Only 49% of small business owners in the US that accept point-of-sale card payments today are aware of the EMV liability shift on October 1, with just 29% intending to make the change before the deadline and 34% intending to do so afterwards. Meanwhile, 21% “never plan to upgrade,” research from the latest Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index reveals.

The survey of 600 small business owners also revealed:

31% say their existing credit card processing system is equipped to accept chip-enabled cards;48% feel that upgrading their payment terminal will not impact their business, 46% do not want to pay for the costs associated with upgrading and 41% are not concerned about the liability shift in the case of fraud;42% feel it will improve protection from fraud and 42% feel it will not;15% are currently accepting in-store payments via a mobile-enabled credit card reader;94% accept check or cash payments, 42% accept debit card payments, 35% accept point-of-sale credit card payments, 25% accept payments online via a credit card and 19% say their business accepts online payments through a payment provider such as PayPal or Google Checkout.

“While our industry has made great progress in the last year informing and preparing small business owners for the EMV liability shift, the survey findings show us that we have more work to do,” says Debra Rossi, head of Wells Fargo merchant services.

A new poll by the Associated Press and conducted by GfK of 1,004 US consumers also reveals that only about one in 10 have received a chip-enabled credit card and, of those who have received the cards, only one third have used them.