September 19th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Terminal or credit card machines are used for processing debit and credit card transactions. Therefore, are often integrated into a Point of Sale System.
Electronic Authorizations – merchants had the choice of calling in for an authorization or imprinting their transactions, but many businesses opted voice authorization only on larger transactions because of the long waiting time for authorizing transaction over the phone.
Manual Imprinters – are considered a great backup processing method. Although time consuming and did not offer the speed or instant transfer capabilities, this imprinters are still widely used.
Point of Sale Terminals: POS emerged in 1979, which was a turning point in the credit card processing industry. As a result,
Visa introduced a bulky electronic data capturing terminal. 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.
In the same year, MasterCharge became MasterCard 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, Near Field Communication, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: chip, contactless, credit card, debit, EMV, mobile, nfc, PIN, point of sale, Security, terminal, transactions, visa
September 15th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Storing credit card data for recurring billing are discouraged.
But many feels storing is necessary in order to facilitate recurring payments.
Using a third party vault provider to store credit card data for recurring billing is the best way.
It helps reduce or eliminate the need for electronically stored cardholder data while still maintaining current business processes.
For recurring billing a token can be use, by utilizing a vault. The risk is removed from your possession.
Modern payment gateways allow card tokenization.
Any business that storing data needs to review and follow PCI DSS requirement in order for the electronic storage of cardholder data to be PCI compliant.
On the primary account number, an appropriate encryption will be applied. 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, Credit Card Security Tagged with: billing, cardholder, credit card, data, payment gateways, payments, PCI, recurring, token, tokenization
September 1st, 2016 by Elma Jane
A woman named Gabriela visited one of our merchant.
Gabriela stated that she’s from the company that processes REK Storage credit card transactions to upgrade their credit processing system.
She even claimed that the company she worked with was the parent company of National Transaction.
Gabriela presented some of the savings his company would receive in addition to a lower processing rates.
To start processing, they had to remove the old credit processing terminal because it was a company policy.
If you receive a phone call or visited by somebody claiming as NTC’s parent company give us a call 888-996-2273.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: credit card, credit processing, merchant, terminal, transactions
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 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
July 13th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Monthly statement fee is a fixed fee that is charged monthly and is associated with the statement that is sent to a merchant in one billing cycle, approximately 30 days worth of credit card processing by the merchant account provider; whether it’s a printed one, a mailed statement or an electronic version. Requesting online statements won’t necessarily be able to waive statement fee.
Every credit card and merchant account provider have a different set of costs associated with its services, but remember that there are several processors out there that are very transparent with their fees like National Transaction.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: credit card, fee, merchant, merchant account, processors, provider, services
June 23rd, 2016 by Elma Jane
Merchant Aggregators, Merchants of Records and Payment Service Provider what’s the difference?
Payment Service Provider – is a company, which provides payment gateway and related services (like antifraud tools) to merchants. PSP is a representative of one or several acquiring banks. The merchant signs an agreement with the acquiring bank and PSP. The acquiring bank provides a merchant account and secures settlements for merchant’s transactions directly to the merchant’s bank account. Payment Service Provider secures delivery of the merchant’s transactions to the acquiring bank and some related services like fraud scrubbing and recurring transactions. The merchant has an own merchant account with this model.
Merchant Aggregator – is a company, which uses one merchant account to process transactions from many merchants. Merchants don’t have any agreements with an acquiring bank, but with the merchant aggregator. You get quick setup and get shut down quickly. Most aggregators are hard to get hold of, they don’t have human customer support. The problem with this model is, it’s not intended as a long-term, scalable solution to accepting payments and they can freeze your account or hold your money if anything unusual happens.
Merchants of Records – are a merchant, who use services of payment service provider (PSP) or merchant aggregators to accept payments on their websites for goods or services they sell. Merchant of record role requires an array of administrative responsibilities, such as managing a merchant account with a payment processor, paying associated credit card fees for the transactions, other responsibilities like complying with PCI DSS.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: bank account, credit card, customer, merchant, payment gateway, payment processor, Payment Service Provider, PCI, transactions
June 20th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Batch – is a collection of credit card transactions, usually a single day’s worth.
Batch Processing – refers to a one-time closing or settling the entire batch of transactions.
The point-of-sale terminal or credit card processing software can be set on:
Manual Batch close – merchant will need to batch out at the end of each day. The processor will receive a command to settle all transactions that have been entered. There will be a printed report showing the transaction totals in the batch once a batch is settled.
Changes can be made to existing transactions in the batch before a batch is settled. Example: If you want to change an amount of one of the transactions or you want to void a transaction.
Automatic Batch close – The terminal or software will automatically close the batch, (settle the transactions) at a certain time each day, no manual intervention is needed by the merchant or in some case the processor will settle the batch (called host batch close at the processor level). Automatic batch close set-up is advisable for most businesses unless a tip edit function is required, manual batch close would be the better option.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: credit card, merchant, point of sale, processor, terminal, transactions
June 6th, 2016 by Elma Jane
The roll out for EMV PIN Debit and Tip Adjust functionalities for the Ingenico Telium POS terminals through a gradual download process begins July 24, 2016. Customers will receive an automatic download following the July release date, or they can go to their appropriate website for instructions to manually update their terminal file.
What to Expect
- EMV PIN Debit support for Visa, MasterCard, and Discover common Debit AIDs. Note that customers will see new prompts based on how card issuers configure EMV-enabled debit cards.
- Tip Adjust functionality on the restaurant application.The tip at the time-of-sale prompt will be on by default and will work as it always has. However, if this prompt is bypassed, a blank tip line will print on the receipt. This allows consumers to write the tip amount on the receipt and our customers can adjust as needed.
- Tip Adjust is supported on credit card transactions only, including magnetic stripe, EMV, key-entered and contactless.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: consumers, contactless, credit card, customers, debit, debit cards, EMV, PIN, terminal
May 24th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Top terms in your Merchant Statement:
Interchange – are the variable fees charged by the card payment networks for processing transaction. Credit card brands set these non-negotiable rates based on card type, business size, and industry.
Ancillary Fees – this include statement, batch and customer service fees, monthly minimums and more.
Authorizations – this section shows the charges per authorization that come from an interchange plus provider and is then split by card brand and transaction type. On your statement, you will see these charges as either AUTH or WAT charges.
Deposit Summary – following the summary is the deposit summary, where lists of your account activity broken down by day and card type.
Discount Rate – every transaction percentage that is deducted as a fee. Rates are categorized as qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified.
Processing Services – this states your discount rate charges that you receive from your interchanges plus processor. This is divided by card brand and sales volume.
Summary – summary shows the processed sales by AMEX, Discover, JCB, MasterCard or Visa, as well as the total fees paid in order to process these sales. You can find this at the top of your statement.
Other items included in the summary:
Account adjustments, chargebacks, the breakdown of sales by card brand and number of refunds.
Understanding these terms on your statement will give you the confidence to read your merchant account statement with ease.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: card, chargebacks, credit card, customer, fees, merchant, merchant account, payment, refunds, service, transaction