December 3rd, 2015 by Elma Jane
Industry professionals agree that mobile payments technology has surpassed e-commerce as the trend in the daily spending behavior of modern retail customers.
E-commerce’s impact on consumer spending has actually decreased, but it seems that the ability to pay with mobile devices has finally swayed consumers away from their computers.
The payments outlook has changed rapidly with the increasing availability of mobile technologies to the average retail consumer within the last year. Products like Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay have totally altered the landscape of payment options.
Small Businesses will have to adapt in order to keep up with the rapid pace of technological developments. The evolution of payments technologies not only alters how consumers spend their money, but how that money is processed during a transaction.
There are still some concerns over cyber risks and data security, which led 58 percent of surveyed professionals to agree that point-of-sale debit and credit card transactions were still the safest form of payment, while mobile payments garnered 20 percent of support. But hypothetical worries over security aren’t real enough to slow mobile payments’ momentum moving forward.
Mobile payments transaction value is expected to hit $8.71 billion by the end of 2015. That figure will triple to $27.05 billion in comparison to 2016, according to new research; as a bigger base of consumers begin to use their phones for point-of-sale transactions and a wider range of merchants begin to accept mobile payments. By 2019, essentially all mobile payment transactions will be done on smartphones.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, e-commerce & m-commerce, Mobile Payments, Point of Sale Tagged with: credit card, credit card transactions, debit, e-commerce, merchants, Mobile Payments, payments technologies, point of sale
June 5th, 2015 by Elma Jane
Traditionally, travel-related merchants have a difficult time obtaining merchant accounts. National Transaction Corporation (NTC) is a full service merchant account provider with extensive experience in the travel arena and related markets, servicing thousands of travel-related merchant accounts by specializing in non-cash electronic transactions. Our services include processing credit card transactions, gift card transactions, and e-commerce transactions, among others. We offer a full line of products including credit card terminals, cellular devices, supplies, and accessories for each model sold. We offer aggressive rates and pricing for mail/telephone order, retail/restaurant, wireless, and online transactions while specializing in the travel and high volume sectors of merchant processing, and we are proud to be the preferred merchant provider for ASTA.
NTC is dedicated to providing the highest caliber of service and solutions in the merchant processing industry. We actually answer the phone when you need assistance! NTC has a team of dedicated employees providing personalized service to each account holder and are available directly through their toll free number, never hidden behind a menu system. Our excellent service truly separates us from everyone else in the industry. The principals of NTC have extensive experience in the processing arena for over 25 years, with experience in all facets of operation, including credit cards, credit initiation, credit investigation, loss prevention, deployment, and customer and terminal support. We employ internal sales associates as well as independent sales agents who offer many opportunities through their referral reward services and Independent Sales Organization (ISO) programs.
NTC’s online gateway allows for processing transactions, reviewing account history, and interacting with various shopping cart and accounting applications such as QuickBooks, Peachtree, and many other titles. Reservation software such as Trams are compatible and integrate well with all National Transaction merchant accounts. Whether you are a travel agency or an independent agent, we offer many solutions that cater to the travel industry and will increase your revenue with quicker deposits into your bank account.
Travel environments are unique in that your transactions are usually keyed; there is almost always a delayed delivery period, and large ticket transactions are not uncommon since one card holder may be paying for multiple tickets. They also tend to be seasonal, with peak season months generating an unusual spike in their “average” monthly volume, and charge-back’s pose a potential threat by travelers who are unable to complete their trip. Combine even a few of these factors together and you have cause for a reserve, or even account termination. National Transaction Corp specializes in understanding what makes your transactions unique, as a travel agent, and how they affect your merchant account.
The importance of customer service is something that is over looked when merchants compare the overall cost of monthly fees with their merchant account. That is, until the moment they need assistance with their account. Whether searching for missing deposits, having problems processing transactions, issuing refunds, processing voids, or questioning their billing statement, a merchant should always remember you get what you pay for. If you wonder why they can offer you no monthly fee, they are offering you no LIVE customer support. Customer support for them will come via means of email. You will wait hours for answers, and even days for a simple confirmation or general email, let alone a resolution.
National Transaction Corporation has over 17 years of dedication and experience in providing quality solutions in the credit card processing arena. From internet e-commerce applications to food stamp processing, from small start up businesses to fortune 500 companies, NTC has a complete product selection to customize a solution to grow with your business. We at NTC pride ourselves on being a full service, member service provider. It is our mission to provide the same dedication and service in maintaining your business as you experience in us earning your business. NTC will provide service after the sale. It is that service that sets us apart! For more information, contact NTC for world class service and solutions.
Contact National Transaction Corporation today at 888-996-2273 to see how we can help you with your travel merchant account, or visit us online at www.nationaltransaction.com for more information.
by Elizabeth Cody (Travel Research Online)
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, e-commerce & m-commerce, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Merchant Account Services News Articles, Merchant Cash Advance, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: ASTA, bank account, billing statement, credit card terminals, credit card transactions, credit cards, customer service, deposits, e-commerce, e-commerce transactions, electronic transactions, gift card transactions, Independent Sales Organization, ISO, merchant account provider, merchant accounts, merchants, service provider, travel, travel agency, travel agent, travel industry
All merchants that accepts, transmit or stores cardholder data are required to be PCI (Payment Card Industry) Compliant. Most believe that because they do not charge the credit cards themselves, they are exempt. Why all agencies are required to be complaint even when they don’t charge credit cards themselves, and some steps to ensure your agency is PCI compliant.
What is PCI compliance?
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that all companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. PCI applies to all organizations or merchants, regardless of size or number of transactions, that accepts, transmits or stores any cardholder data. Travel agents accepting, storing and transmitting credit card information to suppliers, are required to be compliant too. Suppliers reinforce this through their travel agent guidelines/contracts. Travel Agency must adhere to the applicable credit card company’s procedures for credit card transactions.
Consequences of Not Being PCI Compliant
If an agency is not PCI compliant, the agency can lose the ability to process credit card payments with that supplier. Not being able to pay with client credit cards can be a serious roadblock for agencies, and an inconvenience for clients.
If you have a merchant account and are found to be out of compliance, you can be fined.
How to be PCI Compliant
Don’t store the CCV security code from the client’s credit card. The client does not have the authority to grant you permission to store their CCV code. The credit card company explicitly forbid storage of the CCV code.
Make sure you securely store any client information, including their credit card number and expiration date. If you use a CRM, ensure that you have a strong password. If your CRM database is stored on your computer hard drive, encrypt it (there is a great encryption software that is free of charge). If you have an IT resource, talk to them about installing a firewall on your network, installing anti-virus and anti-malware protection, and any other steps that you can take to secure your client data even further.
If you keep paper copies of client information, keep it in a locked filing cabinet or desk drawer. When you no longer need their credit card information, cross shred it.
Home based businesses are arguably the most vulnerable simply because they are usually not well protected, according to the PCI Compliance Guide. Having strong passwords, encryption, a firewall, anti-virus and anti-malware protection are all inexpensive steps that you can take to protect your business and your clients’ sensitive data.
If you receive a courtesy call reminding you about PCI Compliance, don’t ignore it.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Credit Card Security, Payment Card Industry PCI Security Tagged with: cardholder, cardholder data, cards, CCV, CCV code, credit, credit card company, credit card number, credit card payments, credit card transactions, credit cards, crm, CRM database, data, database, encryption software, merchant account, Merchant's, network, Payment Card Industry, PCI, security code, transactions, travel agents
May 8th, 2014 by Elma Jane
The complexity derives from PCI’s Data Security Standards (DSS), which include up to 13 requirements that specify the framework for a secure payment environment for companies that process, store or transmit credit card transactions.
Make PCI DSS Assessment Easier
Training and educating employees. Technical employees should obtain any certifications or training classes necessary so that they can operate and monitor the security control set in place. Non-technical employees must be trained on general security awareness practices such as password protection, spotting phishing attacks and recognizing social engineering. All the security controls and policies in the world will provide no protection if employees do not know how to operate the tools in a secure manner. Likewise, the strongest 42-character password with special characters, numbers, mixed case, etc. is utterly broken if an employee writes it on a sticky note attached to their monitor.
For an organization to effectively manage its own risk, it must complete a detailed risk analysis on its own environment. Risk analysis goal is to determine the threats and vulnerabilities to services performed and assets for the organization. As part of a risk assessment, organization should define critical assets including hardware, software, and sensitive information and then determine risk levels for those components. This in turn allows the organization to determine priorities for reducing risk. It is important to note that risks should be prioritized for systems that will be in-scope for PCI DSS and then other company systems and networks.
Once the risk assessment has been completed the organization should have a much clearer view of its security threats and risks and can begin determining the security posture of the organization. Policies and procedures form the foundation of any security program and comprise a large percentage of the PCI DSS requirements. Business leaders and department heads should be armed with the PCI DSS requirements and the results of the risk analysis to establish detailed security policies and procedures that address the requirements but are tailored to business processes and security controls within the organization.
Building upon the foundation of security policies, the committee of business leaders and department heads should now review the PCI DSS requirements in detail and discuss any potential compliance gaps and establish a remediation plan for closing those gaps. This is where it is important to have the full support of business leaders who can authorize necessary funds and manpower to implement any remediation activities.
This is also the time to schedule the required annual penetration testing. These are typically performed by third parties, but is not required to be performed by third parties, and can take some time to schedule, perform, and remediate (if necessary). The results of a PCI DSS assessment will be delayed until the penetration test is completed so now is the time to schedule the test.
At this point the organization is ready for a full-scale PCI DSS assessment and can now enter a maintenance mode where periodic internal audits occur and regular committee meetings are held to perform risk assessments and update policies, procedures, and security controls as necessary to respond to an ever changing threat landscape. PCI DSS must become integrated into the everyday operation of the organization so that the organization remains secure and to ease the burden of the annual assessments.
Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance assessment is a major task for any size organization, but you can make it easier.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security, Payment Card Industry PCI Security Tagged with: assets, card, card transactions, compliance, compliance assessment, credit card transactions, credit-card, data security standards, DSS, networks, password protection, payment, Payment Card Industry, PCI, Phishing, process, risk, risk analysis, risk assessment, secure payment, Security, security control, security policy, transactions, transmit
March 31st, 2014 by Elma Jane
A payment processor is a company often a third party appointed by a merchant to handle credit card transactions for merchant acquiring banks. They are usually broken down into two types: Back and Front-End.
Back-End Processors accept settlements from Front-End Processors and, via The Federal Reserve Bank, move the money from the issuing bank to the merchant bank.
Front-End Processors have connections to various card associations and supply authorization and settlement services to the merchant banks’ merchants. In an operation that will usually take a few seconds, the payment processor will both check the details received by forwarding them to the respective card’s issuing bank or card association for verification, and also carry out a series of anti-fraud measures against the transaction.
Additional parameters, including the card’s country of issue and its previous payment history, are also used to gauge the probability of the transaction being approved.
Once the payment processor has received confirmation that the credit card details have been verified, the information will be relayed back via the payment gateway to the merchant, who will then complete the payment transaction. If verification is denied by the card association, the payment processor will relay the information to the merchant, who will then decline the transaction.
Modern Payment Processing
Due to the many regulatory requirements levied on businesses, the modern payment processor is usually partnered with merchants through a concept known as software-as-a-service (SaaS). SaaS payment processors offer a single, regulatory-compliant electronic portal that enables a merchant to scan checks “often called remote deposit capture or RDC”, process single and recurring credit card payments (without the merchant storing the card data at the merchant site), process single and recurring ACH and cash transactions, process remittances and Web payments. These cloud-based features occur regardless of origination through the payment processor’s integrated receivables management platform. This results in cost reductions, accelerated time-to-market, and improved transaction processing quality.
Payment Processing Network Architecture
Typical network architecture for modern online payment systems is a chain of service providers, each providing unique value to the payment transaction, and each adding cost to the transaction. Merchant>Point-of-sale SaaS> Aggregator >Credit Card Network> Bank. The merchant can be a brick-and-mortar outlet or an online outlet. The Point-of-sale (POS) SaaS provider is usually a smaller company that provides customer support to the merchant and is the receiver of the merchant’s transactions. The POS provider represents the Aggregator to merchants. The POS provider transaction volumes are small compared to the Aggregator transaction volumes. The POS provider does not handle enough traffic to warrant a direct connection to the major credit card networks. The merchant also does not handle enough traffic to warrant a direct connection to the Aggregator. In this way, scope and responsibilities are divided among the various business partners to easily manage the technical issues that arise.
Transaction Processing Quality
Electronic payments are highly susceptible to fraud and abuse. Liability to merchants for misuse of credit card data creates a huge expense on merchants, if the business were to attempt mitigation on their own. One way to lower this cost and liability exposure is to segment the transaction of the sale from the payment of the amount due. Some merchants have a requirement to collect money from a customer every month. SaaS Payment Processors relieve the responsibility of the management of recurring payments from the merchant and maintain safe and secure the payment information, passing back to the merchant a payment token. Merchants use this token to actually process a charge which makes the merchant system fully PCI-compliant. Some payment processors also specialize in high-risk processing for industries that are subject to frequent chargebacks, such as adult video distribution.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Electronic Check Services, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Merchant Services Account, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Point of Sale, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: aggregator, aggregator transaction volumes, back end, card associations, card data, chargebacks, credit card transactions, electronic portal, front end, front-end processors, issuing bank, merchant, merchant bank, network architecture, online payment systems, payment gateway, payment processing, payment processor, payment transaction, pci-compliant, point of sale, POS, SAAS
February 21st, 2014 by Elma Jane
NationalTransaction.com QR Code
Emerging economies, such as the BRIC countries and the next layer of emerging markets, are seeing particularly fast growth of alternative payments, said Kevin Dallas, chief product and marketing officer for e-commerce at WorldPay. This means the complexity of the payment landscape will increase further. Merchants will need to ensure they understand diverging regional and sector trends in preferred methods of payment.
In three years alternative payments will eclipse credit card payments as the dominant way to pay online, according to a report yesterday from London-based e-commerce processor WorldPay. In Your Global Guide to Alternative Payments (Second Edition), WorldPay found card payments online, which accounted for 57 percent of transactions in 2012, will fall to 41 percent in 2017. Alternative payment methods (defined by the report as anything other than credit or debit cards including bank transfers, direct debits, e-wallets, mobile, COD and others) will rise to 59 percent of online transactions in the next three years. Part of the reason is the preferred payment methods in some of the fastest growing e-commerce markets are not cards.
The report predicts e-wallet transactions alone will equal the number of credit card transactions online at 41 percent, becoming the most popular method of paying online globally by 2017. Currently, PayPal is the most popular alternative payment method in the world with a market share of 57 percent. China’s Alipay is second at 20 percent.
Posted in Credit card Processing, Digital Wallet Privacy, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Near Field Communication, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: alternative payments, bank transfers, card payments online, cod, credit card payments, credit card transactions, debit cards, direct debits, e-commerce, e-commerce processor, e-wallet transactions, e-wallets, methods of payment, mobile, online transactions, pay online, paying online, payment, PayPal, transactions
December 16th, 2013 by Elma Jane
1. Account Updater (Visa)
Incorrect billing information leads to declined credit cards, loss of sales and unhappy customers.
Visa touts its Account Updater as an easier way to keep customer data current. The tool appends all card data with up-to-date customer info so businesses can avoid difficulties over address changes, name changes, expired cards and more.
The tool can benefit any business that bills customers on a recurring basis.
It eliminates the need for manual administration, so it can lower your business’s operational costs and customer-service expenses. And by saving your clients the hassle of a declined payment, you can boost customer satisfaction and overall sales.
2. Netswipe
Paying online is convenient for customers, but keying in an unwieldy credit card number is still a pain.
Netswipe from Jumio gives customers an easier way: The tool lets users pay by snapping a photo of their credit card; it’s almost as easy as swiping your card through a traditional card reader.
According to Jumio, customers can use their smartphone or tablet to scan a card in as little as 5 seconds, whereas traditional key entry takes 60 seconds or more, on average. Having a quick and convenient way to pay could help contribute to a positive buying experience and encourage repeat business.
The system is compatible with any iOS or Android mobile device, as well as with any computer with a webcam.
3. Netverify
Jumio’s fraud-scrubbing tool helps you determine if your customers are who they say they are.
Net verify allows customers to snap a picture of their driver’s license or other identification using a smartphone, tablet or PC webcam. Once the image is taken, the tool can verify the authenticity of the documentation in as little as 60 seconds.
That’s much faster and more convenient than asking a customer to fax or mail a copy of their ID in the middle of a transaction.
The tool can verify identifying documents from more than 60 countries…including passports, ID cards and driver’s licenses, and even bank statements and utility bills. Jumio says its software is smart enough to automatically reject nonauthentic documents.
And customers can rest easy knowing that all submitted information is protected with 256-bit encryption to prevent identity theft.
Online merchants embed Netverify into their websites as part of the checkout process.
4. Payment Gateway
Payment Gateway service does all the heavy lifting of routing and managing credit card transactions online.
Portals like this one benefit small businesses by providing a fast and secure transmission of credit card data between your website and the major payment networks. It works a lot like a traditional credit card reader, but uses the Internet to process transactions instead of a phone line.
Payment Gateway also offers built-in fraud-prevention tools and supports a range of payment options, including all major credit cards and debit cards.
5. PayPal Here
Mobile credit card processing services like PayPal Here make it easy to accept credit cards in person using a smartphone or tablet.
PayPal Here and other similar services send you a dongle that attaches directly to your iPhone, iPad or Android device, allowing you to swipe physical credit cards wherever you are.
One major benefit of mobile credit card readers is that they work with the devices you already own. That means there’s no need to carry around additional hardware, aside from the reader add-on itself. Most credit card readers attach to your device via the headphone jack or charger port, and are small enough to fit in your pocket.
The smallest businesses have the most to gain by opting for mobile credit card readers, which are cheaper and far more portable than traditional options.
6. Virtual Terminal
If you do business online, your website needs the infrastructure to accept credit card information.
Web-based applications like virtual terminal offer the basic processing functionality of a physical point-of-sale system, and are easy to install on your business’s website.
The system allows merchants to collect orders straight from the Web, or take orders via phone or mail and before initiating card authorizations online.
It also includes extensive transaction history to help you manage payment data, split shipments, back orders and reversals. Business owners can even receive a daily email report of all credit card transaction activity from the prior day.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Mail Order Telephone Order, Merchant Cash Advance, Merchant Services Account, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Near Field Communication, Point of Sale, Smartphone, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: account, Android, authenticity, card data, card reader, checkout, checkout process, credit card number, credit card transactions, debit cards, declined payment, expired, fraud, id, iOS, mail, mobile device, nonauthentic, online, online merchants, passports, payment data, payment gateway, payment options, phone, point of sale, recurring, smartphone, tablet, verify, visa, webcam
