Category: Best Practices for Merchants
August 23rd, 2016 by Elma Jane
Bank claims that they no longer support QuickBooks Direct Connect as of May 2016. As a result of product changes. It would be nice if QuickBooks would take time and prominently post that fact.
For those interested in QuickBooks plugin NTC has a special offer for the next 30 days!
In conclusion, QuickBooks geared mainly toward small and medium-sized businesses and also offer on business premises accounting applications as well as cloud based version that accept business payments, manage and pay bills, and payroll functions.
For more information about your payment needs give us a call at 888-996-2273 or go to www.nationaltransaction.com
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: bank, payments
August 22nd, 2016 by Elma Jane
National Transaction 20th Anniversary
Join National Transaction at our Sales Office, in celebration of our 20th Anniversary. October 7th Friday, from 11am until 3pm.
As part of our celebration we have Lincoln Kokoram to do a brief Sales Training on How to Overcome Telephone Objections.
Lincoln Kokoram has been conducting seminars, workshops and platform speaking for the past 32 years. And having trained in over 35 countries.
In addition, Mark Fravel, founder/President of National Transaction; will have his FYI remarks from what he learned for over 20 years in the payment industry while building a strong relationship with his partners’ and exceeded excellence in his company.
Come celebrate with us and attend the training! RSVP needed before September 30th.
Call us at 888-996-2273 or go to www.nationaltransaction.com for more information.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: payment, payment industry, transaction
August 19th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Merchant aggregator is an entity that can run many transactions through a single merchant account, an opposite to the traditional account since you’re the sole owner.
Preferred for a smaller business because its not intended as a long term scalable solution to accepting payments.
For businesses that want to expand their processing needs, traditional merchant account will outgrow an aggregator, since the goal is for a business to grow, but it will always come to what’s best for individual business.
While you have the pros of quick application process and instant approval there are a lot of cons to check before getting an aggregator account.
CONS of an aggregator account:
CUSTOMER SERVICE – aggregators are hard to get hold of.
FEES – fixed fees .
FREQUENT HOLDS and DELAY OF FUNDS – aggregators hold funds 24-48 hours before depositing, while longer holds occur 30 days.
LOWER LIMITS – processing limits lower, annual limit of $100k.
PROS of a Traditional Account:
CUSTOMER SERVICE – 24/7 technical support.
FUNDS – next day funding, no frequent account holds.
FEES – tailored to your business needs.
LIMITS – varies by financial strength and business
For more information in setting up an account with NTC give us a call at 888-996-2273 or go to www.nationaltransaction.com
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Merchant Services Account Tagged with: fees, funds, merchant account, Merchant aggregator, payments, transactions
August 11th, 2016 by Elma Jane
CURRENCY CONVERSION
Multi Currency Conversion (MCC):
In addition to 100+ supported currencies and all transactions autosettle at 6pm (eastern) daily.
Customer is unaware of the converted currency, also customer may not opt-out at the point of sale.
Conversion occurs between the point of sale and settlement.
E-commerce only and no merchant rebate.
Price listed in customer’s currency conversion also Supported by Internet Secure or direct certification.
Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC): Customer is aware of the Conversion Currency, also customer may opt-out at the point of sale.
Conversion occurs at the point of sale and five supported currencies less than MCC.
Merchants may choose settlement method and time in addition to merchant rebate up to 100bp.
Price listed in merchant’s currency conversion.
For Retail, Restaurant, MOTO and E-commerce.
Supported by terminals, via Warp and Virtual Merchant.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, e-commerce & m-commerce, Mail Order Telephone Order, Point of Sale Tagged with: currency, customer, DCC, Dynamic Currency Conversion, e-commerce, Internet Secure, MCC, merchant, moto, Multi Currency Conversion, point of sale, retail, terminals, transactions, virtual merchant
August 9th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Businesses are discouraged from storing credit card data, but many feel the practice is necessary in order to facilitate recurring payments. Merchants that need to store credit card data are doing it for recurring billing.
Using a third party vault provider is the best way to store credit card data for recurring billing, it helps reduce or eliminate the need for electronically stored cardholder data while still maintaining current business processes. The risk of storing card data is removed from your possession and you are given back a token that can be used for the purpose of recurring billing, by utilizing a vault. Modern payment gateways allow card tokenization.
Any business that storing data via hard copy needs to review and follow PCI DSS requirement in order for the electronic storage of cardholder data to be PCI compliant. Appropriate encryption must be applied to the PAN (primary account number). In this situation, the numbers in the electronic file should be encrypted either at the column level, file level or disk level.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: cardholder, credit card, data, merchants, payment gateways, payments, PCI, provider, tokenization
August 3rd, 2016 by Elma Jane
National Transaction offer valuable features and benefits. If you want to improve your business’s productivity, you should look for this features that you need from your merchant account provider.
Advanced Security Options – did you know that 6 out of 10 small businesses close within six months of a card data breach? Point-of-Sale devices should have appropriate security measures, particularly EMV, encryption and tokenization. With National Transaction we have Safe-T for Small and Medium Businesses and Safe-T for Large Businesses. Top-tier security is important on all your business’s data especially customer information, consider adding additional authentication procedures. Merchant account providers bundle various security features to make the process of becoming secure.
Fast Payment Processing – having up-to-date technology is the first step because some customers might become annoyed by slow service and leave. The sooner you have the money processed by your merchant account provider, the bigger and stronger your business can become. NTC is adept at administering payments quickly and efficiently. We can provide regular funding or next day funding.
Feature Flexibility – Look for a merchant provider that appropriately addresses your payment concerns. Obtaining the features you need from your merchant services provider is very important.
Mobile Payment Processing – NTC offer Virtual Merchant/Converge Mobile that gives you the ability to accept payments using your smartphone or tablet anywhere you go. The app works with most Apple and Android mobile devices. You can accept key-entered transactions or swipe cards using an encryption reader. You can now take chip card payments using Ingenico iCMP PIN Pad. Merchants who aren’t mobile payment capable do demonstrate unwillingness to progress with payment technology and might lose customers eventually.
Reliable Customer Support – NTC is available 24/7 answering the phone by humans and not automated systems. You got support with your hardware, answer questions and guide you to better understand the process. Customer support is perhaps the most important feature of any business partnership you make. You don’t want to choose the wrong provider.
Up-to-Date Tech – futuristic features, like mobile payment abilities, EMV/NFC, contactless payments are worth investing. Modern consumers are generally more familiar with up-to-date payment systems. Seeing a merchant service provider offer a swipe-only terminal should be a red flag, because the recent regulations require merchants to have EMV to provide better data security.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Financial Services, Merchant Account Services News Articles, Merchant Services Account, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Small Business Improvement, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: account, Breach, card data, chip card, customer, EMV, encryption, merchant, mobile, payment, point of sale, provider, Security, tokenization, transactions
August 2nd, 2016 by Elma Jane
Credit card machine or point of sale terminals are used for processing debit and credit card transactions and are often integrated into a Point of Sale System. Let’s take a look at the POS terminal evolution.
Manual Imprinters – although the process was time consuming and did not offer the speed or instant transfer capabilities, manual imprinters have been around since the start of a wide acceptance of credit cards. Manual imprinters are still widely used and are considered a great backup processing method.
Electronic Authorizations – Merchants had the choice of calling in for an authorization or imprinting their transactions. The first electronic credit card authorizations were done over the phone, but many businesses opted voice authorization only on larger transactions because of the long waiting time for authorizing a transaction over the phone,
Point of Sale Terminals: Point of sale terminals emerged in 1979, which was a turning point in the credit card processing industry. Visa introduced a bulky electronic data capturing terminal. This was the first of credit card machine or terminal as we know them today, it has greatly reduced the time required to process a credit card. MasterCharge became MasterCard in the same year and credit cards were replaced to include a magnetic information stripe which now has become EMV/chip and PIN.
The Future: There’s a lot of room for advancement when it comes to Credit card processing technology. Increasing processing speed, reliability and security are driving forces behind processing technology advancement. Today’s credit card terminals are faster and more reliable with convenient new capabilities including contactless and Mobile NFC acceptance. The processing industry will definitely be adapting new technologies in the near future and has a lot to look forward to.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Reader Terminal, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Near Field Communication Tagged with: credit card, credit card machine, debit, electronic credit card, Electronic Data, EMV/chip, merchants, mobile, nfc, PIN, point of sale, POS, processing industry, terminals, transactions, visa
August 1st, 2016 by Elma Jane
ASTA/NACTA Florida Summit & FAM Trip with Richard Delos Santos, NTC Specialist; and Robert Duglin, Vice President of Business Development at ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents) and NACTA: The National Association of Career Travel Agents
National Transaction the Payments Expert for Travel Agency! For more information give us a call at 888-996-2273.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: payments, travel agency, travel agents
July 26th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Mobile payment space is growing yet, many small businesses and retailers are choosing to overlook the idea of mobile payment acceptance.
Here are stats that prove the importance of mobile payments:
About 45% of consumers use mobile payments out of convenience.
1 billion users will use in-store mobile payments by 2019.
An increase from $3.2 billion in 2014 to $487 billion by 2020 in US in-store mobile payments is predicted.
Millenials use contactless payments on a regular basis.
Over the next five years, mobile payments will reach about $3 trillion in volume.
There are 16 million Starbucks mobile app active users that make 8 million mobile payments per week.
Transactions globally are on mobile devices.
It is a great investment for a merchant to upgrade your point-of-sale (POS) to have near field communication (NFC) capabilities. If you’re not currently accepting mobile payments, you should start now, your customers who are already using mobile payments will thank you and your business will be ahead of the game as more businesses onboard mobile payment acceptance.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, Mobile Payments, Near Field Communication, Point of Sale Tagged with: contactless payments, customers, merchant, mobile payment, Near Field Communication, nfc, point of sale, POS, transactions
July 21st, 2016 by Elma Jane
Always ask for the card security codes:
CVV2 for Visa
CVC2 for MasterCard
CID for Discover and American Express.
Always use the Address Verification Service (AVS) and only process sales after receiving a positive AVS response.
Avoid using voice authorizations, unless absolutely necessary.
Billing descriptor must set up properly and shows your phone number. Customer can contact you directly if there is an issue,
Consider using the associations’ 3-D secure services:
Verified By Visa
SecureCode by MasterCard
A 3-D transaction confirmation proves card ownership and protects you from certain types of chargeback. An additional layer of security for online credit and debit card transactions.
Inform your customers by email when a refund has been issued or a membership service cancelled. Notify them of the date the refund was processed and provide a reference number.
Make available customer support phone number and email address on your website so that customers can contact you directly. You need to meet this requirement before opening a merchant account.
Make it easy for your customers to discontinue a recurring plan, membership or subscription. Have a no-questions-asked policy.
Notify your customers by email of each transaction and indicate that their cards will be charged.
Obtain a confirmation of delivery for each shipment.
Process refunds as quickly as possible.
Secure an authorization approval for every transaction.
Secure customers’ written or electronic signatures, for recurring payments or monthly fees. Giving you express permission to charge their cards on a regular basis.
Terms and conditions must be clearly stated on your website. Customers must acknowledge acceptance by clicking on an Agree or a similar affirmative button.
Transaction amount must never exceed the authorized amount.
You are required to reauthorize the transaction before settling it if an authorization approval is more than seven days old.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Credit Card Security, Merchant Services Account Tagged with: card, chargeback, credit, customer, debit, merchant, merchant account, online, sales, Security, service, transaction