Background
EBT fraud, including the use of card skimming to steal benefits, is on the rise. Modernizing EBT, including the introduction of chip cards for SNAP EBT, is an important step to ensure that SNAP benefits are protected. Chip cards are a more secure payment option meant to protect SNAP retailers and SNAP participants from the devastating impact of stolen SNAP benefits as cards with chips are harder to copy and steal SNAP account information. As of Aug. 28, 2024, the X9.58-2024 EBT standard has been officially published and is available on the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) site.
SNAP EBT Chip Cards
As states begin to add chips to their EBT cards, we are asking retailers to ensure their Point-of-Sale (POS) devices are able to fallback to magnetic stripe. Retailers who are ready to upgrade their POS devices to accept SNAP EBT chip cards, will have to work with their POS service provider to ensure the SNAP EBT chip card is recognized by their POS. For additional details, please see the retailer notices and technical resources below.
Retailer Notices
- Chip is Coming to SNAP EBT - All Retailers (coming soon)
- Chip is Coming to SNAP EBT - CA & OK Retailers (available in Arabic, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, English, Haitian Creole, and Spanish)
- Chip is Coming to SNAP EBT – CA & OK Border State Retailers (translations coming soon)
Technical Resources
The following resources are now available:
- SNAP EBT Chip Card Technical Implementation Guide - For Retailers, Acquirers, and Processors
- Chip Ready Test Scripts - For Retailers
- Empty Candidate List (ECL) Testing Instructions - For Retailers
- Empty Candidate List (ECL) Fallback Test Scripts - For Retailers