A major change issued by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) goes into effect on July 1, 2018--all merchants accepting credit card payments must have upgraded to a secure, current version of Transport Layer Security (TLS) to process transactions. You might not be familiar with TLS, or you might think a Payment Card Industry mandate only affects store owners. Before assuming the TLS changeover doesn’t apply to you, keep in mind that the TLS deadline has the potential to affect regular consumers nationwide if they haven’t also taken some simple steps to prepare for the big switch.