March 15th, 2017 by Elma Jane
Payment Options
Technology continues to evolve, offering multiple billing and payment methods increases satisfaction by improving customer experience.
Customers will continue to move toward digital life, like embracing different forms of online billing and ways to accept payments.
Creating convenient ways to accept payments and having more options can reduce the time it takes your business to get paid.
Accept debit and credit card payments online; to offer this feature you need to get a merchant account.
Options for accepting payments:
Electronic Check Service (ECS) – convert paper checks to electronic transactions, with NTC’s ECS. Converting paper checks to electronic transactions eliminates many of the risks and costs, adding money to your bottom line.
Mobile Payments – the opportunity to increase revenue through mobile payments is huge. Many consumers find that mobile bill pay makes shopping easier, more convenient and saves time. Converge Mobile Solution lets you accept card payments using smartphone or tablet. The app works with most Apple and Android mobile devices.
Online Payment Gateway – offering customers an online payment form enables them to pay you easily and allows you to accept payments by credit card, debit card or echeck.
Electronic Invoicing (NTC ePay) – send your customers an invoice by email and get paid in minutes. Electronic Invoicing gives your customer the ability to pay their bills and receive a receipt in seconds by email.
Learn more about accepting electronic payments with NTC or sign up with us.
No setup or cancellation fees, there’s no risk! call now 888-996-2273
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: credit card, customer, debit, echeck, ECS, Electronic invoicing, electronic transactions, merchant account, mobile, online, payment, payment gateway
March 1st, 2017 by Elma Jane
ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS
When it comes to electronic payments, certain types of businesses are considered high risk.
Most merchants do not realize that electronic payment processors carry a financial risk on merchant accounts, and normally fund merchants prior to receiving payment from the client’s bank.
Essentially, a merchant account is an unsecured loan.
Different factors used to determine when a business is a high risk are:
- Types of products
- Services they sell how
- How they sell them
Online transactions are considered high risk because there are increased risks of fraud.
A key factor used to determine the risk of a business is chargebacks.
Chargebacks include customer refunds and fraudulent transactions.
Payment providers assess this risk to determine the percentage of chargebacks your business is likely to experience.
Businesses that are considered high risk where they take advanced payments:
- Travel agencies
- Ticketing services
Electronic payments provider is necessary if you want to accept debit and credit card transactions.
For high-risk electronic payments please feel free to call us at 888-996-2273.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: bank, chargebacks, credit card, debit, electronic payments, fraud, loan, merchant accounts, merchants, online, payment processors, transactions, travel agencies
February 16th, 2017 by Elma Jane
Chargeback Cycle
A chargeback is also known as a reversal; a credit card transaction that is reversed to a merchant because of the customer or customer’s bank disputes charges. Other reasons include fraud, credit card processing errors, authorization issues and non-fulfillment of copy requests. There’s an assigned reason code for every chargeback. Reason codes may vary by VISA and MasterCard.
How does the chargeback cycle work?
1. A customer files a complaint to card-issuing bank.
2. The bank sends disputed transaction (chargeback) to acquirer.
3. Acquirer receives chargeback and resolves it or forwards to the merchant for documentation.
4. Merchant accepts chargeback or addresses issues and resubmits to Acquirer.
5. Acquirer represents the chargeback to the issues once acquirer agrees the merchant has properly addressed it.
6. The issuer resolves the dispute by reposting to the cardholder’s account.
7. The cardholder receives dispute information and may be rebilled or credited.
Every merchant that offers credit card processing to its customers should be concerned about chargebacks to their merchant account.
Lower your risk of chargebacks by following the tips below:
Verify card logos, credit card numbers, identification, customer signature and check the expiration date.
Call for voice authorization if the card stripe doesn’t work or if the terminal is down or cannot authorize.
Authorize every transaction.
Be sure your customers are familiar with your return or exchange policy.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: bank, cardholder, chargeback, credit card, customer, merchant, merchant account, transaction
February 6th, 2017 by Elma Jane
Managing Chargeback:
Chargeback – a forcible reversal of funds due to a credit card holder’s dispute of the transaction. Chargebacks can be a huge headache for a business owner, it can affect a business’ ability to maintain a credit card processing account and put funds on hold.
How can you protect your business and maintain a good processing account? First, you need to know the basic chargeback types:
- Clerical – duplicate billing, incorrect amount billed or refund never issued.
- Fraud – consumer claims they did not authorize the purchase or claims identity theft. Fraud disputes can be more complicated since they are the result of fraudulent consumer purchases.
- Quality – consumer claims to have never received the goods as promised at the time of purchase.
- Technical – expired authorization, non-sufficient funds or bank processing error.
Managing chargebacks is an important piece and it can certainly be reduced, to save your business, time, money and reputation.
For Electronic Payments Set up call now 888-996-2273 or visit www.nationaltransaction.com and click get started.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: bank, chargeback, consumer, credit card, fraud, funds, processing account, refund, transaction
January 31st, 2017 by Elma Jane
Selecting a Payment Provider
Selecting electronic payments provider for your business is critical. NTC believes that the process starts with an honest assessment of your business and the types of credit card processing options it requires. (Retail or e-commerce, Card Present or Card-Not-Present)
Card present transaction is the most common type of account. Card-Not-Present (CNP) is a different type of account if you run a MOTO (mail order telephone order) or Internet operation.
Here are some points to keep in mind in selecting your electronic payments provider:
Referrals from fellow business owners and checking out payment providers online.
Evaluate products and services as well as cost to determine which electronic payments provider offers the biggest savings for your business.
Make sure the deals you’re considering include all the features and services you need and none that you won’t use.
Keep upgrade options in mind.
Look for 24/365 support and discuss customer service support.
Read the fine print in your contract.
The merchant account provider’s reputation is important, so find out how long they’ve been in business and their reputation in the industry.
NTC has over 20 years’ of Bankcard History. Helping businesses of all sizes for over 25 years in the industry. Call us now 888-996-2273 and tell us all about your business needs and requirements and we’ll put together a package of products and services that will best serve your credit card processing needs. There are a variety of solutions, so it’s important to focus in on those that directly address your needs.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: cnp, credit card, customer, e-commerce, electronic payments, internet, merchant account, online, payment provider, payments, retail, transaction
January 30th, 2017 by Elma Jane
U.S. Based Payment Processing Account?
How do you get a U.S.-based payment processing account when you are based outside of the country?
Here are several steps you need to take before applying a U.S. payment processing account:
The first thing you need to do is get incorporated.
Get an office – typically comes as a part of the package offered by the company that is doing your incorporation. Opt for real physical presence, rather than just a mailing address.
Get a U.S. representative – that representative is not only a name to use in the incorporation paperwork and in your office rental agreement. The U.S. representative person will be acting on behalf of your company in the U.S. This person will need to have a U.S. social security number (SSN) and will be the one who signs your credit card processing agreement.
If you are unable or unwilling to find one, you will not be able to get approved for a domestic payment processing account and will have to settle for an offshore one.
Lastly get a business checking account.
Only U.S.- based businesses are eligible for U.S. payment processing accounts, talk to a Payment Specialist 888-996-2273.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: credit card, merchant account, payment, Security
January 25th, 2017 by Elma Jane
PIN vs. Signature: What’s the Difference?
PIN Debit – PIN transactions are routed through what are known as (EFT) electronic funds transfer. It immediately deducts the transaction amount from the customer’s checking account, which is linked to the debit card used for payment. EFT processing takes place when the customer chooses debit when prompted and then enters her PIN. PIN debit transactions are often referred to as online transactions because they require an electronic authorization.
Signature Debit – Signature-based debit transactions are authorized, cleared and settled through the same Visa or MasterCard networks used for processing credit card transactions. Signature debit processing is initiated when the customer selects credit when prompted by the POS terminal. Signature debit transactions are referred to as offline transactions because a PIN debit network does not play a role in processing.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: credit card, customer, debit, debit card, electronic, electronic funds transfer, online, payment, PIN, POS, terminal, transactions
January 24th, 2017 by Elma Jane
How to set up a travel merchant account?
First, you need to find a Merchant Service Provider.
Put together your business profile so you can start applying for a merchant account.
There are questions that you’ll need to answer, that way merchant account providers have an idea of how they should set up your account.
Some of the questions are:
Is your business seasonal?
For Travel Agencies or Tour Operators, it is seasonal, there will be high and low volume. NTC works with seasonal downtime.
How do you intend to accept payments?
Different business models require different methods of accepting payments.
If you’re doing face to face transaction and have a physical location then you need a credit card terminal.
If you process checks, then you need Electronic Check and ACH Transfers.
For e-Commerce shopping carts, wireless/mobile, you can check out our Converge Virtual Merchant and NTC e-Pay.
How much volume do you plan on processing?
Merchant account providers are going to want to know how much sales volume you plan on processing per month.
If you’re new in the business – give just an estimate average of how much you’ll be processing (per month), within the first 6-months of operation.
if you’ve been in the business – you’ll already have this number ready.
What will be your average ticket price?
Example:
Total Sales Revenue = $150,000
Total Number of Sales = 500 150,000/500 = $300 (Average Ticket Price)
If you need to setup an account give us a call at 888-996-2273 or use our contact form.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: ach, credit card, e-commerce, E-Pay, Electronic Check, merchant account, merchant service provider, mobile, payments, shopping carts, terminal, transaction, travel, virtual merchant
January 23rd, 2017 by Elma Jane
What Makes Up The Rate That You’re Paying?
Most rates are made up of three parts:
Interchange – Goes to the bank that issued the card, and is typically made up of a flat rate plus a percentage of the sale.
Assessments – Go to card network like Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Discover etc.
Processor fees – Fees involved with providing the service, risk assessments, the type of transaction, and the size of the transaction. This portion includes the margin between the total rate and the two previous parts, along with any incidental fees, like chargeback or statement fees.
There are a lot more intricacies of what makes up a credit card rate, but this information gets you off to a good start. If you’re interested in learning more about electronic payments, check our website www.nationaltransaction.com or call now 888-996-2273 and talk to our Payment Consultant.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: bank, card, card network, chargeback, credit card, merchant, payment, processor, transaction
January 20th, 2017 by Elma Jane
Qualified vs Non-Qualified credit card rates
The most common forms of rate structures for credit card rates are:
2-Tiered: Qualified and Non-Qualified
3-Tiered: Qualified, Mid-qualified, or Non-qualified
Each and every transaction you accept is classified into one of the above and is the basis for the credit card rate you see on your statement.
As a general rule, qualified transactions are going to be “standard” cards; without any consumer or corporate rewards associated with them. Accepted in the “standard” method expressed in your merchant processing agreement, this is where Card-Not-Present (CNP) setup comes into play.
Mid and Non-Qualified transactions include:
Rewards cards, keyed-in payments (for swipe accounts), AVS (Address Verification Service) does not match or is not performed, not all required fields are entered, or the payment was entered in a late batch. Ex. the payment was sent to the processor 48 hours or more past the time of the authorization.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: card-not-present, consumer, credit card, merchant, payment, processor, transaction