Category: Best Practices for Merchants
December 12th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Wireless Freedom with Smart Terminal!
Point-of-sale with WiFi capabilities. Now customers can take advantage of total mobility within their location when accepting payments, and managing their business either in-store or remotely. The device is NFC enabled for contactless transactions, and also designed to be easily transported due to its rechargeable battery.
Perfect for Pay at the Table!
Intended to provide cardholders with the ability to pay from anywhere within a business, the Smart Terminal is the ideal solution for processing transactions (and tips) tableside. Other benefits for this service include:
- 8 hour battery life on a single charge.
- Customer screen displays for PIN, Signature, tips, and receipts (via paper/email/text).
- Cardholders have the ability to complete transactions quicker, increasing profitability.
- Enhances the customer service experience.
Available for Retail and Restaurant customers only.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: cardholders, customers, nfc, payments, POS, terminal, transactions
December 6th, 2016 by Elma Jane
The Process of Processing Electronic Payments
Today new technologies are emerging in electronic payment that allow merchants to collect valuable data on their customers; from emailing receipts to providing incentives to mention the merchant on social media.
So what’s behind the process of processing electronic payments? The heart of all your payment processing needs will most likely lie in a merchant account; with a merchant account you can deposit funds from ebt cards, debit cards, gift or loyalty cards and even checks into your bank account. If your business has never had its own merchant account, it’s probably missing out on some very valuable opportunities.
At National Transaction Corporation this process is simplified to a signature page and a voided check. We consult your business personally to establish the lowest rates and fees possible with your electronic payment processing. We ask detailed questions about how you process your transactions, and if you already process credit cards, we offer a free statement review where we determine your most common transaction types and how to lower their fees and rates.
How Much Will Electronic Payment Processing Cost?
There are three parts to the answer:
Up front or startup costs – include things like an application fee, an account setup fee and equipment fees. At NTC, we don’t have any application, setup or cancellation fees on our services. Our credit card readers and terminals are nonproprietary and will work with almost any merchant services provider and we sell them at cost to make it easier on our merchants.
When you buy a terminal from us you own it and are free to leave us at any time and use the terminal to process through another merchant account provider with no penalty payments at all.
Other startup costs might be:
- check readers,
- cash registers and receipt printers
- mobile point of sale software
- credit card swipe readers
- Accounting software (Intuit’s Quickbooks Pro or PeachTree)
If you already own any of this equipment we can integrate your existing hardware into our services.
Monthly service fees – depend on what services are required; included in the monthly fee detailed statements and reporting on transaction activity.
Transaction fees – MasterCard, Visa and American Express set what are called interchange rates. Interchange rates are a per transaction fee and/or a percentage rate based on the total of a sale. Interchange rates are very complex and consume hundreds of pages of different types of electronic transactions. These transactions are based on the type of business processing the transaction, the way the credit card data is input (like a credit card that is swiped in or manually keyed into a credit card terminal of some type) and the type of credit card used for the transaction (rewards card, corporate card, travel and entertainment credit cards, ebt cards and so on). With so many types of cards and businesses to process it’s impossible to give an accurate rate for all charges.
Again, we have no fees associated with applying for or setting up the merchant account and there is no penalty for cancellation so there are no risks in trying it out. We can do merchant rate review for free. Call us now 888-996-2273
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: credit cards, customers, data, electronic payment, merchant account, merchants, mobile, payment processing, point of sale, services provider, terminal, transactions
December 1st, 2016 by Elma Jane
The All in One Smart Terminal!
Finally, a dynamic all-in-one smart terminal that offers a turnkey solution for customers to immediately implement in their place of business. Think of it also like a smart phone for accepting payments.
Function meets Form
Enables the speed of business with a modern, engaging design. Here are a few highlights:
- Dual, interactive touchscreens for the customer and cardholder.
- Built-in intuitive software, PIN pad and also signature pad, and printer.
- Charging dock station that includes extra USB ports.
- One card slot for EMV/MSR transactions.
- NFC enabled to accept contactless transactions, for example ApplePay.
- Mobile and web applications to help owners manage their business from anywhere.
- Ability to print, email and also send SMS receipts.
Sleek modern device that delivers an incredible customer experience, therefore a great option for retailers, coffee shops, and pop-up shops.
It comes with the powerful security of Safe-T built in.
For your EMV/NFC terminal needs give us a call at 888-996-2273.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: ApplePay, cardholder, contactless transactions, customers, EMV, mobile, nfc, payments, PIN pad, smart phone, terminal, transactions
November 30th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Understanding Interchange Rates & Fees
Credit card processing involves three separate cost components:
For vendors who choose to accept this type of payment, from customers for goods or services.
The same cost components apply to debit cards. Only one cost component is negotiable.
The first component is an interchange fee, which is payable to the card holder’s issuing bank. It is a combination of a transaction volume percentage fee and a flat-rate transaction fee. Interchange fees are collectively agreed upon through Visa and MasterCard by a card’s issuing bank and are fixed costs.
Interchange fees take into consideration various information about a card. Types of cards include debit and credit, while categories of cards refer to commercial and reward cards. Processing methods include whether a card is swiped or manually keyed. Swiping a card is usually more economical for vendors.
The second component is an assessment fee, charged by the card’s brand holder. Brand holders include Visa, MasterCard and Discover. Assessment fees are also fixed costs. Additionally, Visa charges a monthly fee.
The final charge is known as a processing fee. Processing fees vary among processors and is negotiable. Vendors are charged a processing fee, which can cause a difference in cost from one vendor to another.
For your electronic payments need give us a call 888-996-2273
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: bank, credit card, customers, debit cards, electronic payments, payment, reward cards, transaction
November 29th, 2016 by Elma Jane
GET THE LOWEST CREDIT CARD TRANSACTION RATES & FEES BY DOING THE FOLLOWING:
1. Use newer POS systems to reduce credit card fees.
2. Find out what percentage of your gross sales go toward credit card rates.
3. Perform a statement review at least annually.
Any time a customer uses a credit card to purchase services and goods the merchant pays various rates and fees processing those transactions. Most of these fees go to the bank issuing the credit card as they take on the bulk of the risk in credit card transactions.
Visa, American Express and Discover own the network on which these credit card transactions are processed on and they receive part of the fee and percentage rate as well as establish these rates and fees. Finally the bank that provides merchant account services gets part of these rates and fees.
To a small business 2, 3, or even 4% might not sound like much but when these fees are on the gross total of sales they can be significantly higher than originally thought.
For this reason it’s a great idea to assess your merchant account statement to see if rates are in line and that your most frequently used cards and transaction types are getting the best rate possible. By going over your statement, you can see exactly what you pay per transaction and get details about your most common transaction types and credit card used to get the process going.
If you are unfamiliar with what these rates and fees mean on your statement companies like National Transaction can perform the review for you. Free of charge.
Ultimately the best thing to have is a merchant account service provider that will take the time to go over your business with an eye lowering your rates and fees. The savings can be significant. As a business grows it changes and there should be an ongoing strategy at maintaining the best processing rates and fees possible. Today with so many different credit card types, like rewards cards, airline miles programs and more it can pay off to check once or twice a year.
For FREE Rate Review give us 888-996-2273
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: bank, credit card, customer, merchant, merchant account, POS, rewards cards, service provider, transaction
November 28th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Payment acceptance is key to making more money.
Let’s talk about your money, and how to make more of it. Today money is taking on a new form. It’s digital, it’s electronic and it’s everywhere and anywhere 24/7/365.
Payment acceptance is key to making more money. You don’t make more money by not accepting a transaction, and making the experience convenient and safe to your customer can bring loyalty.
Let’s break down a transaction.
Cash, but that would mean that the customer has to be in front of you. You could take checks, those are safe to mail, but then you don’t have your money until you drive to the bank and cash or deposit the check.
So how do we easily and securely transfer funds for a transaction? The answer lies in digital or electronic payments. Accepting credit cards, debit cards, ebt cards or even gift & loyalty cards and electronic checks. These provide secure and convenient ways to complete transactions for your customers. If you want to make more money, make it easy for customers to spend it while making it faster for you to receive it. That’s where a merchant account comes in.
A merchant account allows you to deposit funds directly into your bank account in as little as a few hours. Whether the customer swipes their card into your smartphone, calls it in over the phone or keys it into your web site, just having a merchant account can be a huge advantage over competitors.
It allows you to conduct transactions in more ways than cash or checks alone. Transactions are recorded automatically and can easily be reconciled for both customer and merchant. Most importantly it widens the opportunities to conduct sales to the widest customer audience possible.
No matter what you sell or how you sell it, the sale is only complete once the funds are transferred from one party to the other.
It’s important to recognize your missed opportunities. Could accepting electronic payments help increase your revenue stream? We’re here to help you make more money, let us show you the many ways we can do just that. Let’s talk, 888-996-CARD (2273)
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Check Services, Electronic Payments, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Mail Order Telephone Order, Mobile Payments, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: credit cards, customer, debit cards, ebt cards, electronic checks, electronic payments, gift & loyalty cards, merchant account, payment, smartphone, transaction
November 22nd, 2016 by Elma Jane
Be with NTC and enjoy the full benefits of our Electronic Payment Services with high levels of service and security.
In addition, you can enjoy from e-commerce payment gateways to retail and restaurant solutions, business-to-business processing capabilities to electronic invoicing (NTC ePay).
NTC is offering a cost-effective credit card payment processing services that are very fast, secure and easy to integrate.
Get your Secure MerchantConnect Reporting Tool:
- Review and reconcile all of your transactions settle or batch settle and also much more.
- Create and save your custom reports that also can be imported or exported easily.
- Use our solution to turn any computer, laptop, smartphone or tablet into a processing center.
- Run & enjoy this on one or more devices to process credit card transactions with your merchant account.
- Peripherals allow swiping transactions and printing out receipts.
Our Merchant Cash Advance feature will help you very much to enjoy cash advance service. If your business accepts credit cards, getting cash for your business can be fast, simple and very easy.
Receive up to $150,000 per location in less than 10 business days—sometimes in as few as 72 hours.
National Transaction Merchant Cash Advance eliminates many hassles and delays common with bank loans.
Our Merchant Cash Advance builds on the strength of your business’ future credit and debit card sales, so a damaged personal credit history is not an immediate disqualifier.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: bank, cash advance, credit card, debit card, e-commerce, Electronic invoicing, electronic payment, gateways, loans, merchant account, payment, payment services, Security, smartphone, transactions
November 18th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Tokenization and Encryption are completely different technologies when it comes to securing sensitive data, such as credit cards.
Encryption tools and techniques is to mask original data, then allow it to be decrypted. It uses an algorithm to scramble credit card information that makes the data unreadable to anyone.
Encryption is most often “end-to-end.”
Example: When someone enters card data into a web browser to buy an item and decrypted when the purchaser’s authorized credit card information reaches its intended destination, which is the merchant’s e-commerce database.
Encrypted card data is unreadable while it’s “at rest” in a database or “in motion” during a purchase transaction; and inaccessible until a key decrypts it. The chances of a hacker stealing the data is minimal. But, if card data passes through multiple internal systems en route to an acquiring bank or payment gateway, the encrypt/decrypt/re-encrypt process could open a wide security hole, thus creating vulnerabilities to hackers.
Tokenization have found to be cheaper, easier to use and more secure than end-to-end encryption.
Tokenization completely removes credit card data from internal networks and replaces it with a generated, unique “token”. Tokens have no meaning and are worthless to criminals if a company’s system is breached.
Merchants use only the token to retrieve, access, or maintain their customers’ credit card information.
Example: Actual credit card number was 3234 4567 8789 78910, it might become FHIW145BVE65478 when a token is generated. The token is randomly generated and there is no algorithm to regain the original card number. hackers can’t reverse-engineer the actual credit card number, even if they were to grab the tokens off the servers.
Using tokens doesn’t change a merchant’s payment processing experience. Only they’re much safer for a merchant than actual credit cards.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security Tagged with: card, credit cards, customers, data, encryption, gateway, merchants, payment, Security, token, tokenization, transaction
November 17th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Payment Card Industry
What is PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards)? A set of requirements, founded by Amex, Discover, JCB, MasterCard and Visa; to facilitate industry-wide adoption of consistent data security measures on a global basis. Best practices for enhancing payment account data security.
Why does my business need to be PCI Compliant? You help protect your business
by reducing the risk of a costly breach of your customers’ payment card data. Payment card brands (Amex, Discover, JCB, MasterCard and Visa) mandate that all businesses processing payment cards must be compliant.
Once my business validates PCI-DSS compliance, does that prevent a security breach from happening? No. It helps prevent security breaches and loss of cardholder data but do not provide a guarantee to your business. Also, similar to the regularly required updates to anti-virus and firewall software; data security is also continually subject to new threats.
What happens to my business if I am not PCI Compliant? If you do not comply with the security requirements contained within PCI-DSS as mandated by the payment card networks; you put your organization at risk of a payment card compromise.
In the event that your business is compromised, you may also be subject to additional fines, fees, and assessments by the card brands. You may also lose your credit card acceptance privileges.
What am I required to do to validate PCI compliance? The minimum requirement for PCI Level 4 business is to complete a PCI-DSS Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) on an annual basis and achieve a passing status.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Payment Card Industry PCI Security Tagged with: card, credit card, customers, data, payment, PCI, Security
November 15th, 2016 by Elma Jane
SMART TERMINAL
Another all-in-one mobile (IP countertop and Wi-Fi capable) terminal that gives customers the functionality they want and need.
Sleek modern device that delivers an incredible customer experience, and is a great option for retailers, coffee shops, and pop-up shops.
Includes two touch screens: a larger one for easy visibility of orders and other information, as well as a cardholder facing one that can be used for payments and tipping. It also offers a dashboard function, so your customers can monitor their transactions and other reports remotely. On top of that, it comes with the powerful security of Safe-T built in.
For your EMV/NFC terminal needs give us a call at 888-996-2273.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Reader Terminal Tagged with: cardholder, customers, EMV/NFC, mobile, payments, Security, terminal, transactions
