Chip and Pin? A golfing term?
Although I could understand your confusion Chip and Pin, as described by all our major clearing banks, has nothing to do with a golf! It's more to do with the fact that by January 2006 all the credit/debit cards issued will be chip and pin enabled.
That means, assuming you take credit cards, customers will have to put their pin number into an electronic terminal to confirm the sale rather than sign the sales slip. Why? Well really to help in the prevention of fraud. £400m per annum is the sum that fraud costs in the UK via credit and debit cards and as we all pay for most of it in card charges, bank interest etc it seems like a good idea to me.
For you of course its another expense as you will have to subscribe and acquire an electronic terminal to make sure your transactions go through smoothly. I've just had a quote for £79.00 per quarter for the terminal rental which although it will allow me to take debit cards and Maestro, effectively increasing my sales, sounds bit expensive to me.
So what is the down side to not having an electronic terminal? Well two major ones really:
A) You will not be able to take 'Switch' or any direct payment cards
and more importantly perhaps
B) You will carry your own liability in the event of any fraud.
A) Could be frustrating from a customer point of view especially if they are mostly business people, less so if they are on a pleasure trip as they could always visit the cash machine round the corner and draw the funds and pay you in cash. You will of course have asked them how they wish to pay when they arrived wont you?
B) Is rather more serious in that if any credit card is fraudulently used in your business the bank will not reimburse you.
For more specialist advice try:
http://www.chipandpin.co.uk/business/card_payments/faqs.html
One final thought ultimately 'all' will be chip and pin.
Good luck!