March 16th, 2016 by Elma Jane
More and more travel agents and tour operators are working in a card-not-present transaction that opens the door to travel agency credit card fraud. Travel Agencies are among the highest-risk merchants, as far as credit card processors are concerned. The reason is more likely the dispute and chargeback transactions.
So what should you do, whether you have just started your travel agency or have been in business for years to reduce risk?
First, understand the potential liability associated with selling airfares online before you even apply for a merchant account. Understanding risk exposure will help travel agency take adequate steps to minimize losses associated with chargebacks.
A good example is an airline sales agent. A travel agency or a tour operator merchant account may be liable for the entire amount of an airline ticket, if it is successfully disputed by a customer or if it was purchased with a stolen credit card.
To reduce risk, you will need to set up card acceptance policies and procedures to address the following issues:
- Authorization requests approved by an issuer. In most cases, airlines are liable for card-not-present transaction fraud, even when they were approved by the card issuer, because authorization approval is not a proof that the legitimate cardholder is making the purchase, nor is it a guarantee of payment.
- As a travel agency, your organization may not necessarily be a Visa or MasterCard merchant, subject to the Credit Card Associations’ rules and regulations. In most fraud-related transactions, the airline transfers liability to the travel agency it has partnered with as part of the contractual agreement. In such cases, your organization will bear the full financial responsibility.
Selecting a payment processor is a big step, choose one with experience in working with travel agencies and other high-risk merchants. Your processor must be able to assist you with your fraud prevention procedures.
Check out National Transaction Corp. we are the travel experts when it comes to electronic payments for travel agencies! Give us a call now at 888-996-2273 or visit us at www.nationaltransaction.com
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: card, card-not-present, cardholder, chargeback, credit card, customer, fraud, high-risk merchants, merchant account, merchants, payment, processors, risk, transaction, travel, travel agencies, travel agency, travel agents
March 9th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Lisa an independent Travel agent started her business in October 2006. She has been using her bank as their credit card processor and use to do a manual type-in process. When she learned about NTC while trying to shop online because she thinks it’s time for her to upgrade her system, Lisa found that NTC is not only a payment expert when it comes to travel, but a technology expert as well that met her business’s needs.
Lisa is using NTC e-Pay an electronic invoicing that has streamlined their credit card processing. The process not only has it saved money with competitive rates but most importantly it saves time. The level of assistance provided went above and beyond what she expected.
NTC e-Pay is for all types of merchants in a Card-Not-Present Transaction.
Consumer Acess – consumer will have access to their transaction details on their device. For travel merchants, the consumer can have access to their itinerary while on the go!
Customizable Pricing – when custom pricing becomes an issue, shopping carts, POS systems and booking engines tend to get really complicated.
Fast – saves time and unnecessary cost. Moves money efficiently and effectively. Simply email payment request that can be paid in 2 simple steps.
- The customer receives an email with a link to the payment page. Customer reviews invoice details and agrees to terms. The customer enters payment information.
- Process, transaction is completed company is paid. You get paid in minutes, not months.
Protects you from Chargeback – the customer is required to agree to your Refund Policy, Privacy Policy, Timing and Delivery Policy.
Secured – credit card information is processed securely. The customer is entering their credit card information without faxing or emailing credit card numbers.
The no shopping cart e-Commerce solution! – avoids the complexities of a shopping cart or integration into an accounting or POS.
Thinking of upgrading your system give us a call at 888-996-2273 and know more of our NTC e-Pay platform.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: bank, chargeback, consumer, credit card, Electronic invoicing, merchants, online, payment, POS, processor, shopping carts, transaction, travel, travel agent
February 17th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Helping customers protect and safeguard their payment data is one of NTC’s top priorities. Experts agree that a layered approach is the most effective way to combat evolving security threats and unauthorized access to payment data.
Implementation of best practices and the latest protection technology is needed to ensure of cardholder data protection from increasingly complex and evolving security threats.
EMV is a good start to enhance data security with card authentication, cardholder verification, and transaction authorization. But a multi-layered security approach that includes encryption and tokenization provides complete data protection to both merchants and their customers.
EMV alone is not enough because EMV authenticates the validity of the card and the cardholder, but it does not secure the data. With encryption and tokenization without EMV, as a merchant, you are liable for fraudulent transactions. Encryption and tokenization are a process or system to protect sensitive cardholder data but do not authenticate the data.
EMV is a key component to a multi-layered security approach. It secures the payment transaction with enhanced functionality, by combining EMV, encryption and tokenization merchants can have a complete data protection that they need.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa Tagged with: card, cardholder, customers, data, data protection, data security, EMV, encryption, merchants, payment, payment transaction, Security, tokenization, transaction
February 9th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Since the implementation of the EMV liability shift last year, consumers are still unsure whether to dip or swipe their payment cards at the checkout register, and transaction process itself is slower than a card swipe.
As the EMV process continues, can contactless register only help to make checkout process faster? With contactless register checkout only, consumers can just tap and pay with either card or mobile wallet.
Contactless like NFC is now a standard feature in most high-end smartphones, and most EMV-enabled point-of-sale terminals contain the necessary technology to accept contactless payments. So the idea of contactless register checkout only is something to test for some merchants in a certain retail sector.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Near Field Communication, Point of Sale Tagged with: cards, consumers, contactless, EMV, merchants, mobile, mobile wallet, nfc, payment, payment cards, point of sale, Smartphones, terminals, transaction
January 14th, 2016 by Elma Jane
We would like to let our customers know of additional benefits that are coming, in addition of the protection that chip card technology provides.
On January 24, Verifone will release a software update for your card terminal that will include two important new features:
- PIN Debit: With this feature, when your customer pays with a Visa, MasterCard or Discover chip debit card, your terminal will allow you to process it as a debit transaction. The update will change the prompts you’re used to seeing based on how the card is configured.
- Tip Adjust: If your business accepts tips, you will now have the option to add the tip at the time of sale or adjust it later, just like with non-chip card transactions. To use the tip adjust feature, simply skip the tip prompt during the sale.
Once the download is available, your card terminal will automatically receive the new application during its monthly update. For best results, leave your terminal on overnight to ensure it receives the update.
We appreciate your business and we are committed to providing you with solutions to ensure your ongoing transition to chip card acceptance is smooth.
For more information on terminal upgrade, please visit www.chipcardsuccess.com.
Start accepting credit card payments at your business with the following features on your new POS terminal: NFC + EMV PIN & Signature capable. Give us a call now at 888-996-2273 or visit our website www.nationaltransaction.com Payments Expert for Travel Merchants and more!
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Near Field Communication, Point of Sale, Travel Agency Agents, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: card, customers, EMV, MasterCard, merchants, nfc, payments, POS, transaction, travel, visa
October 27th, 2015 by Elma Jane
If there’s an unauthorized charge made on your credit card account, no money is taken from you. There’s no immediate financial hit while you straighten things out. But if someone gets hold of your debit card information, your bank account will be drained depending on the nature of the transaction.
Differences between a credit card and a debit card:
Debit cards fall under a different federal law than credit cards. Regulation E, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, says after two days, you could be liable for up to $50. After 2 days liability jumps to 500.00. Beyond 60 days, you could be liable for all unauthorized transactions. Otherwise, federal rules are on the bank’s side. Beyond 60 days, there’s likelihood you’ll never see your money again.
Federal law protects you from unauthorized charges made with your credit card number rather than with the actual card. In the event the credit card is in a thief’s hands, you’ll be liable, but only for a maximum of $50, provided you report the problem to the credit card company. However, in many cases a zero liability policy may kick in.
There are many things that can go wrong. Best solution is to pay close attention to your statements, online or via a mobile app, frequently. Report if there’s a malicious transaction.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security Tagged with: bank account, credit card, credit card company, debit card, Electronic Fund Transfer, transaction
July 23rd, 2015 by Elma Jane
The digital payments landscape is changing at a rapid pace. Consumers are finally adopting digital wallets, like Apple Pay and Android Pay.
The deadline for merchants to become EMV compliant, the global standard that covers the processing of credit and debit card payments using a card that contains a microprocessor chip, is quickly approaching.
Today’s consumers show an increasing desire to use new payment methods because they’re convenient. However, this presents a challenge to merchants, as many have not made the switch to the modern technology required to accept these methods since they’re generally hard-wired to resist technology changes.
Merchants must evolve with technology or they’ll find themselves unable to compete and in danger of losing customers.
Looking long term, the benefits of adopting new payment technology will outweigh the cost of transitioning. The fact is that new payment technology will reduce fraud risk due to counterfeit cards, provide greater insight into shoppers with sophisticated data and will ultimately lower costs for merchants over time.
The value merchants will get out of new payment methods:
Security
Investing in new payment technology will help reduce the risk of fraud. EMV, as an example. Beginning in October 2015, merchants and the financial institutions that have made investments in EMV will be protected from financial fraud liability for card-present fraud losses for both counterfeit, lost, stolen and non-receipt fraud.
EMV is already a standard in Europe, where fraud is on the decline. In turn, American credit card issuers are being pressured to replace easily hacked magnetic strips on cards with more secure “chip-and-PIN” technology. Europe has been using Chip, and Chip & Pin for years.
There’s nothing that can guarantee 100 percent security, but when EMV is coupled with other payment innovations, like tokenization that separate the customer’s identity from the payment, much of the cost and risk of identity theft is eliminated. If hackers get access to the token, all they get is information from one transaction. They don’t have access to credit card numbers or banking accounts, so the damage that can be done is minimal.
As card fraud rises, there’s a strong case to upgrade to a payment system that works with a smartphone or tablet and accepts both EMV chip cards and tokens.
Insight into Customer Behavior
In addition to added security, upgrading to new payment technology opens up a door to greater customer insights, improved consumer engagement and enables merchants to grow revenue by providing customers with receipts, rewards, points and coupons. By collecting marketing data at the point of sale a business can save on that data that they only dreamed of buying.
Investment Outweighs the Cost
New technology does have upfront costs, but merchants need to think about it as an investment that will grow top-line revenue. Beware of providers offering free hardware. Business can benefit by doing some research on the actual cost of the hardware.
By increasing security, merchants are further enabling mobile and emerging technologies, which will make shopping easier.
Customers will also be more confident in using their cards.
As an added bonus to merchants, most EMV-enabled POS equipment will include contactless technology, allowing merchants to accept contactless and mobile payments. This will result in a quicker check-out experience so merchants can handle more transactions.
Faster customer checkout.
The best system for is the one that makes the merchant as efficient and profitable as possible, as well as improves the customer checkout experience.
Retail climate is competitive, merchants have two choices:
Do nothing or embrace the fact that payments are changing. Transitions from old systems to new ones require work and risk, but merchants who use modern technology are investing in the future and will certainly outperform those who choose to do nothing.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Mobile Payments, Near Field Communication, Point of Sale Tagged with: American credit card, card, card present, chip, Chip and PIN, contactless technology, credit, data, debit card, digital payments, Digital wallets, EMV, EMV compliant, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, merchants, Mobile Payments, payment innovations, payment methods, payment technology, payments, point of sale, POS, provider's, smartphone, tablet, token, tokenization, transaction
May 19th, 2015 by Elma Jane
We’re now nearly midway through 2015, and payment security still remains a topic that stirs up great concern and confusion. While there is seemingly unanimous agreement on the need for heightened security, there’s uncertainty about those who are tasked with actually implementing it. Let’s dig deeper into EMV, P2PE and tokenization. How each will play a part in the next generation of securing payments, and how without properly working together they might just fall short.
Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) – A powerful guard against credit card skimming. EMV also uses cryptography to create dynamic data for every transaction and relies on an integrated chip embedded into the card.
Downside: For Independent Software Vendor (ISVs), the biggest downside of EMV is the complexity of creating an EMV solution. ISVs interested in certifying PINpads with a few processors face up to 22 months of costly work, and because there are a large number of pending certifications, processors will be backed up over the next few years.
It’s not impossible for an ISV to build EMV solutions in-house, but it’s difficult and unnecessary when there are plug-and-play EMV solutions available. These solutions include pre-packaged and pre-certified APIs that remove most of the need for research, the complexity and the burden of time and cost.
Point to Point Encryption (P2PE) – Secures devices, apps and processes using encrypted data with cryptographic keys only known to the payment company or gateway from the earliest point of the transaction, from tech-savvy criminals, jumping at their chance to intercept POS systems and scrape the memory from Windows machines.
How does a key get into card reader? Through an algorithm called derived unique key per transaction (DUKPT), or “duck putt.” DUKPT generates a base key that’s shared with device manufacturers securely, where output cardholder data is rendered differently each time a card is swiped, making it impossible to reverse engineer the card data. P2PE not only benefits the cardholders, but also the ISVs and merchants. PA-DSS certification was designed to address the problems created with cardholder data which is not encrypted.
Downside: P2PE isn’t cheap if an organization wants to do it in-house. The secure cryptographic device needed to manage the keys, Hardware Security Module (HSM), can cost $30-40,000 but when it’s built out, that total cost can jump to $100,000.
TOKENIZATION – The best way to protect cardholder data when it’s stored is using tokenization, a process which the PCI Security Standards Council describes as one where the primary account number is replaced with a surrogate value a token. For merchants dealing with recurring billing, future payments, loyalty programs and more, tokenization is critical.
Downside: Tokenization doesn’t prevent malware that’s remotely installed on POS devices. It’s possible, as seen with recent retail card breaches, for data to be stolen before it is tokenized. That’s why it’s essential to group tokenization together with P2PE and EMV to offer optimal security.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: (POS) systems, account number, billing, card, card breaches, card reader, cardholder, cardholder data, chip, credit card, data, DSS, EMV, EuroPay, gateway, Independent Software Vendor, ISVs, MasterCard, merchants, p2pe, payment company, payment security, payments, PCI, PINpads, point-to-point encryption, POS devices, processors, Security, security standards council, token, tokenization, transaction, visa
May 14th, 2015 by Elma Jane
The way customers Pay In Stores Is Changing.
Chip cards are here to provide advanced security with every transaction. Accepting chip cards could be as simple as changing your payment terminal.
What do you need to know about Chip Card and EMV? Chip cards are payment cards that have an embedded chip, which offers advanced security when you use the card to pay in store. Chip cards are based on a global card payment standard called EMV (Europay, MasterCard and VISA) currently used in more than 80 countries.
Why Is it More Secured? Chip card transactions offer you advanced security for in store payments by making every transaction unique, and, more difficult to counterfeit or copy. If the card data and the one-time code are stolen, the information cannot be used to create counterfeit cards and commit fraud.
How do you know if a customer has a Chip Card? The customer’s card will have chip on the front of it, magnetic stripe remains on the back.
How to use Chip Card at the POS? Swipe the card as they normally would and follow the prompts. If the terminal is chip-enabled, it will prompt them to insert it instead. The customer should insert their card with chip toward terminal, facing up. The chip card should not be removed until the customer is prompted.
Customer will provide their signature or PIN as prompted by the terminal.
Some transactions may not require either.
When the terminal says the transaction is complete, the customer can remove their card.
Chip-enabled terminals will still accept magnetic stripe card payments for customers who do not have a chip card.
What does a chip-enabled terminal look like? They have all of the features you are used to with a payment terminal, with the addition of a slot for the customer to insert their card. The slot is typically located at the bottom or the top of the payment terminal.
How will you know if a terminal accepts chip card? During the transition to chip, customers are being told to swipe their card as they normally would and follow the prompts. If the terminal is chip-enabled, it will prompt them to insert it instead. If you have chip-enabled terminals, you can tell your customer to insert their card for a chip transaction, if a customer has a chip card.
How can you get a chip-enabled terminal? Contact your acquirer or merchant service provider.
Show your customers that you care about their information security by making the move to chip. This will ensure that your business and your customers are protected from fraud. Start accepting chip cards!
You may be liable for fraud if you don’t make the change from chip terminal. Starting October 2015, rules are changing. Merchants that accept chip will be protected from fraud losses resulting from in store counterfeit magnetic stripe card transactions just as you are today. However, liability will shift from issuers to merchants if their payment terminals are not chip-enabled for in store transactions. Fraud liability for lost or stolen cards varies by payment network. Contact your acquirer or payment services providers for more information.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Point of Sale Tagged with: card data, cards, chip cards, Chip-enabled terminals, data, EMV, EuroPay, magnetic stripe, MasterCard and VISA, merchant service provider, Merchant's, payment, payment cards, payment network, payment terminal, POS, Security, terminal, transaction
May 12th, 2015 by Elma Jane
Our company’s goal is to make our customer happy. Our Merchant is very important with us. At National Transaction it’s all about our customer service. Yet many customers would rather than not contact a company for support, and this is especially true in the tech world. Customer finds the support experience as frustrating and time-wasting exercise.
We know this is true because we are customers ourselves. We’ve all felt that palpable sense of dread when we have to call a toll-free support number, expecting a massive, circular phone tree followed by a seemingly endless wait, and possibly a clueless rep when (if!) we finally do reach a human being.
It doesn’t have to be that way, at National Transaction we manage customer support delivery because we know we have an obligation to make it work. NTC’s teamwork-focused strategy and effective application of technology and data, can help our customer service do their jobs better.
How it works:
Apply lessons learned to continuously improve service – Some issues customers raise are a one-off, but many times, patterns emerge that can deliver insights on how the company could improve service for everyone.
It can be difficult for a single agent or manager to identify patterns, which is why a customer support platform with robust reporting capabilities is crucial to enable continuous service improvement.
In a crowded marketplace, excellence in customer support can be a key differentiator for a business. When customers reach out for support, they’re usually already stressed out about something that’s not working as expected. Far too often, their stress level increases while they’re attempting to get help, due to poorly designed business processes.
If your customers are stressed out, you can change that by taking a new approach. Make sure you know who they are when they reach out, and allow them to contact you on their own terms. Access your company’s collective expertise to quickly resolve the customer’s problems.
Be honest with the customer – A good customer support agent really does want to make things right for the customer, and that’s admirable. However, it’s important to avoid making commitments you can’t keep, which will serve only to increase the customer’s dissatisfaction in the long run.
Always be honest with your customers. If you can’t solve their problem immediately, give them an accurate time frame for a resolution, and let them know what steps you’re taking to address the issue. Record the commitment on a customer database so colleagues are up-to-date on your activities.
Be honest about what you can and cannot do, and take a look at the big picture, so you can improve service not only for the customer on the line but for everyone else.
Give customers multiple channels to access help – Customers have unique needs and individual preferences, Give them choices.
Know who your customers are – There are few among us who haven’t experienced the frustration of a poorly designed phone tree and the indignity of being shuffled from agent to agent and asked for our name, account number, product type and current service issue over and over again. Stop doing that to your customers.
Deploy a technology platform that incorporates a customer database with product and inventory information. That way, you’ll know who your customers are and what products they use when they call, and if you have to transfer them to another agent for help, the next agent will have that information too.
Use teamwork to solve customer issues – Chances are, someone in your company is capable of solving any problem a customer brings to the support team, but that person might not be on the phone. That’s why collaboration is so important.
There are software solutions that make collaborating across business units simple, and enable agents to view notes about past customer issues for clues to solving current problems. This not only helps your company solve the problem at hand, but also allows you to manage the entire relationship.
By following these steps, you can reduce your customers’ stress level and your own.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, nationaltransaction.com Tagged with: account, customer service, customer support, data, database, merchant, software, transaction
