U.S. Based Payment Processing Account

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

PIN vs. Signature: What’s the Difference?

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

What Makes Up The Rate That You’re Paying?

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

Qualified vs Non-Qualified Credit Card Rates

Qualified vs Non-Qualified credit card rates

The most common forms of rate structures for credit card rates are: 

2-Tiered: Qualified and Non-Qualified

3-Tiered: Qualified, Mid-qualified, or Non-qualified

Each and every transaction you accept is classified into one of the above and is the basis for the credit card rate you see on your statement.

As a general rule, qualified transactions are going to be “standard” cards;  without any consumer or corporate rewards associated with them. Accepted in the “standard” method expressed in your merchant processing agreement, this is where Card-Not-Present (CNP) setup comes into play.

Mid and Non-Qualified transactions include:

Rewards cards, keyed-in payments (for swipe accounts), AVS (Address Verification Service) does not match or is not performed, not all required fields are entered, or the payment was entered in a late batch. Ex. the payment was sent to the processor 48 hours or more past the time of the authorization.

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: card-not-present, consumer, credit card, merchant, payment, processor, transaction

THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY PAYMENT EXPERTS!

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.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: merchant, online, payment, payment processing, payment processor, travel, travel industry, Travel Merchant

ONLINE FRAUD

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

Surcharges and Convenience Fees

Surcharges and Convenience Fees:

A surcharge is a fee that is added to a card transaction, either as a set amount or a percentage of a transaction. Typically, used to cover the cost of the merchant service charge.

There are rules, exceptions and state laws to observe to ensure you are compliant.

At present there are surcharge bans in the following states:

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas. (Appeals are pending for California and Florida) 

Surcharge Rules: 

• Applicable only to credit card transactions, not debit or prepaid card transactions.
• The surcharge cannot be greater than the merchant’s average discount rate for that brand’s credit card transactions.
• Maximum surcharge allowed is 4%.
• Cardholder must be notified of the surcharge.
• Surcharge must be listed on the receipt as a line item and the primary payment amount must be processed together as one transaction.

A convenience fee is a fee charged for the “convenience” of being able to pay using an alternative payment channel outside the merchant’s customary payment channel.

Any merchant can charge a convenience fee IF the fee charged is for the legitimate convenience of being able to pay using a different payment channel than the merchant’s usual payment channel.

Example: Your business customary payment channel is face-to-face or card present and you provide an alternative payment channel, such as the option to pay by phone using a credit card, that could then charge a convenience fee along with the payment.

Mail Order/Telephone Order (MOTO) merchants and ecommerce merchants, whose customary payment channel is exclusively non face-to-face or card-not-present, are NOT permitted to charge convenience fees.

Convenience Fee Rules:

• Customer must be notified of the convenience fee prior to finalizing payment and given the opportunity to cancel.
• Payment must take place through an alternative payment channel.
• The fee can only be added to a non face-to-face transaction. Must be flat or fixed, regardless of the value of the payment due.
• The fee must be applied to all means of payment accepted through the alternative payment channel. Must be included in the total transaction amount.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, e-commerce & m-commerce, Mail Order Telephone Order Tagged with: card-not-present, Convenience Fees, credit card, debit, ecommerce, merchant, moto, payment, prepaid card, Surcharges, transaction

Understanding Interchange Rates & Fees

Understanding Interchange Rates & Fees

Credit card processing involves three separate cost components:  

For vendors who choose to accept this type of payment, from customers for goods or services.

The same cost components apply to debit cards. Only one cost component is negotiable.

The first component is an interchange fee, which is payable to the card holder’s issuing bank. It is a combination of a transaction volume percentage fee and a flat-rate transaction fee. Interchange fees are collectively agreed upon through Visa and MasterCard by a card’s issuing bank and are fixed costs.

Interchange fees take into consideration various information about a card. Types of cards include debit and credit, while categories of cards refer to commercial and reward cards. Processing methods include whether a card is swiped or manually keyed. Swiping a card is usually more economical for vendors.

The second component is an assessment fee, charged by the card’s brand holder. Brand holders include Visa, MasterCard and Discover. Assessment fees are also fixed costs. Additionally, Visa charges a monthly fee.

The final charge is known as a processing fee. Processing fees vary among processors and is negotiable. Vendors are charged a processing fee, which can cause a difference in cost from one vendor to another.

For your electronic payments need give us a call 888-996-2273

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: bank, credit card, customers, debit cards, electronic payments, payment, reward cards, transaction

PAYMENT ACCEPTANCE IS KEY

Payment acceptance is key to making more money.

Let’s talk about your money, and how to make more of it. Today money is taking on a new form. It’s digital, it’s electronic and it’s everywhere and anywhere 24/7/365.

Payment acceptance is key to making more money. You don’t make more money by not accepting a transaction, and making the experience convenient and safe to your customer can bring loyalty. 

Let’s break down a transaction.

Cash, but that would mean that the customer has to be in front of you. You could take checks, those are safe to mail, but then you don’t have your money until you drive to the bank and cash or deposit the check.

So how do we easily and securely transfer funds for a transaction? The answer lies in digital or electronic payments. Accepting credit cards, debit cards, ebt cards or even gift & loyalty cards and electronic checks. These provide secure and convenient ways to complete transactions for your customers. If you want to make more money, make it easy for customers to spend it while making it faster for you to receive it. That’s where a merchant account comes in.

A merchant account allows you to deposit funds directly into your bank account in as little as a few hours. Whether the customer swipes their card into your smartphone, calls it in over the phone or keys it into your web site, just having a merchant account can be a huge advantage over competitors.

It allows you to conduct transactions in more ways than cash or checks alone. Transactions are recorded automatically and can easily be reconciled for both customer and merchant. Most importantly it widens the opportunities to conduct sales to the widest customer audience possible.

No matter what you sell or how you sell it, the sale is only complete once the funds are transferred from one party to the other. 

It’s important to recognize your missed opportunities. Could accepting electronic payments help increase your revenue stream? We’re here to help you make more money, let us show you the many ways we can do just that. Let’s talk, 888-996-CARD (2273)

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Check Services, Electronic Payments, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Mail Order Telephone Order, Mobile Payments, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: credit cards, customer, debit cards, ebt cards, electronic checks, electronic payments, gift & loyalty cards, merchant account, payment, smartphone, transaction

ELECTRONIC PAYMENT SERVICES

Be with NTC and enjoy the full benefits of our Electronic Payment Services with high levels of service and security.

In addition, you can enjoy from e-commerce payment gateways to retail and restaurant solutions, business-to-business processing capabilities to electronic invoicing (NTC ePay).

NTC is offering a cost-effective credit card payment processing services that are very fast, secure and easy to integrate.

Get your Secure MerchantConnect Reporting Tool:

• Review and reconcile all of your transactions settle or batch settle and also much more.
• Create and save your custom reports that also can be imported or exported easily.
• Use our solution to turn any computer, laptop, smartphone or tablet into a processing center.
• Run & enjoy this on one or more devices to process credit card transactions with your merchant account.
• Peripherals allow swiping transactions and printing out receipts.

Our Merchant Cash Advance feature will help you very much to enjoy cash advance service. If your business accepts credit cards, getting cash for your business can be fast, simple and very easy.

Receive up to $150,000 per location in less than 10 business days—sometimes in as few as 72 hours.

National Transaction Merchant Cash Advance eliminates many hassles and delays common with bank loans.

Our Merchant Cash Advance builds on the strength of your business’ future credit and debit card sales, so a damaged personal credit history is not an immediate disqualifier.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: bank, cash advance, credit card, debit card, e-commerce, Electronic invoicing, electronic payment, gateways, loans, merchant account, payment, payment services, Security, smartphone, transactions