September 16th, 2014 by Elma Jane

Card-not-present merchants are battling increasingly frequent friendly fraud. That type of fraud..The I don’t recognize or I didn’t do it dispute. This occurs when a cardholder makes a purchase, receives the goods or services and initiates a chargeback on the order claiming he or she did not authorize the transaction.

This problem can potentially cripple merchants because of the legitimate nature of the transactions, making it difficult to prove the cardholder is being dishonest. The issuer typically sides with the cardholder, leaving merchants with the cost of goods or services rendered as well as chargeback fees and the time and resources wasted on fighting the chargeback.

Visa recently changed the rules and expanded the scope of what is considered compelling evidence for disputing and representing chargeback for this reason code. The changes included allowing additional types of evidence, added chargeback reason codes and a requirement that issuers attempt to contact the cardholder when a merchant provides compelling evidence.

The changes give acquirers and merchants additional opportunities to resolve disputes. They also mean that cardholders have a better chance to resolve a dispute with the information provided by the merchant. Finally, they provide issuers with clarity on when a dispute should go to pre-arbitration as opposed to arbitration.

Visa has also made other changes to ease the burden on merchants, including allowing merchants to provide compelling evidence to support the position that the charge was not fraudulent, and requiring issuers to a pre-arbitration notice before proceeding to arbitration, which reduces the risk to the merchant when representing fraud reason codes.

The new “Compelling Evidence” rule change does not remedy chargebacks but brings important changes for both issuers and merchants. Merchants can provide information in an attempt to prove the cardholder received goods or services, or participated in or benefited from the transaction. Issuers must initiate pre-arbitration before filing for arbitration. That gives merchants an opportunity to accept liability before incurring arbitration costs, and Visa will be using information from compelling evidence disputes to revise policies and improve the chargeback process

Visa made those changes to reduce the required documentation and streamline the dispute resolution process. While the changes benefit merchants, acquirers and issuers, merchants in particular will benefit with the retrieval request elimination, a simplified dispute resolution process, and reduced time, resources and costs related to the back-office and fraud management. The flexibility in the new rules and the elimination of chargebacks from cards that were electronically read and followed correct acceptance procedures will simplify the process and reduce costs.

Sometimes, an efficient process for total chargeback management requires expertise or in-depth intelligence that may not be available in-house. The rules surrounding chargeback dispute resolution are numerous and ever-changing, and many merchants simply do not have the staffing to keep up in a cost-effective and efficient way. Chargebacks are a way of life for CNP merchants; however, by working with a respected third-party vendor, they can maximize their options without breaking the bank.

Reason Code 83 (Fraud Card-Not-Present) occurs when an issuer receives a complaint from the cardholder related to a CNP transaction. The cardholder claims he or she did not authorize the transaction or that the order was charged to a fictitious account number without approval.

The newest changes to Reason Code 83, a chargeback management protocol, offer merchants a streamlined approach to fighting chargebacks and will ultimately reduce back-office handling and fraud management costs. Independent sales organizations and sales agents who understand chargeback reason codes and their effect on chargeback rates can teach merchants how to prevent chargebacks before they become an issue and successfully represent those that they can’t prevent.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 30th, 2013 by Elma Jane

National Transaction Corporation and Trams Back Office

As National Transaction Corporation Executives get to meet Sabre’s key people in Miami FL let’s know more about what Trams Back Office one of their respective products can offer.

Travel and transportation industry is evolving quickly, agility is needed in adapting to the changing customer needs. In addition to providing the right services for customers and for business.

With Trams Back Office, part of the Sabre Red travel solution, your capable to easily monitor, manage and grow your business. Trams provides right-size, right-price information technology (IT) solutions and is one of the most popular back office accounting and reporting system on the market today. It’s easy to learn and use, helping you control costs with extreme efficiency.

In addition, Trams Back Office seamlessly works withClientBase to deliver a complete solution incorporating GDS integration, CRM, General Ledger, and more.

Special Features

Credit Card Merchant – process your merchant credit card service fees and other transactions through Trams Back Office.Trams and ClientBase Products and Services has formed alliances with credit card processing companies, to bring you competitive rates and an easy-to-use interface to process agency merchant credit card service fees and other transactions through Trams Back Office.

The Credit Card (CC) Merchant Reconciliation under Payments|Reconciliation|CC Merchant Reconciliation takes the CC Merchant payments from Trams Back Office (TBO) verifies them, and sends them electronically to your credit card processor. Your credit card transactions are then processed and sent back to Trams Back Office, where TBO clears the processed items and creates the payment and the journal entry to record the activity in the General Ledger.

Add Ons

Trams Crystal Reports – measure effectiveness and efficiency by running pre-designed Crystal Reports within the Trams Back Office system. Its FREE!! Trams Crystal Reports is an add-on to ClientBase and/or Trams Back Office that offers you the ability to run pre-designed Crystal Reports in addition to those offered within the Trams Back Office and ClientBase products. TCR10 is the most recent version of Trams Crystal Reports that is integrated with Trams Back Office and ClientBase. When TCR10 is installed, you will be able to launch Trams Crystal Reports from your desktop or in Trams Back Office, using the TCR Viewer under Reports.

 IC/Host Agency Export Utility- allows Independent Contractors to share invoice data with their Host Agency’s Trams Back Office system for FREE!! Agencies today are choosing to change the way they make their bookings. Many are dropping out of ARC/BSP and booking air tickets through a Host Agency. They may also book some or all of their Cruise & Tour business with a Host Agency, or continue doing those bookings as they always have. These Independent Contractor (IC) Agents working through a Host Agency, may still operate a Store Front location, or move into a “home based” environment. This utility is designed for independent contractors (IC) and host agencies to share data more efficiently. IC’s use the host’s GDS create invoices marked with their own IC code. These invoices are then interfaced into the host’s Trams Back Office (TBO) database. This utility gives the Host the ability to transfer these interfaced invoices to the IC for importing into their IC copy of Trams Back Office. To receive records from a host agency using this utility, an IC must have a copy of Trams Back Office. The utility also allows IC’s that use ClientBase to create invoices, to export those invoices and share them with the host agency.

Over View – Trams Back Office is a locally installed solution that allows agency to effectively manage entire accounting and reporting process with their Free Special Features and Free AddOns.

Posted in Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, Merchant Services Account, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,