entry, typically set by communication with the payment card middleware.  Important! Before changing this option, always check with your financial institutions for PIN entry requirements (both bank and governmental).  There may be liability shift implications to enabling this option if the issuer has provided the card a higher level of EMV authentication by enabling PIN. If the merchant allows the cardholder to bypass entering their PIN, then the fraud liability might shift back to you, the merchant.

Elavon customers can contact the customer support line by calling 1-800-725-1243 or emailing custsvc@elavon.com for assistance.

Contact the FIS Global Merchant Support line 1-800-846-4472. Press 1, Option 2 then Option 1 to reach the Customer Care Department and request to disable PIN Debit from your account”. If your organization has multiple MID’s, all accounts can be disabled on the same call.

After calling, your organization will be required to perform a parameter download on the TAM Cash Register. To begin:

1. Log into TAM Cash Register
2. Click EMV Utilities button from Begin Transaction screen. The EMV Utilities window will be displayed.
3. Click the Param Download button and select OK.  The Downloading… window will be displayed.
4. Pause until Downloading… is complete.  The EMV Parameter Download window will be displayed.
5. Click OK to continue.  The Register window will be displayed.
6. Click Exit to close TAM Cash Register application.

Important!  There are two options Param Download and Server Version, and these options can be protected with Manager Authorization (or set to not Authorized) in TAM Office, under Point of Sale, in the Modes selection.

Disabling “OK” prompt for FIS Global (Formerly Worldpay, Vantiv, and MPS) & Elavon Merchants

This option is accomplished by upgrading TAM to version 11.8.23 or higher. If not disabled after upgrading, the default will prompt for the customer to OK the amount displayed on the PIN pad.

Keep in mind that disabling any EMV security feature may put your organization at a higher risk for potential incidents of fraud to occur. TAM cannot be held responsible for fraudulent transactions that may be processed.

Remember, we are all in this together. Stay healthy and safe. As always, if you have any questions relating to this post, please contact the Help Desk at 866-435-7826 or by email at help@tamretail.com.