June 27th, 2017 by Elma Jane
E-commerce has been growing, and now the overall market is starting to take notice; thanks to advances in online payment processing and electronic payment technology, as well as the willingness of almost all merchants to accept credit cards online.
E-commerce ecosystem are set to double and will account for a rising share of overall card payments. In addition to increased internet and smartphone penetration; more e-commerce merchants and an increase in the use of digital wallets.
Cardholders globally are becoming more confident in the security of the e-commerce channel, with the expected implementation of 3D-Secure 2.0 and increased use of sophisticated anti-fraud systems in many markets it gives consumer assurance that payment cards are safe to use for e-commerce purchases.
Trends indicate that e-commerce is the wave of the future for shoppers. But digital shopping is just one piece of the broader payments ecosystem.
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Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: card payments, credit cards, Digital wallets, e-commerce, electronic payment, merchants, online, payment, Security, smartphone
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
April 28th, 2016 by Elma Jane
You may now give your customers the option to pay with PayPal in person. There is nothing you or they need to do – merchant card processing accounts with NTC have been automatically updated to accept PayPal in-person payments in addition to the other payment options currently offered.
How PayPal transactions work
When businesses accept a PayPal in-person payment, it could be processed in a number of ways. This will be reflected on the monthly processing statement and customer receipts, and the businesses you serve will receive the same pricing they currently do for payments over these networks:
- PayPal mobile payments will be processed as Discover transactions and are subject to Discover operating regulations.
- PayPal-branded card payments will be processed over the payment network designated on the card and are subject to operating regulations designated by the network on the card.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing Tagged with: card, card payments, card processing, customer, merchant, Mobile Payments, payment network, payments, transactions
October 15th, 2015 by Elma Jane
There are numbers of guidelines issued for accepting card payments, and merchants are expected to understand them all. To avoid issues down the road know a few basic rules in order to keep your business going without being penalized.
There’s a lot of ways to process a credit card: In-store, online, and by phone. There’s also different ways to pay and different brands of cards.
In-store and Card-not-present policies.
In-Store Policies:
- Always verify that the person presenting the card is the cardholder
- Ask for a 2nd ID for comparison
- Cards are non-transferable, cardholder MUST be present for purchase
- Compare the signature on the back of the card with that of the person who presents the card
- Inspect the card to confirm that it’s not visibly altered or mutilated
- Validate the card’s expiration date
Online/Phone Payment Policies: Card-not-present transactions
- Card account number
- Card billing address
- CID (3 digits on back of card OR 4 on the front)
- Card expiration date
- Card member’s home or billing telephone number
- Card member name (as it appears on the Card)
Rules for Visa, MasterCard and Amex that merchants need to know:
- Never store cardholder data on any systems to help minimize the risk of fraud and protect your business from potential chargebacks.
Complying with Federal Laws, State Laws and PCI
- A merchant should be familiar with and abide by Federal Laws regarding accepting credit cards. The Fair Credit Reporting Act is the federal law that establishes the foundation of consumer credit rights. This law regulates the collection and use of consumer credit information by merchants.
- Check state laws on the use of consumer credit information and accepting credit cards. Not all states have additional laws that regulate credit card practices, but some (such as California) prohibit merchants from requesting/requiring a customer to provide any personal information (like their address or telephone number) on any form involved with their credit card transaction. So, it is advised that merchants inquire about further information in their particular state.
- The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that all companies processing, storing, or transmitting credit card information uphold a secure environment. These rules essentially apply to any merchant that has a Merchant ID (MID). If you are a merchant that accepts credit card payments, you are required to comply with the PCI Data Security Standard, large or small businesses.
EMV Liability Shift Set By Visa and MasterCard as of October 1st
U.S. banks and credit card companies are now using the EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) technology. The EMV liability shift for fraud carried out in physical stores with counterfeit cards belongs to the merchant if it has not yet upgraded its POS system to accept EMV-enabled chip cards. While issuers absorb losses under card-network rules, that burden will shift to acquirers in cases where the fraud occurs at merchants unprepared for EMV.
It’s good to know every aspect of your business. The above guidelines are part of a business that every merchants should be familiar with. The main reason for these rules is to protect your business and keep your customer’s payment card data safe and secure.
To start accepting more credit cards give us a call now at 888-996-2273. We have the latest terminals that’s EMV/NFC capable.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Payment Card Industry PCI Security Tagged with: amex, card network, card payments, card-not-present, chargebacks, chip cards, credit card, credit card companies, Data Security Standard, EMV, EuroPay, MasterCard, merchants, MID, Payment Card Industry, PCI-DSS, POS system, U.S. banks, visa
July 14th, 2015 by Elma Jane
If you own a business, you should consider opening a merchant account. If you accept credit cards for transactions, you will take your business to a higher level, increase your revenue, and gain new customers. Most people nowadays use credit cards and debit cards to pay for their purchases, so no business should go without processing card payments. Electronic, Credit card processing payments are a must-have for any kind of business including Internet businesses.
If you accept several forms of payments, you will provide your customers with multiple options and you will enhance their experiences. If you do not accept credit cards, the people who prefer to pay for their purchases with credit cards and debit cards will go somewhere else, and you will lose the transaction. So many benefits are attached with merchant accounts and millions of small business owners have found success with them. If you have a merchant account, you will be able to accept Discover, MasterCard, Visa, and American Express from your customers.
With National Transaction, securing Electronic, Credit card payment processing service instore, online and on the go are easy to acquire. It will boost your income, so it is worth the investment. You can apply online for a merchant account, the applications will only take you a few minutes to complete, and you will find out if you have been approved for a merchant account in a day or so.
A credit card processing service will also protect your business and valued customers against fraud. Customers feel safe using credit cards because they know that if their cards get stolen, they can cancel them, dispute the purchases, and get their money back. Your customers will feel safe when they make purchases. Some consumers will not purchase from a company that does not accept credit/debit card.
National Transaction offers advanced payment processing solutions like Currency Conversion, EBT and Debit Cards Processing, E-commerce Gateways, Electronic Check and ACH Transfers, Gift Loyalty Card Programs, Loans and Advances, Mobile Processing and MediPaid, you will definitely benefit from opening a merchant account. National Transaction offers Free CRM and we can even help promote your business through Social Media Sites. We offer a very competitive rate and Customer/Technical Support to our Partners because we answer our phone.
Merchant accounts are a necessity for any kind of business, so don’t wait. Sign up for a merchant account right now and discover what your business can gain from accepting credit cards! With 73 percent of American households owning a credit card, it’s easy to think that everyday credit card usage is a way of life.
Give us a call 888-996-2273 or check our website www.nationaltransaction.com
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: ACH Transfers, Advances, card payments, credit card processing, credit cards, crm, Currency Conversion, debit cards, Debit Cards Processing, e-commerce, EBT, Electronic Check, gateways, Gift Loyalty Card, loans, MediPaid, merchant account, Mobile Processing, payments, transactions
May 4th, 2015 by Elma Jane
The rate of payments fraud is steadily decreasing, the current frequency stands at 0.06 percent or six basis points.
The perception of risks associated with card payments are much larger than the actual threat or reported losses. But the lack of trust that comes from such perception could impact the growth of the payments industry.
Recent advancements in payments security, such as tokenization and multiple tier authentication protocols, have contributed to the manageable number of fraudulent transactions. The EMV migration is expected to push the figure even lower, as chip-enabled technology spreads to over 50 percent of the US by the end of 2015.
For criminals, breaking into robust financial systems is becoming more costly and time consuming, which has discouraged many from attempting such unlawful acts.
Fraud is something that we can’t say will be eliminated completely. But efforts by all stakeholders in the industry can contain it to the minimum.
Counterfeit cards and payments data falling into the wrong hands are the two most common types of fraud that consumers are facing today. The surge in e-commerce has been linked to greater risks of fraud in the online channel, and while counterfeiting cards may be more difficult with EMV in place, online fraud has historically increased in its place.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa Tagged with: card payments, cards, consumers, data, e-commerce, EMV, EMV migration, fraud, payments, payments industry, Payments Security, tokenization, transactions
April 15th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Amsterdam, Netherlands-based Cardis has been piloting its technology in Europe with Raiffeisen Bank in Austria and Sberbank in Russia. They are now focused on the U.S., as this is the fastest growing mobile payments market in the world, where there’s a huge opportunity. Integration of technology with a large U.S. processor and with a major U.S. retail brand, which will be launching a mobile site and mobile app using Cardis solution.
Cardis International is planning an April launch in the U.S. for its technology, which enables merchants to accept low-value contactless or mobile payments without incurring high processing charges. Cardis is able to bring down the processing cost of low-value payments, the company said, by aggregating multiple transactions into a single payment.
The problem
Contactless card and NFC-based mobile payments are typically for low amounts, and yet still use a card processing infrastructure that was designed 40 years ago when the average credit card transaction was $100.
Traditional card processing systems require each transaction to be individually processed through the payment system, including authorization, clearing and settlement. The resulting variable costs of processing each transaction are independent of the transaction amount and too high for low-value payments, particularly in low-margin industries such as quick-service restaurants. QSR restaurants often have a 3 percent profit margin, yet, for low-value contactless payments, the processing cost could be as high as 6-7 percent of the transaction value.
Mobile and contactless cards offer consumers a convenient form factor. But they don’t solve the problem that low-value card payments are very expensive for merchants.
As an ever-increasing percentage of transactions have become cashless, card processing fees have become a significant cost. Costs that are based on the number of transactions, rather than their value. With average per person expenditures of $5 or under, feels each swipe fee much more than a business where customers spend $50 or more. But not accepting credit/debit cards for low-value transactions isn’t an option as many of customers don’t carry cash anymore.
Aggregation
Cardis’ solution is to act as an aggregator of low-value payments, sending a single batched transaction through to a processor instead of multiple low-value transactions. As there is no per transaction processing of individual low-value purchases, the cost-per-transaction is significantly reduced.
Cardis provides its technology as a software plug-in to payment service providers for contact-based and contactless card payments, mobile wallet transactions and NFC payments.
There are two models. For card payments, it will aggregate multiple purchases by an individual cardholder at a single merchant on a post-paid basis up to a specific amount, for example $20. To guarantee payment to the merchant, since the aggregated transaction is processed at a later date, it will pre-authorize an amount, for example $15, the first time the customer makes a purchase at that merchant.
Alternatively, merchants can opt for Cardis’ prepaid system. This involves the consumer setting up a prepaid account hosted by Cardis’ sponsoring bank that is topped up via ACH (automated clearing house) transfers. Using the Cardis prepaid account on a smartphone provides the digital equivalent to cash.
With its post-paid solution, merchants will save 30-50 percent per transaction compared to conventional card processing fees, while its prepaid solution saves merchants 80 percent per transaction. With the post-paid solution, it will only aggregate a customer’s purchases at a single specific merchant. But, as the prepaid solution aggregates the customer’s purchases across multiple merchants, this enables to offer a much lower processing fee to the merchant.
Cardis provides an audit trail enabling consumers to track individual transactions that are aggregated using its technology. Consumers don’t lose any of their card protection rights and guarantees by agreeing to let a merchant aggregate their payments through Cardis. They can always charge back any disputed transactions.
Cardis sees opportunities for digital content providers such as online music stores and games providers to use its aggregation technology. It can integrate solution with existing digital wallets.
Raiffeisen
In 2012, Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank launched a pilot of Cardis technology for NFC-based Visa V Pay debit card payments in partnership with Visa Europe. Raiffeisen’s MobileCard mobile payment product uses a secure element stored on an NFC-enabled MicroSD card inserted in a mobile phone. Although Cardis supports secure elements stored on SIM cards as well as on MicroSD cards and on the cloud, Raiffeisen opted for MicroSD cards, as this is an easier solution to implement.
Raiffeisen cardholders participating in the pilot use MobileCard on average three times a week, with an average transaction value of ($5.70). Merchants accepting MobileCard are seeing 40 percent to 70 percent lower merchant processing fees for an average transaction value of ($5.43) to ($13.60).
Spindle
In October 2013, Spindle, a U.S. mobile commerce company, signed an agreement with Multi-max, a manufacturer of vending machines for mid-size and small offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Spindle will integrate its MeNetwork mobile commerce technology into Multi-max’s line of K-Cup vending machines for rollout across the U.S.
The MeNetwork solution will incorporate all card-based payment acceptance services, as well as mobile marketing services. Spindle’s partner Cardis will provide low-value payment processing services for purchases at K-Cup vending machines.
Posted in Credit card Processing, Credit Card Security, Digital Wallet Privacy, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Internet Payment Gateway, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Near Field Communication, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Smartphone, smartSD Cards, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: accept, ach, aggregated, aggregation, aggregator, authorization, automated clearing house, average transaction, batched, card payments, card processing infrastructure, card processing systems, card-based payment acceptance, cardholders, clearing, contactless, contactless payments, cost-per-transaction, credit card transaction, debit card payments, Digital wallets, high processing charges, low-value payments, merchant aggregate, Merchant's, microSD, mobile app, mobile commerce, mobile payment, Mobile Payments, mobile site, mobile wallet transactions, nfc-based, payment service providers, pre-authorize, prepaid, processed, Processing, processing cost, processing fees, processor, settlement, smartphone, transactions, transfers
March 17th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Young people and Londoners are leading the way in adopting cashless payments in the U.K., The U.K.-based market research firm also found that non-bank electronic payment methods such as PayPal are trusted more than contactless and mobile card payments.
According to research, 38 percent of British people are interested in being able to make mobile payments and an enthusiastic 8 percent claim they would apply for mobile payment services straight away. Eighteen percent of U.K. Internet users say they would prefer to be able to stop using cash altogether.
Support for a cashless society is strongest in London, with 30 percent prepared to stop using cash. And it is the nation’s youth who are leading the way in new payment forms. Twenty-two percent of those aged 25 to 34 have used Barclays’ Pingit peer-to-peer mobile payment system, compared to 5 percent of those aged 45-54. About 17 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds have used the virtual currency Bitcoin at least once.
However, consumers are more concerned about the security of mobile payments than card payments. Sixty-five percent of consumers showed some concern about mobile payment security and 61 percent showed some concern about contactless cards, compared with 34 percent who were concerned about using debit cards and the 33 percent who were concerned about credit cards.
Consumers were notably less concerned about using non-bank payment services such as PayPal, which protect users’ financial data from being seen by third parties. Only 27 percent of Internet users are concerned about using non-bank payment services such as PayPal.
Posted in Credit card Processing, Credit Card Security, Digital Wallet Privacy, Electronic Payments, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Near Field Communication, Smartphone Tagged with: card payments, cashless payments, cashless society, contactless, contactless cards, credit cards, debit cards, electronic payment methods, financial data, internet users, mobile card payments, mobile payment security, mobile payment services, non-bank, non-bank payment services, peer-to-peer mobile payment system, Security, Virtual Currency
December 2nd, 2013 by Elma Jane
Post Office launches new payments service to help small businesses make more money.
The Post Office in partnership with WorldPay, has launched a new card payment service to help sole traders and small businesses. The Post office which services around four million small businesses, will offer them a range of ways to take secure card payments made in-store, online, via mail or telephone order, or on the move, which it hopes will plug a 20 per cent revenue gap between firms that accept card payments and those that don’t. According to new WorldPay research, 87 per cent of customers are likely to spend more money per transaction when paying with a debit or credit card, as opposed to cash.
The study also showed during the past year, one in five of UK consumers has had to abandon a purchase due to a small business or sole trader not accepting cards or because they weren’t carrying enough cash to pay. The service includes card machines for in-store payments or those made via mail or telephone order, and online payment pages for websites.
There is also a Pay As You Go option for sole traders and mobile businesses, like hairdressers or beauty therapists, who can sign up to take secure Chip and PIN card payments.
Posted in Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, Mail Order Telephone Order Tagged with: card payments, Chip and PIN, credit-card, in-store, mail or telephone order, online, payment, purchase, secure, service, transaction, worldpay
