Category: Best Practices for Merchants
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 30th, 2017 by Elma Jane
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants
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 19th, 2017 by Elma Jane
Card-Present vs Card-Not-Present – It’s important for a merchant to know what types of credit card payments their business will be taking.
If you rely on mailed, over-the-phone, or online payments a Card-Not-Present merchant account is what you need.
With this type of account, you don’t need the physical card. You are set up to accept credit cards where card information is being keyed into a credit card terminal or online.
A card-not-present merchant accounts base rate is higher than if you signed up for a Card-Present or swipe merchant account.
Why are card-not-present rates higher? There is less risk associated with a business swiping a credit card than keying it in. Why? When a card is swiped, a person is present; where the merchant can check ID and signature. When a person is not present, it’s open for consumer fraud.
However, when you’re setting up a Card-Not-Present merchant account, these factors are taken into consideration during the underwriting process, which leads to a lower base rate for keyed-in payments
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: card present, card-not-present, credit card, merchant, online, payments, terminal
January 18th, 2017 by Elma Jane
The cost of accepting card payments is driven primarily by the interchange. When you settle your transactions each day; payment network routes them to the respective card associations (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and UnionPay) and debit networks through the interchange. Card associations and debit networks establish the rules and manage the interchange of all transactions; for which they charge fees to offset their costs. Interchange fees are paid at the time the transaction is exchanged.
Although interchange fees are applied to all credit card processors equally, they fluctuate in amount, based on a variety of factors. Card associations quote the lowest rate for a transaction, assuming that a number of requirements (which vary according to the card type, the type of business accepting the card payment, and the transaction channel) are met. Transactions that meet all of the requirements for your industry are charged the “qualified rate.” If one or more of these requirements are not met, the transaction is categorized at a more expensive interchange level, known as a Mid-Qualified Non-Qualified the most common “downgrades”.
Some common causes of downgrades include manually entering or requesting voice authorization for a significant number of transactions rather than use a POS device, or you routinely settle
transactions more than 24 hours after they are authorized.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: card associations, card payments, debit networks, interchange, payment network, transactions
January 12th, 2017 by Elma Jane
Accepting non-cash payments from your customers are valuable. If you don’t, you will miss out on sales; because of the growing numbers of customers who only carry plastic or wish to pay online. Today, you have many payment solution options.
Credit Card Terminals – you might remember the beginning of the credit card era and i’ts evolution with today’s countertop terminals. From the traditional swipe of their credit, debit or even gift card to make a purchase to today’s modern terminals. Like accepting EMV chip cards (to be in compliance with a PCI mandate) and NFC payments like Apple Pay.
Beyond the basics; these systems are generally supported by reporting sites that can help you monitor sales, and assist you with maintaining customer loyalty programs.
E-Commerce Solutions – online sales are growing every year. If you are considering an expansion of your business online; you need a complete hosted payment solution for transactions in all payment environments. Including in-store, back office mail/telephone order (MO/TO), mobile and e-commerce, that make your customers’ experience as intuitive and efficient as possible.
Point of Sale Systems – smart registers have evolved into high-tech point-of-sale (POS) systems due to technology advances. Not only taking customer payments; but it can transform your business with an advanced marketing programs, inventory management and sales and profitability tracking and reporting. Over the past years these advanced systems have become cost-effective and easy to use.
Wireless Terminals – in today’s hardware you have the option of accepting payments wirelessly, through a full-service terminal that is smaller than a countertop model, or through a mobile card reader plugin for a smartphone or tablet.
The advantage of a full-service wireless terminal is that it allows for receipt printing on the spot through the device and most modern full-service wireless terminals are EMV compliant and accept both EMV (chip card) and NFC payment types.
Call now 888-996-2273 and speak to our payment consultant to know which solution is best for you.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Reader Terminal, e-commerce & m-commerce, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Mail Order Telephone Order, Near Field Communication, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Point of Sale Tagged with: card reader, chip cards, credit card, debit, e-commerce, EMV, gift Card, mobile, moto, nfc, online, payment solution, payments, PCI, point of sale, smartphone, terminals, transactions
January 9th, 2017 by Elma Jane
The Travel industry payment experts! Why NTC?
NTC is the preferred payment processor for over 3,000 Travel Related Agencies.
High application approval rates while striving to eliminate holds & reserves is a big part of our Travel Merchant’s success.
Guaranteed Lowest Rates
Next Day Deposits
We Integrate with Trams & Sabre Red
Integration with a wide range of Booking Engines
Live US Based Concierge Service within three rings
Preferred by Many Associations including ASTA
NTC ePay Electronic Invoicing
Highest Approval Rating
Accept Payment from Anywhere in the World
Online Reporting and Processing Tools Included
Get the most from your Payment Processing Call Now 888-472-7112
Not all Travel Merchant Accounts Are The Same!
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: merchant, online, payment, payment processing, payment processor, travel, travel industry, Travel Merchant
January 6th, 2017 by Elma Jane
Online fraud is not going away; hackers are becoming more sophisticated. While technology offer more avenues for consumers to pay, they also offer new ways for hackers to steal data.
There are several factors that increases the growth of online fraud:
EMV migration: because of EMV migration, fraud in face to face transactions becomes more difficult and moves to card-not-present transaction. This has been observed after EMV is implemented in other country.
Banking activity: it is moving online not only via online-only banks, but also mobile and online bank services.
An increase of online marketplaces: financial services pros are more proficient in identifying fraud compare to individual consumers who become sellers that can be victims of online fraud.
How can e-commerce and financial services companies reduce online fraud?
Merchants: Ensure that you have payment security. Fraudsters use sophisticated technologies, ask your payment provider for encryption and tokenization. You can also use BIN LookUp as an added security and number of benefits. Bin LookUp allows merchant or institution to check more about the transaction.
Online marketplaces: Marketplaces can protect their reputation by validating new sellers using sophisticated device and applying advanced models and machine learning to detect unusual patterns of activity that indicate misuse.
Banks: Fraudsters continue to innovate. Bank technology needs to be flexible and stay one step ahead.
For account set up or terminal upgrade call now 888-996-2273 or visit www.nationaltransaction.com
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, e-commerce & m-commerce, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale Tagged with: banks, card-not-present, data, e-commerce, EMV, encryption, financial services, fraud, merchants, online, payment, provider, Security, terminal, tokenization, transactions
