Low Value Payments Platform In US

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

Virtual Merchant (Element, Services and Benefits)

Virtual Merchant

A virtual merchant is a website that sells goods and services to the public via online transactions with debit and credit card processing. The end result is a fully online experience where consumers can virtually visit a store to browse goods, purchase them fully online and receive them in the mail several days later, all from the comfort of your personal computer.

Virtual Merchant Element

Virtual merchants are made up of multiple features that basically make a website into an online store. Online stores provide e-commerce capabilities in the form of processing payments for orders and then shipping the goods or services either digitally or physically. Some brick and mortar companies may create a Web presence that only describes the store or displays the goods it sells, but they may not sell anything online.

Virtual merchants are a different breed from simple informational websites, utilizing a merchant account to create a secure online storefront. Merchant accounts create a contract between the store and online credit card processing companies. As part of this merchant account agreement, the virtual merchant pays the processor vendor a percentage of each transaction made via the online store. In some cases, this fee comes out to a monthly rate with a set per-transaction fee.

Virtual Merchant Services

Many virtual merchant services exist that cater to both online and offline business presences, though many that specialize in online retail offer more features and functionalities. These service providers offer virtual terminals to create a fully-functional payment gateway for processing purchases and creating a fluid shopping experience. Companies like National Transaction Corporation stand out as among the most popular of options due to their low merchant account fees and comprehensive virtual merchant services.

Benefits of Virtual Merchant

Virtual merchants expand the functionality of a website beyond a simple informational resource into a usable storefront. As is the case with most any type of online service, a virtual merchant service will help reduce overall work and costs associated with creating an online storefront, freeing you up to run your business as it was meant to be.

Using virtual merchant services for your website can benefit business in the following ways:

1. Easily integrates with your existing website for brand continuity

2. Facilitates more positive sales experiences

3. Improves customer service levels

4. Reduces administration and maintenance times for online retail websites

5. Removes geographic barrier from consumers, allowing for national and international sales

Secure information

Making each transaction as secure as possible becomes a main selling point of any company trying to build credibility through a Web presence. Virtual merchant services become an ideal solution as they offer all the necessary security measures to protect and keep private each buyer’s payment information.

The end result becomes that the payment process is protected through secured-socket layering (SSL) encryption to prevent data interception during an order, and account information is stored in multi-tiered firewall protection.

Straightforward online ordering

The most important part of any online purchasing experience is the ease of the ordering process. Through the use of features like a shopping cart, purchasing all items in the cart and creating an account to remember purchasing information all contributes to customer retention. When a consumer chooses to buy their goods online, a typical order processing form will entail entering credit card and billing address information as well as a shipping address and shipping options.

Each of these functionalities is ultimately governed through virtual merchant software to ensure a seamless and painless experience. The software is often available in one of two formats, either hosted or in-house. As a hosted solution, the virtual merchant service maintains the payment portal and allows you to edit its look and essentially create your store on their servers and databases. As an in-house solution, you install the software onto your own website servers and integrate the merchant application into the existing website. Both offer inherent benefits from customization to reliable management, but it ultimately depends on a company’s overall needs.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Mobile Point of Sale Tagged with: credit card processing, debit and credit card processing, digitally, e-commerce, hosted, low merchant account fees, merchant account, online retail websites, online transactions, payment gateway, payment process, per-transaction, processing payments, processing purchases, processor, secure, store, storefront, transaction, virtual merchant, virtual terminals, virtually, website

The Most Secure Way To Process To Date – Point-To-Point Encryption

November 7, 2013 –  Payment Card Industry (PCI) Council’s recent acceptance of the world’s first Point-To-Point Encryption-validated solution is great news for both acquirers and merchants, and will aid in reducing merchant scope and increasing business security worldwide. If your P2PE know-how is a little spotty, here are the basics.

What is P2PE?

Point-To-Point Encryption (P2PE) is the combination of hardware and processes that encrypts customer credit/debit card data from the point of interaction until it reaches a merchant solution provider’s environment for processing. Because card data is immediately encrypted as the card is swiped (or dipped), it prevents clear-text information from residing on the payment environment. Encrypted card data is then transferred to, decrypted by, and processed through the solution provider processor who is the sole holder of the decryption key.

In a POS environment, merchants often store decryption keys on their backend servers. Bad idea. If a cybercriminal hacks into that environment, they not only have access to the encrypted card numbers, but the decryption key as well. Hacker jackpot. Many question the difference between P2PE and typical point of sale (POS) encryption.

The reason P2PE is arguably the most secure way to process is because merchants don’t have access to decryption keys. If a hacker breaches a merchant using a validated P2PE solution, he/she will only recover a long string of useless encrypted card numbers with no way to decode them.

Why use P2PE?

Basically, P2PE increases data security and has the ability to make a merchant’s job of reaching PCI compliance easier. The main point of using a P2PE-valiated solution is to significantly lessen the scope of security efforts through PCI Data Security Standard (DSS) requirement and P2PE Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) reduction. Compared to the 80+ questions required of mainstream merchant SAQs, the P2PE-HW SAQ only requires merchants to answer 18 questions.

Are all P2PE solutions created equal?

Answer is no. Many P2PE solution vendors claim their solution reduces scope, but in order for a merchant to qualify, they must select only P2PE-validated solutions listed on the PCI Council’s website.

To get P2PE solutions and applications listed on the approved website, solution provider processors must go through a rigorous testing process performed by a qualified P2PE Qualified Security Assessor (QSA). P2PE QSAs help entities thorough the 210-page document of P2PE requirements, testing procedures, and controls required to keep cardholder data secure – a task which only a few companies in the world can do.

As of this post, the only P2PE hardware solution approved by the PCI Council is European Payment Services’ (EPS) Total Care P2PE solution, validated by P2PE QSA SecurityMetrics. A number of other P2PE solutions are currently undergoing the review process and will be added to the list once approved.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Credit Card Security, Electronic Payments, Merchant Services Account, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Point of Sale, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: acceptance, acquirers, backend, cardholder, credit/debit, cybercriminal, data, decode, decrypted, decryption, DSS, encrypted, encryption, encrypts, hacker, hardware, key, Merchant's, p2pe, p2pe-hw, Payment Card Industry, PCI Council, point of sale, point-to-point, POS, process, processed, processes, Processing, processor, provider's, saqs, secure, solution, transferred, validated

Mobile payments still not customer preferred

Reflecting recent research that concludes mobile payment adoption remains low, Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) issued results from a survey that confirm consumers prefer banking applications other than payments for their mobile devices.

While reinforcing the dominance of debit and credit cards as payment mechanisms, the TSYS 2013 Consumer Payment Choice Study revealed that mobile devices are used as a tool for ancillary financial services, such as checking account balances and accessing discounts and rewards.

“For now, the hype largely remains hope for mobile from a payments standpoint,” the survey said. “On a relative basis, consumers would overwhelmingly prefer to have the ability to use their smartphone to monitor transaction activity or prevent fraud versus using their mobile phone as a form factor in a transaction.”

Columbus, Georgia-based processor TSYS found in its third annual survey that, out of 1,000 consumers surveyed online in the summer of 2013, 40 percent of respondents were interested in using mobile devices to instantly stop illegitimate transactions. Additionally, 37 percent indicated that the ability to view in real-time the transactions made with debit and credit cards was also an important feature.

Receiving instant offers and promotions from stores being visited (33 percent); temporarily blocking and unblocking purchases using certain bankcards (29 percent); and paying for purchases using reward/loyalty points (28 percent) rounded out the top payment-related uses for smartphones.

At the bottom of the scale was to pay for purchases with mobile wallets (25 percent) and to use credit or debit card-funded prepaid accounts for the same purpose (22 percent). “Industry observers regard mobile payments as an assumed eventuality,” TSYS stated. “Our survey results indicate that consumers are presently more interested in increased non-payment functionality on their mobile device.”

But the processor remains optimistic about the promise of mobile payments. “We believe that as the infrastructure matures and the ability to use mobile payments becomes more widespread, this trend will change,” TSYS said.

Prepaid undermarketed?

In addressing the role of prepaid cards in the payment mix, TSYS expressed surprise that prepaid cards are apparently not being marketed aggressively by financial institutions. The processor noted that major banks jumped into the prepaid card industry in 2012 to offer general-purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid cards as checking account alternatives.

But TSYS found that just over 10 percent of survey respondents indicated they had received GPR card offers from their banks. TSYS attributed that low percentage to the fact that the survey respondents were by default credit and debit card users, while GPR cards are primarily targeted to individuals without access to credit or debit cards.

Regardless, survey respondents aged 35 and younger accounted for 64 percent of those who had received such offers. “It could be that the younger demographic on average represents a less profitable checking relationship for banks, or that banks perceive them to be more receptive to the offering,” TSYS said.

Steady goes debit and credit

Consumer payment preferences in 2013 remain relatively unchanged from previous years, according to TSYS. Debit still trumps credit as the preferred payment instrument overall, with both methods being favored by every eight of 10 survey respondents. Debit is still the clear winner when it comes to supermarket shopping and gas purchasing, while credit is preferred when dining out and shopping in department stores. But when it comes to fast food cravings, cash is still king.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, and also consistent with TSYS’ 2012 report, only 11 percent of respondents said being able to set up text message alerts for account balances and transactions was most valuable, and a mere 6 percent valued the ability to register payment cards in mobile wallets.

However, credit tops debit for online purchases, TSYS said. Further of note is that PayPal Inc.’s digital wallet service rivals debit online, with both payment methods favored by roughly one-fifth of respondents. But for small-dollar purchases, like coffee and donuts, cash remains the preferred payment vehicle, despite innovative mobile schemes offered by companies like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts.

Posted in Credit card Processing, Digital Wallet Privacy, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Internet Payment Gateway, Mail Order Telephone Order, Merchant Services Account, Mobile Payments, Smartphone Tagged with: account, adoption, applications, banking, checking, consumers, credit cards, debit, devices, discounts, financial services, form factor, general-purpose, gpr, infrastructure, low percentage, mechanisms, mobile, mobile wallets, non-payment, offers, online, payment, payment related, phone, prepaid, processor, profitable, promotions, real-time, reloadable, reward/loyalty, rewards, smartphone, transaction, tsys

Credit Card Processing: October 2013 Rate Changes, EMV Terminals

Good time for merchants to start noting how their provider is handling card company fee changes as well as any future rate and fee changes, especially if your contract will expire in 2014.

October 2013 Rate and Fee Increase Notices

Visa, MasterCard, and Discover Credit card companies generally make rate and fee changes in the April and October time frame, although they have also made changes at other times of the year. Inevitably, some banks and merchant account providers seem to take advantage of the card company changes by increasing or adding their own mark-ups and by pointing too much of the blame at the card companies for the increases. This time around isn’t much different than others and merchants have sent me some rate and fee increase notices that go well beyond any card company changes.

In understanding how your provider is handling the latest card company changes, keep in mind that there are two important changes for October 2013:

Discover introduced a .25 cent increase to all transactions.

MasterCard introduced a .25 cent increase to certain transactions.

Below are two examples of recent notices on the October changes. Understanding the above .25 cent changes, how would you rate these providers?

Notice 1: 0.02 Percent + $0.02 Increase

“MasterCard, Visa and Discover typically evaluate the Interchange rates and fees twice per year most often in April and October. Based on recent changes as well as analysis from other network providers and vendors, the following changes to your merchant account are being implemented and will be reflected in your merchant statements for transactions processed beginning in October:

 Interchange Plus Merchants: Percentage charged in excess of Interchange will increase by 2/100ths of a percent; and

Transactions Fees for all authorized transactions will increase by $0.02/transaction.”

Tiered Pricing Merchants: Qualified Rate for Visa, MasterCard and Discover will increase 2/100th of a percent;

Notice 2: 0.40 Percent Increase

“Effective October 1, 2013, the discount rates charged for your Visa, MasterCard, and Discover (as applicable) credit card and non-PIN (signature) debit card transactions will increase by 0.400%. We have increased these charges based on a variety of factors, including recent Card Organization changes and our own pricing considerations. This change will appear beginning with your October month-end statement you will receive in November.”

Your Statements Now go back to the statements you received in August and September or any notices you received via mail and read the notice your provider posted for these changes. Did the provider announce the actual change or did it state something quite differently? If it’s the latter, make sure it adjusts pricing accordingly. Also, make sure you monitor your rates, fees, and notices going forward to determine the best long-term course of action. If the provider needs you to extend your contract to correct its overcharges, then there are probably bigger pricing issues and more assertive action required by you to investigate your overall processing cost.

EMV Capable Terminals

To reduce fraud in the U.S., the card companies are introducing cards that have a chip as well as the current magnetic strip. Chip cards are prevalent outside the U.S. and EMV — Europay, MasterCard, and Visa — established the technical standards for processing them.

Brick-and-mortar merchants should understand about EMV.

Brick-and-mortar merchants should have equipment capable of processing EMV chip card transactions by October 2015 as certain fraud liability will shift from the bank that issued the card to the merchant. The equipment may be a terminal or a chip card reader attached to the terminal or POS system.

Certain credit card transactions will require a PIN number instead of a signature similar to PIN debit transactions today. Also, like the current PIN debit devices, each chip reader will need to be encrypted and the encryption code is processor specific. Therefore, if a merchant has an encrypted device, changing processors may be more costly as the encryption cannot simply be downloaded over the phone or Internet as is done with terminal reprogramming now. Instead, the encrypted device will need to go back to the provider for encryption or swapped with an encrypted device or a new encrypted device may be needed.

“EMV capable” can mean very little. In fact, if you have purchased or leased an “EMV capable” terminal it may simply mean that it has the slot or contactless connection to place the chip card and the terminal may have the capability to eventually be encrypted to actually process chip cards. However, the cost and time required to do so could be prohibited.

However, merchants should be planning to have equipment capable of processing chip card by October 2015. In fact, they should be planning to have the equipment capable of processing chip cards well ahead of the October 2015 — perhaps as early as late 2014, to ensure receiving it in time.

If a merchant’s existing terminal fails or is no longer supported, the merchant should inquire about EMV terminals as a replacement. However, ask if it comes fully encrypted and capable of actually processing an EMV transaction or if it will need the encryption later. Right now, the answer is likely that the terminal will need encryption later. If so, the merchant should obtain the time frame, process, and cost for enabling the terminal to actually process chip cards. This should be in writing. Remember, new terminals cost the provider around $150 to $250 and the encryption may be an extra $25 to $50.

Make sure you are comfortable with your provider and have negotiated the best processing cost before changing to encrypted EMV equipment.

Merchants do not need EMV terminals today and very few providers actually have terminals that can process an EMV chip card transaction right now.

 

Posted in Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: authorized, banks, chip card, contactless, cost, credit-card, debit, devices, Discover, EMV, encrypted, fee, increase, interchange, MasterCard, merchant account providers, network, overcharges, percent, percentage, PIN, POS, pricing, processor, prohibited, rate, rate and fee, statements, terminal, transactions, visa

National Transaction Card Reader Terminals and Models.

National Transaction Corporation’s services will work with any existing (Non Proprietary) Terminal. NTC can reprogram an existing terminal as well as service and provide supplies for any terminal.

Below are the following Terminals and Model Type:

1. Hypercom – They produce electronic payment processing hardware and software for a wide range of industries. In 2009 Hypercom co-founded founding the Secure POS (Point Of Sale) Vendor Alliance, a non profit organization created by Hypercom, Ingenico and VeriFone to increase awareness of and improve payment industry security. Hypercom entered into a merger agreement with VeriFone, which closed August 4^th, 2011.

Hypercom Machines: T7P –  T7Plus –  T4100 – T4210 – T4220 IP Terminal. For Precise Detail of the machines please check our website. www.nationaltransaction.com

 2. Ingenico – is a leading provider of payment solutions, with over 20 million terminals deployed in more than 125 countries. Ingenico is a worldwide company, whose business is to provide the technology involved in secure electronic transactions.  Its traditional business is based around the manufacture of point of sale payment terminals, but it now also includes complete payment solutions and related services. In 2008, after the merging with SAGEM Sécurité, Ingenico decided to close its historical R&D centre in Barcelona. This centre has developed Ingenico’s most successful family of EFTPOS (Electronic funds transfer point of sale). More than three million units sold worldwide in 2007. Ingenico acquired German payment processor Easycash in 2009. In 2011, Ingenico integrated Pennies, The electronic charity box, into one of their market leading mobile Chip and PIN payment terminals, allowing retailers to ‘switch on’ the Pennies solution so their customers can add a micro-donation to their bill when paying by card. As of 2012, over 15 million Ingenico terminals are deployed across 125 countries, with the Ingenico Aqua 50 being their best selling POS (Point Of Sale) terminal.

Ingenico Terminals: iPP220 – iPP320USB – iCT220 PIN Pad – iCT250 CounterTop – Agua PCI – i5100 Dial – i7780 HandHeld i778oM – i7780 Versatile Base – 7770 Intel Base. For Precise Detail of the terminal please check our website. www.nationaltransaction.com

 3. VeriFone – is a global provider of technology for electronic payment transactions an international producer and designer of electronic payment solutions and value-added services at the POS (Point Of Sale). VeriFone provides merchant-operated, consumer-facing and self-service payment systems for the financial, retail, travel & hospitality, petroleum, government and healthcare industries. The company’s solutions are utilized by merchants, processors and acquirers in developed and emerging economies worldwide.

VeriFone Models: OMNI 3730LE/VX510LE N – OMNI 3750 4MEG DUAL COM – VX 510 6 MB DUAL COM 12MB – VX570 DUAL COM 6MB WITH SMART CARD – VX610 CDMA (AVAILABLE FOR SPRINT AND VERIZONE). For Precise Detail of the models please check our website. www.nationaltransaction.com

 

Posted in Credit card Processing, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, Electronic Payments, Near Field Communication, Point of Sale Tagged with: 15100 Dial, 7770 Intel Base, acquirers, aqua 50, Aqua PCI, Chip and PIN, eftpos, electronic, electronic funds transfer point of sale, financial, healthcare, hospitality, hypercom, i7780, iCT220 PIN Pad, IP, iPP220, iPP320USB, mobile, Omni 3730LE, Omni 3750, paying, payment, point of sale, processor, retailers, Security, T4100, T4210, T4220, T7P, T7Plus, travel, VX 510, VX510LE, VX570, VX610

Payment Card Networks Operations Info

A payment card transaction involves some or all the following participants:

Acquirers or Payment Processors that market card acceptance services to merchants, obtain transaction authorization, and clear and settle card transactions for the merchant.

Consumers or Cardholders that use payment cards to purchase goods and services. Issuers that market and issue payment cards to consumers and set the terms and conditions for their use; Merchants that accept payment cards for the purchase of goods and services; Network Operator that oversees the system and coordinates the transmission of information and the transfer of funds between issuers and acquirers.

Since the network operators revenue depends on the value of transactions that flow through its network, it tries to ensure the widest possible acceptance among consumers and merchants. In order to increase use and acceptance, the networks use marketing techniques to gain brand recognition, create products that encourage consumer usage and merchant acceptance, and set fees and impose rules on system participants including:

Interchange Fees  they are set by the network but are generally paid by acquirers to issuers and are usually reflected in the merchant service fee paid by merchants to acquirers. Interchange fees can be calculated either as a flat fee per transaction, as a percentage of the transaction value, or a combination of both.

Membership Requirements MasterCard and Visa require issuers and acquirers to be regulated financial institutions or be sponsored by a regulated financial institution. Interac also requires issuers to be regulated financial institutions.

Network Switch Fees these fees are charged to acquirers and/or issuers, and are set and collected by the network. They can be calculated either as a flat fee per transaction or as a percentage of the transaction value.

Merchant Acceptance Rule Includes:

No Discrimination Rules which prohibit merchants from encouraging consumers to consider (or steering consumers toward) lower cost payment instruments.

No Surcharge Rules which prevent merchants from charging consumers a fee for the use of a credit card rather than some other credit card or method of payment;

Honour-All-Cards Rules which require merchants that accept any of the networks credit cards to accept all of that networks credit cards (core, high spend and premium high spend in the case of MasterCard), regardless of the applicable interchange fee. The networks have also expanded this rule to include debit cards (i.e. if a merchant accepts one debitcard, they must accept all of that networks debit cards).

With four-party card networks, such as Visa and MasterCard, the card networks seek to maximize the transactions following through them by attacting more card issuers. The networks do this by offering the prospect of interchange income to issuers, thus creating an incentive to increase interchange as much as the market (i.e. the parties paying the interchange fees) will bear.

The ability to use credit cards and debit cards to purchase goods and services rests largely on a behind-the-scenes architecture of procedures, rules and technology that govern how funds and information are transferred between people and institutions in the process of settling accounts, i.e., of ensuring that merchants that sell goods and services get paid by the people who purchase them.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments Tagged with: accept, account, acquirer, authorization, cardholder, credit card, debit, fees, interchange, issuer, merchant service, merchants, network, payment, processor, Rates, transaction

National Transaction Corporation and Trams Back Office

National Transaction Corporation and Trams Back Office

As National Transaction Corporation Executives get to meet Sabre’s key people in Miami FL let’s know more about what Trams Back Office one of their respective products can offer.

Travel and transportation industry is evolving quickly, agility is needed in adapting to the changing customer needs. In addition to providing the right services for customers and for business.

With Trams Back Office, part of the Sabre Red travel solution, your capable to easily monitor, manage and grow your business. Trams provides right-size, right-price information technology (IT) solutions and is one of the most popular back office accounting and reporting system on the market today. It’s easy to learn and use, helping you control costs with extreme efficiency.

In addition, Trams Back Office seamlessly works withClientBase to deliver a complete solution incorporating GDS integration, CRM, General Ledger, and more.

Special Features

Credit Card Merchant – process your merchant credit card service fees and other transactions through Trams Back Office.Trams and ClientBase Products and Services has formed alliances with credit card processing companies, to bring you competitive rates and an easy-to-use interface to process agency merchant credit card service fees and other transactions through Trams Back Office.

The Credit Card (CC) Merchant Reconciliation under Payments|Reconciliation|CC Merchant Reconciliation takes the CC Merchant payments from Trams Back Office (TBO) verifies them, and sends them electronically to your credit card processor. Your credit card transactions are then processed and sent back to Trams Back Office, where TBO clears the processed items and creates the payment and the journal entry to record the activity in the General Ledger.

Add Ons

Trams Crystal Reports – measure effectiveness and efficiency by running pre-designed Crystal Reports within the Trams Back Office system. Its FREE!! Trams Crystal Reports is an add-on to ClientBase and/or Trams Back Office that offers you the ability to run pre-designed Crystal Reports in addition to those offered within the Trams Back Office and ClientBase products. TCR10 is the most recent version of Trams Crystal Reports that is integrated with Trams Back Office and ClientBase. When TCR10 is installed, you will be able to launch Trams Crystal Reports from your desktop or in Trams Back Office, using the TCR Viewer under Reports.

 IC/Host Agency Export Utility- allows Independent Contractors to share invoice data with their Host Agency’s Trams Back Office system for FREE!! Agencies today are choosing to change the way they make their bookings. Many are dropping out of ARC/BSP and booking air tickets through a Host Agency. They may also book some or all of their Cruise & Tour business with a Host Agency, or continue doing those bookings as they always have. These Independent Contractor (IC) Agents working through a Host Agency, may still operate a Store Front location, or move into a “home based” environment. This utility is designed for independent contractors (IC) and host agencies to share data more efficiently. IC’s use the host’s GDS create invoices marked with their own IC code. These invoices are then interfaced into the host’s Trams Back Office (TBO) database. This utility gives the Host the ability to transfer these interfaced invoices to the IC for importing into their IC copy of Trams Back Office. To receive records from a host agency using this utility, an IC must have a copy of Trams Back Office. The utility also allows IC’s that use ClientBase to create invoices, to export those invoices and share them with the host agency.

Over View – Trams Back Office is a locally installed solution that allows agency to effectively manage entire accounting and reporting process with their Free Special Features and Free AddOns.

Posted in Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, Merchant Services Account, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: agencies, agency, agency's, air, Back Office, clientbase, credit card merchant, credit-card, host, payment, processor, reporting, Sabre Red, solution, store front, tickets, Trams, transportation, travel