January 18th, 2016 by Elma Jane
EMV + NFC = BIG PLUS FOR YOUR BUSINESS
The business is already making upgrades, so If you’re a merchant, business owner who’s still on the fence about upgrading your payment processing equipment to accept EMV cards why not take that upgrade a step further and add NFC while adding EMV systems?
Not only will the upgrade help prevent potential financial responsibility for fraudulent transactions, but you can also realize the added benefit of being able to process NFC transactions at the same time.
Customers want the ability to pay with a mobile device, and NFC will allow for such transactions to go on.
Having NFC tools in place will help provide a valuable note of future-proofing to systems in place, being ready for it will be to the business’ benefit.
EMV and NFC technology is just good business sense for three important reasons Added Security, Economic Sense and Staying Current.
For more information about terminal upgrade and features that suits best for your business give us a call at 888-996-2273.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Mobile Payments, Near Field Communication, Point of Sale, Smartphone Tagged with: cards, customers, EMV, merchant, mobile, nfc, Security, transactions
January 11th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Chase Commerce Solutions, the global payment processing and merchant acquiring business of JPMorgan Chase & Co., sold its entire portfolio of Independent Sales Organization (ISO) accounts and associated contracts.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Chase has been decreasing the number of merchant relationships it supports through traditional ISOs and increasing the number of direct acquiring relationships it has with merchants since it formed Chase Merchant Services, a partnership with Visa that began 2013.
During that time it has focused more on e-commerce, reports said, though the biggest news for Chase Commerce Solutions recently was its agreement with Starbucks in November to take over processing of all its non-mobile payments.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: Commerce Solutions, e-commerce, Independent Sales Organization, ISO, merchant, merchant services, Mobile Payments, payment processing, visa
December 14th, 2015 by Elma Jane
Samsung Pay now supports 50 popular merchant gift cards as well as a gift card store that enables users to buy gift cards from supported merchants, within the Samsung Pay app. According to press release, more gift card options will be added to Samsung Pay in the coming months. Samsung Pay is bringing consumers an easier way to use gift cards. With Samsung Pay, you can easily carry your gift cards with you everywhere you go and not to have to worry about a card going unspent.
http://paymentweek.com/2015-12-14-samsung-pay-adds-support-for-popular-gift-cards-9116/
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Smartphone Tagged with: cards, Gift Cards, merchant
November 2nd, 2015 by Elma Jane
Apple’s mobile payment and digital wallet service will become available for American Express Card Members in Canada and Australia this year, with Spain, Singapore and Hong Kong to follow suit next year.
Card Members in these markets will be able to seamlessly add their small business, eligible consumer and corporate American Express Cards and pay on the go with their iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch devices in stores where American Express and contactless payments are accepted. They will also be able to pay using their iPad or iPhone in participating merchant apps.
Card Members paying with Apple Pay will continue to take advantage of the protection and customer service that American Express is known for. They will also receive real-time notifications and details for their purchases, as well as enjoy seamless connection to the Amex Mobile app for better account monitoring, servicing and access to rewards and offers.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: Card Members, contactless payments, Digital Wallet, merchant, mobile payment
October 30th, 2015 by Elma Jane
This is a question we encounter on a daily basis. Travel environments are unique in that your transactions are usually keyed, there is almost always a delayed delivery period, large ticket transactions are not uncommon since one cardholder may be paying for multiple tickets, they tend to be seasonal, with peak season months generating an unusual spike in their “average” monthly volume, and chargeback’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.
Being a part of a MO/TO (Mail Order/Telephone Order) or Keyed environment carries an increased risk of potential fraud or unauthorized use of a credit card. Since the credit card and cardholder are not present at the time of the transaction, the merchant has a limited ability to ensure the card is not being misused or that the proper AVS (address Verification Service) information is provided. NTC stresses the use of Credit Card authorization forms in order to obtain the correct credit card number, expiration date, billing address, and signature of the cardholder.
Travel merchants tend to have periods of increased volume based on peak travel seasons, whereas most other industries tend to have the same average monthly volume every month. This can generate spikes in volume on the merchant account that can trigger security concerns with the processor. Helping the merchant to analyze their volume trends and reporting the trends to the underwriters helps eliminate the security concerns when these spikes occur.
Large transactions which exceed the average sale amount for the merchant account can also trigger security concerns. Merchants who do not inform their merchant processor of large transactions prior to charging the credit cards can trigger security concerns and cause funding delays and reserve holds. Educating and clearly communicating with the merchant how to handle large tickets, volume spikes, and group bookings, prevents reserves, funding delays and/or other merchant account issues.
Another concern from the underwriters is the delayed delivery time frame. Delayed Delivery refers to the amount of time between accepting a credit card payment (whether a deposit or full purchase) and the time the cardholder travels. The client’s credit card is billed and the travel agent is paid however, the trip the travel agent was paid for doesn’t generally take place for 2 to 3 months. This leaves a lot of time for things to change, and should the client not travel for some reason, the first thing they do if the travel agent does not issue a refund, is claim a chargeback. NTC offers quite a few tips that can help protect the travel agent from chargeback situations.
Most merchants do not realize that merchant processors carry a financial risk on merchant accounts, and normally fund merchants prior to receiving payment from the client’s bank. Essentially, a merchant account is an unsecured loan. The merchant runs a transaction and at the end of the day they settle their batch. Generally the merchant will receive the funds for that batch in their bank account within 2 business days even though the travel arrangements the client paid for do not take place right away.
Here at National Transaction Corp, we specialize in understanding what makes your transactions, as a travel agent, unique in how they affect your merchant account. Educating the merchant and ensuring they have a good understanding of what makes travel merchant account high risk, is one of our specialties. We have established a special relationship with our underwriting department which facilitates our ability to approve your high risk travel merchant account.
Contact your travel merchant account specialist at NTC today.
Mark Fravel
National Transaction Corp
Founder and President
888-996-2273
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: address verification service, avs, card holder, card payment, chargeback, credit card, Mail Order/Telephone Order, merchant, merchant account, merchant processor, moto, transactions, travel agent, Travel environments, travel merchants
October 26th, 2015 by Elma Jane
End Of Life (EOL) terminals are terminals that are no longer produced by the manufacturer, but are still commonly in use today, some of these terminals may be considered obsolete.
If you’re a merchant having trouble with your Hypercom/Equinox 4200 series terminals and they have stopped working or you’re receiving an error message such as Security Error please call your service provider to discuss available options. This is an industry-wide outage that potentially affects all Hypercom/Equinox users.
Now’s a great time to upgrade If you haven’t already, you will need to adopt point-of-sale devices with NFC/contactless readers where you can accept Apple Pay, Android Pay and other contactless device in your business. National Transaction Terminals are EMV/NFC/Contactless readers capable! Give us a call now! at 888-996-2273 or visit our website www.nationaltransaction.com
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: Android Pay, Apple Pay, contactless readers, EMV, Equinox, hypercom, merchant, nfc, point of sale, terminal
October 20th, 2015 by Elma Jane
We’ve covered a lot about EMV, but what about improving security for online and Card-Not-Present transactions? That’s where 3-D Secure comes in.
3-D Secure allows a card holder to authenticate himself while making an online payment.
In a traditional credit card transaction, a payment request is presented to the issuing bank for authorization. The Issuing bank authorizes the transaction based solely on the funds available to the card holder.
With card present, the magnetic strip on the card can be read and a signature collected. This process has now been largely superseded by Chip and PIN which gives the card holder the opportunity to identify himself via a secret PIN code.
An E-commerce transaction is conducted online, without the possibility to access the card physically. Un-authorized usage and fraud are therefore more likely.
3-D Secure allows transactions to be conducted in safety online, greatly reducing the risk of fraud and chargebacks.
How 3-D Secure Works?
When a payment request arrives at the merchant or payment gateway, the Merchant Plug In (MPI) component is activated. The MPI talks to Visa or MasterCard to check if the card is enrolled for 3-D Secure. If the card is not enrolled, this means that either the bank that issued the card is not yet supporting 3-D Secure or it means that the card holder has not yet been registered for the service. If the card is enrolled, the MPI will redirect the card holder to the 3-D Secure authentication web page for the issuing bank; the card holder will then identify himself. The MPI will evaluate the reply from the bank and, if successful, allow the transaction to proceed for authorization. The transaction could still fail for lack of funds or other reasons but is more likely to be approved because of the authentication.
3-D Secure allows 3 domains to work together.
Domain 1: The card holder has the peace of mind that his card is not used without his authorization.
Domain 2: Merchants are protected from fraud and can provide the product and service without delay or extra costs.
Domain 3: Banks see that the transaction has been authenticated and are more likely to approve the transaction, to the convenience of the card holder.
Implementation of 3-D Secure:
Visa is called Verified by Visa.
MasterCard is called Secure Code.
Amex is called SafeKey.
JCB is called J/Secure.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, e-commerce & m-commerce, Internet Payment Gateway Tagged with: 3-D Secure, amex, card holder, card present, card-not-present, chargebacks, Chip and PIN, credit card, ecommerce, EMV, fraud, jcb, magnetic strip, MasterCard, merchant, online payment, payment gateway, pin code, visa
October 19th, 2015 by Elma Jane
If you’re a merchant accepting credit cards, you’re probably aware that things are changing. As of October 1st, 2015, merchants are now liable for any fraudulent activity that occurs as a result of non-EMV-compliant. For those Merchants who haven’t yet updated their POS terminal, you need to talk with your processor to get a new equipment.
Things Merchant should know to be EMV ready:
What is EMV Chip Cards? Chip Cards are standard bank cards that are embedded with a micro-computer chip. Some may require a PIN instead of a signature to complete the transaction process. The new cards will still have magnetic stripes, at least for the time being, so you technically can continue to process payments with the same old equipment you’ve been using for years. But by refusing to upgrade your hardware, you are taking on responsibility for any fraud that might have otherwise been prevented with the new technology.
How does EMV Chip Cards Work? Instead of swiping your card, you are going to do what is called card dipping, which means inserting your card into a terminal slot and waiting for it to process.
When a Chip Card or EMV Card is dipped, data flows between the card chip and the issuing financial institution to verify the card’s legitimacy and create the unique transaction data.
This process isn’t as quick as a magnetic-stripe swipe. It will take a little longer for that transmission of data.
What Must a Merchant Do? For merchants and financial institutions, the switch to EMV chip cards means adding new in-store technology and internal processing systems, and complying with new liability rules. Merchants who have not yet purchased new POS Terminal may be held liable for fraud as of October 1st, 2015. Implementing EMV technology isn’t an option, it’s a necessity. If you are one of those in the retail business or retailers using mobile payment devices who missed the Oct. 1st deadline, you are already at risk. Upgrading should be a top priority.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Point of Sale Tagged with: bank cards, chip cards, credit cards, data, EMV, financial institutions, magnetic stripes, merchant, mobile payment, PIN, POS terminal, processor, retail business, terminal slot
October 16th, 2015 by Elma Jane
With the EMV liability shift that takes effect in October 2015, how much you’ll be affected depends on how you process credit card payments.
For Card Present Transactions
If you use POS hardware or terminal that you need to swipe the credit card, then you’ll be facing the same EMV environment as retailers. October 1st is the start of the liability shift for fraudulent charges made with the card present transactions. The party who hasn’t made an investment in EMV security features will be liable.
For the card issuer, they need to invest in EMV security features, that’s why they came out with the chip cards, where all credit and debit cards have this security chips that are harder to counterfeit than magnetic strips.
For the merchant, they need to invest in EMV capable terminals or POS hardware that can take advantage of the card’s security chip.
If both parties have made the investment, then liability will be resolved in a similar manner to how it was before the shift. However, if only one party has adopted EMV technology, the party that didn’t make the investment will be held liable.
For Card Not Present Transaction (CNP)
If you process credit cards online, over the phone, or through an online payment gateway integrated, the new EMV standards won’t directly change the way you do business. You’ll still be processing EMV cards based on the customer’s credit card number.
Chances are Card-Not-Present transactions will experience an increase in fraud. Because of the EMV-technology in the Card Present Transaction, fraudster will likely turn their attention to the next target which is CNP,
but payment gateways and banks concerned about the vulnerabilities, will begin to adopt new standards to minimize their exposure.
If you’re processing CNP transactions stay up-to-date on the newest security developments, online security standards find more effective ways to navigate the new credit card security frontier.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Mail Order Telephone Order, Point of Sale Tagged with: banks, Card Not Present Transaction, card-present transactions, chip cards, cnp, credit card, debit cards, EMV, merchant, payment gateway, payments, POS, terminal
October 13th, 2015 by Elma Jane
It is difficult to believe that many businesses still do not accept credit or debit cards for payments, while most customers preferred using cards for the following reasons.
- Doesn’t want to carry cash.
- Security and Protection offered by card issuers.
- Desire to earn reward points.
Some of the many advantages for businesses that accept credit card payments include:
Easy and cost efficient – credit card processing has become a highly competitive industry. NTC offers the latest in EMV and NFC technologies that allows businesses to accept contactless payment like Apple and Android Pay. NTC integrates with most POS systems.
Essential for online sales – internet selling is growing. The Internet makes it possible for a small business in a remote location to offer its products to potential customers throughout the nation and even across the world, almost all of those transactions require a credit or debit card.
Increases revenue – people like the convenience and security of paying with a credit or debit card. In fact, 66 percent of point-of-sale transactions use credit, debit or gift cards.
Merchant services accelerate cash flow – credit card transactions process quickly, with proceeds generally available in a bank account within two days or less. That eliminates the time it normally takes checks to clear. It also reduces or eliminates billing and the time spent waiting to receive payment checks from customers.
Reduce transaction risks – Check fraud remains a major problem for U.S. businesses, 77% of businesses were victims of check fraud, only 34% experienced credit card fraud and 92% said they believe new EMV chip and pin, credit cards will significantly reduce fraud at the point of sale.
Setting up a merchant account for your business is as simple as contacting a merchant service provider. A merchant service provider process payments and make sure the money is appropriately withdrawn from a credit card account and placed into the business’s merchant account.
For more details about setting up an account give us a call now! at 888-996-2273.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: (POS) systems, Android Pay, Apple, Chip and PIN, contactless payment, credit card, debit cards, EMV, Gift Cards, merchant, merchant account, merchant service provider, merchant services, NFC technologies, payments, point of sale