April 28th, 2015 by Elma Jane
The Southeast Acquirers Association held its 14th annual conference April 20 to 21, 2015, in New Orleans with a balanced blend of exhibits, entertainment and presentations. It’s a two-day event which includes networking, presentations, seminars and entertainment.
It was a well-organized, high quality event with a great balance between social gatherings and informative discussions around payments, acquiring and merchant relationships.
Leading industry processors, manufacturers, vendors, leasing companies and technology startups convened in the exhibit hall. Monday evening’s opening reception was followed by a Bourbon Street pub crawl led by a live jazz band. Show highlights included an ETA Certified Payments Professional seminar, an array of contests and an eclectic mix of guest speakers.
Other presentations by industry experts included advice on selling merchant portfolios, using technology to acquire new merchants, and effective ways to build a personal brand through networking and relationships.
Exhibiting at SEAA increased company’s visibility and credibility. The show’s overall atmosphere as friendly professionalism.
Lagniappe, a word that means a little something extra, can be used to describe the spirit of camaraderie and partnership at Transaction Cardi Gras. It thought to have originated in New Orleans from the Spanish phrase la ñapa.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: merchant, payments, processors, transaction, vendors
October 30th, 2014 by Elma Jane
A partial authorization request enables an issuer to approve an amount that is lower than the total transaction amount in cases when the available card balance is not sufficient to cover the full transaction amount. It can also approve a $1500 authorization for a $15.00, and if the merchant does not look closely and pay attention to the details they may lose a lot.
Partial authorizations are used for prepaid and check / debit cards and are now supported by both Associations, as well as their issuers and payment processing companies. They make it possible for merchants to complete a transaction by using the remaining available balance on the prepaid or check card and accepting an additional payment form (e.g. cash, check or another bank card) for the remaining balance. This type of transaction is known as split tender.
Partial authorizations provide you with a way to eliminate decline authorizations due to insufficient funds. You should take advantage of this opportunity and understand how to process them. There are reasons for authorization declines where there is nothing a merchant can do.
Partial Authorization Process
Customer swipes a card with available balance that is lower than the sale’s amount.
Merchant submits an authorization request with a Partial Authorization indicator to the issuer for the entire sale’s amount.
Issuer sends a partial authorization approval back to the merchant.
POS terminal subtracts the partially approved amount from total sale’s amount.
The customer makes a payment for the remaining balance using cash, check or another card.
The sale is now completed and a receipt is printed displaying the split tender amounts.
If the prepaid card used in a split tender transaction is a gift or an incentive card, the remaining balance is automatically sent to the point-of-sale (POS) terminal where it can be displayed to the merchant and printed on the sales receipt.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: bank card, card balance, cash, check card, debit cards, merchant, partial authorization, payment form, payment processing, point of sale, POS terminal, prepaid and check, transaction
September 17th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Host Card Emulation (HCE) offers virtual payment card issuers the promise of removing dependencies on secure element issuers such as mobile network operators (MNOs). HCE allows issuers to run the payment application in the operating system (OS) environment of the smart phone, so the issuing bank does not depend on a secure element issuer. This means lower barriers to entry and potentially a boost to the NFC ecosystem in general. The issuer will have to deal with the absence of a hardware secure element, since the OS environment itself cannot offer equivalent security. The issuer must mitigate risk using software based techniques, to reduce the risk of an attack. Considering that the risk is based on probability of an attack times the impact of an attack, mitigation measures will generally be geared towards minimizing either one of those.
To reduce the probability of an attack, various software based methods are available. The most obvious one in this category is to move part of the hardware secure element’s functionality from the device to the cloud (thus creating a cloud based secure element). This effectively means that valuable assets are not stored in the easily accessible device, but in the cloud. Secondly, user and hardware verification methods can be implemented. The mobile application itself can be secured with software based technologies.
Should an attack occur, several approaches exist for mitigating the Impact of such an attack. On an application level, it is straightforward to impose transaction constraints (allowing low value and/or a limited number of transactions per timeframe, geographical limitations). But the most characteristic risk mitigation method associated with HCE is to devaluate the assets that are contained by the mobile app, that is to tokenize such assets. Tokenization is based on replacing valuable assets with something that has no value to an attacker, and for which the relation to the valuable asset is established only in the cloud. Since the token itself has no value to the attacker it may be stored in the mobile app. The principle of tokenization is leveraged in the cloud based payments specifications which are (or will soon be) issued by the different card schemes such as Visa and MasterCard.
HCE gives the issuer complete autonomy in defining and implementing the payment application and required risk mitigations (of course within the boundaries set by the schemes). However, the hardware based security approach allowed for a strict separation between the issuance of the mobile payment application on one hand and the transactions performed with that application on the other hand. For the technology and operations related to the issuance, a bank had the option of outsourcing it to a third party (a Trusted Service Manager). From the payment transaction processing perspective, there would be negligible impact and it would practically be business as usual for the bank.
This is quite different for HCE-based approaches. As a consequence of tokenization, the issuance and transaction domains become entangled. The platform involved in generating the tokens, which constitute payment credentials and are therefore related to the issuance domain, is also involved in the transaction authorization.
HCE is offering autonomy to the banks because it brings independence of secure element issuers. But this comes at a cost, namely the full insourcing of all related technologies and systems. Outsourcing becomes less of an option, largely due to the entanglement of the issuance and transaction validation processes, as a result of tokenization.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Near Field Communication, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: (MNOs), (OS), assets, bank, card, card issuers, cloud, cloud based payments, cloud based secure element, cloud-based, hardware secure element, Host Card Emulation (HCE), issuing bank, MasterCard, mobile, mobile app, mobile application, mobile network operators, mobile payment, mobile payment application, nfc, operating system, payment application, payment transaction, payments, platform, risk, secure element, smart phone, software, software based technologies, token, tokenization, transaction, virtual payment, visa
September 16th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Card-not-present merchants are battling increasingly frequent friendly fraud. That type of fraud..The I don’t recognize or I didn’t do it dispute. This occurs when a cardholder makes a purchase, receives the goods or services and initiates a chargeback on the order claiming he or she did not authorize the transaction.
This problem can potentially cripple merchants because of the legitimate nature of the transactions, making it difficult to prove the cardholder is being dishonest. The issuer typically sides with the cardholder, leaving merchants with the cost of goods or services rendered as well as chargeback fees and the time and resources wasted on fighting the chargeback.
Visa recently changed the rules and expanded the scope of what is considered compelling evidence for disputing and representing chargeback for this reason code. The changes included allowing additional types of evidence, added chargeback reason codes and a requirement that issuers attempt to contact the cardholder when a merchant provides compelling evidence.
The changes give acquirers and merchants additional opportunities to resolve disputes. They also mean that cardholders have a better chance to resolve a dispute with the information provided by the merchant. Finally, they provide issuers with clarity on when a dispute should go to pre-arbitration as opposed to arbitration.
Visa has also made other changes to ease the burden on merchants, including allowing merchants to provide compelling evidence to support the position that the charge was not fraudulent, and requiring issuers to a pre-arbitration notice before proceeding to arbitration, which reduces the risk to the merchant when representing fraud reason codes.
The new “Compelling Evidence” rule change does not remedy chargebacks but brings important changes for both issuers and merchants. Merchants can provide information in an attempt to prove the cardholder received goods or services, or participated in or benefited from the transaction. Issuers must initiate pre-arbitration before filing for arbitration. That gives merchants an opportunity to accept liability before incurring arbitration costs, and Visa will be using information from compelling evidence disputes to revise policies and improve the chargeback process
Visa made those changes to reduce the required documentation and streamline the dispute resolution process. While the changes benefit merchants, acquirers and issuers, merchants in particular will benefit with the retrieval request elimination, a simplified dispute resolution process, and reduced time, resources and costs related to the back-office and fraud management. The flexibility in the new rules and the elimination of chargebacks from cards that were electronically read and followed correct acceptance procedures will simplify the process and reduce costs.
Sometimes, an efficient process for total chargeback management requires expertise or in-depth intelligence that may not be available in-house. The rules surrounding chargeback dispute resolution are numerous and ever-changing, and many merchants simply do not have the staffing to keep up in a cost-effective and efficient way. Chargebacks are a way of life for CNP merchants; however, by working with a respected third-party vendor, they can maximize their options without breaking the bank.
Reason Code 83 (Fraud Card-Not-Present) occurs when an issuer receives a complaint from the cardholder related to a CNP transaction. The cardholder claims he or she did not authorize the transaction or that the order was charged to a fictitious account number without approval.
The newest changes to Reason Code 83, a chargeback management protocol, offer merchants a streamlined approach to fighting chargebacks and will ultimately reduce back-office handling and fraud management costs. Independent sales organizations and sales agents who understand chargeback reason codes and their effect on chargeback rates can teach merchants how to prevent chargebacks before they become an issue and successfully represent those that they can’t prevent.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: account, account number, acquirers, agents, Back Office, card, card holder, card-not-present, Card-not-present merchants, cardholder, cards, chargeback, chargeback fees, chargeback rates, cnp, CNP merchants, CNP transaction, fees, fraud, fraud management, Independent sales, independent sales organizations, issuer, management protocol, Merchant's, organizations, protocol, purchase, Rates, resolution, resolution process, resources, risk, sales agents, services, transaction, visa
September 11th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Every year Americans take more than 59 million trips abroad. Yet many of us don’t know which questions to ask regarding the use of credit cards. Before you hit the road, let your card issuer know where and when you’ll be traveling, so it doesn’t mistake those overseas charges with fraudulent activity. Start asking some questions below:
Does my card charge a foreign transaction fee? Because these fees can run as high as 3% and can be quite costly.
Does my card have an EMV chip? A smart chip widely used in Europe and other places. Contact your credit card provider and see if they can provide you at no cost a chip-and-PIN card if you don’t already have one. Most of the card companies are moving this way, but typically you have to request it.
Does my card offer any travel perks? You may want to inquire about additional coverage your card may provide you when you’re abroad such as insurance for accidents, lost luggage or auto collision.
How can I get cash overseas? Reach out to the bank or credit card provider and find out what relationships they have in the local market you’re traveling to. This will be helpful for avoiding ATM fees. Additionally, if you need to access cash from your credit card, they’ll be very helpful if you do it through a banking institution that has a relationship with your provider.
Will my card be accepted at my destination? Thirty to sixty days before traveling contact your bank or credit card provider and ask some important questions. Find out if their card is going to be accepted or if there will be any restrictions for it to be used abroad.
The best thing to do is to have a plan before you travel. Know how to minimize your fees and protect your credit cards. Then you can enjoy your adventure.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: atm, ATM fees, bank, banking, banking institution, card, card issuer, chip, Chip and PIN, chip-and-PIN card, credit card provider, credit cards, EMV, EMV chip, fee, fees, foreign transaction fee, institution, PIN, provider, transaction, transaction fee, travel
August 27th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Backoff malware that has attacked point of sale systems at hundreds of businesses may accelerate adoption of EMV chip and PIN cards and two-factor authentication as merchants look for ways to soften the next attack. Chip and PIN are a big thing, because it greatly diminishes the value of the information that can be trapped by this malware, said Trustwave, a security company that estimates about 600 businesses have been victims of the new malware. The malware uses infected websites to infiltrate the computing devices that host point of sale systems or are used to make payments, such as PCs, tablets and smartphones. Merchants can install software that monitors their payments systems for intrusions, but the thing is you can’t just have anti-virus programs and think you are safe. Credit card data is particularly vulnerable because the malware can steal data directly from the magnetic stripe or keystrokes used to make card payments.
The point of sale system is low-hanging fruit because a lot of businesses don’t own their own POS system. They rent them, or a small business may hire a third party to implement their own point of sale system. The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council issued new guidance this month to address security for outsourced digital payments. EMV-chip cards, which are designed to deter counterfeiting, would gut the value of any stolen data. With this magnetic stripe data, the crooks can clone the card and sell it on the black market. With chip and PIN, the data changes for each transaction, so each transaction is unique. Even if the malware grabs the data, there not a lot the crooks can do with it. The EMV transition in the U.S. has recently accelerated, driven in part by recent highprofile data breaches. Even with that momentum, the U.S. may still take longer than the card networks’ October 2015 deadline to fully shift to chip-card acceptance.
EMV does not by itself mitigate the threat of breaches. Two-factor authentication, or the use of a second channel or computing device to authorize a transaction, will likely share in the boost in investment stemming from data security concerns. The continued compromise of point of sale merchants through a variety of vectors, including malware such as Backoff, will motivate the implementation among merchants of stronger authentication to prevent unauthorized access to card data.
Backoff has garnered a lot of attention, including a warning from the U.S. government, but it’s not the only malware targeting payment card data. It is not the types of threats which are new, but rather the frequency with which they are occurring which has put merchants on their heels. There is also an acute need to educate small merchants on both the threats and respective mitigation techniques.. The heightened alert over data vulnerability should boost the card networks’ plans to replace account numbers with substitute tokens to protect digital payments. Tokens would not necessarily stop crooks from infiltrating point of sale systems, but like EMV technology, they would limit the value of the stolen data. There are two sides to the equation, the issuers and the merchants. To the extent we see both sides adopt tokenization, you will see fewer breaches and they will be less severe because the crooks will be getting a token instead of card data.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Point of Sale Tagged with: access, account, account numbers, anti-virus programs, authentication, Backoff, card, card networks, chip, credit, Credit card data, credit-card, data, data breaches, devices, digital payments, EMV, magnetic stripe, Malware, Merchant's, Payment Card Industry, payments, PCs, PIN, PIN cards, point of sale, POS, POS system, programs, Security, security standards, Smartphones, software, system, tablets, tokenization, tokens, transaction, Trustwave, websites
August 7th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Using Transfer by Facebook, the user can transfer money after logging into their Rakuten Bank account from the Rakuten Bank app, selecting the person they wish to send money to from their list of Facebook friends in the app, and inputting the amount they wish to transfer.The fee-free transfer process can be completed on the app without any of the recipient’s account information and include a 50 character message to accompany the transaction. Money can also be transferred to non-Rakuten Bank account holders, for a fee of Y165. By accessing a URL on Facebook with the transfer notice, the recipient is able to specify a bank account for the money and complete the deposit.
Posted in Financial Services Tagged with: account holders, account information, app, bank account, Bank app, deposit, Facebook, free transfer process, transaction, transfer notice, URL
August 4th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Run through a non-profit organisation, Stellar is a decentralized protocol for sending and receiving money in any pair of currencies, be they dollar, yen or bitcoin. The system works through the concept of gateways that let people get in and out of the network. Users hold a balance with a gateway, which is any network participant that they trust to accept a deposit in exchange for credit on the network. To cash out, a user invokes the promise represented by a gateway’s credits, returning them in exchange for the corresponding currency.
Like Ripple, Stellar comes with its own built-in digital currency, which will be given away for free to people who sign up via Facebook, to nonprofits and to current bitcoin and Ripple holders. Initially there will be 100 billion ‘stellars’ (five per cent of which will be kept back to fund the nonprofit) with the supply increasing at one per cent a year. Although stellars will have a market-determined value, their main purpose will be to provide a conversion path between other currencies. This means that when two parties exchange money through the distributed exchange, stellars sit in the middle. Example, a user might submit a transaction which converts EUR credits to stellar and then converts those stellar to AUD credits. Ultimately, the user will have sent EUR, the recipient will have received AUD, and two exchange orders will have been fulfilled.
Developers are being invited to jump in and work with the open-source code and build applications on top of Stellar. The project has secured the backing of payment industry darling Stripe, which has handed over $3 million in exchange for two per cent of stellars. Stellar is highly experimental, but it’s important to invest effort in basic infrastructure when the opportunity arises. Stellar could become a much better substrate for a lot of the world’s financial systems.
Posted in Internet Payment Gateway Tagged with: AUD credits, bitcoin, code, credit, credits, currencies, deposit, digital currency, EUR credits, Facebook, gateways, network, payment industry, transaction
May 23rd, 2014 by Elma Jane
Before making a purchase, there are several devices that consumers may use to help them make a decision: Use a specific store’s mobile app on their smartphones. Visit the store’s website on a tablet or computer, or just pick up the phone and call customer service to ask a question. Whatever the case, omnichannel is an important buzzword for merchants.
Here are ways to ensure a seamless and secure retail experience to turn browsers into loyal buyers.
Ensure Channels Work Together
Even in historically single-channel retail sectors such as grocery, more than half of customers now use two or more channels before completing a purchase, shown in a recent study. Retailers must therefore offer both traditional and digital channels. However, before investing in the latest mobile-optimized website feature or app, retailers should learn how existing online and physical channels can together enhance the customer experience. What customers value most is not the number of channels offered, but how these channels support each other.
A merchant’s website might encourage visitors to take advantage of a special event in-store, while sales assistants on the floor can use Wi-Fi enabled tablets to access additional product information.
Help Customers Find What They Want
With Internet access ubiquitous, cost-conscious customers are just a click away from being able to compare prices and find special offers. Many take out their smartphone or tablet in stores to compare prices, a trend called Showrooming.
Online retailers can take advantage of this trend by encouraging shoppers to compare prices in-store using a mobile app. In-store retailers, on the other hand, could provide greater value through targeted offers, price match guarantees, expert advice, convenient delivery choices and personalized customer care.
Optimize The Checkout Experience
Businesses must be sure to have a quick, streamlined checkout process once they have converted an online browser into a customer or else they risk facing shopping cart abandonment. This can be done in a few steps:
1. Assess how the checkout experience can be customized for its customers. Keep the mandatory information required from new or first-time online or mobile shoppers to a minimum and shorten the process for returning customers by securely storing their payment details and other personal information.
2. Develop a dedicated mobile app or other innovative functions that can increase long-term satisfaction and loyalty.
3. Test different payment methods to find those that are most convenient for customers. These payment options may include paying with reward points, using a digital wallet or providing a digital offer or coupon at checkout. There is a balance to be found between having additional payment methods to meet customer expectations and choosing methods appropriate to a merchant’s business model.
4. Establish a one-click online checkout process. Chase for example, is currently developing a Chase Wallet and Quick Checkout solution. The Chase Wallet will allow customers to store and access their Chase cards and ultimately, any branded card for a quick checkout. It will also update Chase-branded cards when a customer replaces an existing card and use tokenization to securely process payments with select merchants.
Merchants also face the challenge of ensuring that the online and in-store checkout experience is secure, while at the same time eliminating as many false positives as possible. False positives are a hindrance to any business as they may reduce sales, increase chargebacks and frustrate customers. A quick-checkout solution may help reduce false positives because customer information is automatically populated rather than manually keyed into the checkout page.
Acquirers should also work with online retailers to provide a conditional approval code for a transaction. This code allows the fulfillment process to move forward while authentication is taking place. The additional time for a thorough authentication also helps reduce the number of false positives.
Use Data to Build Loyalty
Customers will likely return to a retailer if product marketing reflects their past purchases or interests. Therefore, taking advantage of data including a customer’s purchasing history, loyalty, behavior or social media interests may help retailers to better understand their customers as well as personalize their shopping experience.
According to a study released in March 2013, Chase Paymentech found that 32 percent of merchants use their payment data to help craft their multi-channel sales strategy and 42 percent use it to improve the online customer experience. In addition, further analysis of payment methods, chargeback rates, fraud rates and authorization rates may improve the customer shopping experience and drive overall profitability.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: approval code, authentication, branded card, chargebacks, Chase, Chase Wallet, checkout process, computer, customer service, data, digital channels, digital offer, Digital Wallet, In-store retailers, internet access, Merchant's, merchant’s website, mobile app, mobile-optimized website, omnichannel, online retailers, payment, payment data, phone, physical channels, Quick Checkout solution, reward points, shopping cart, Showrooming, single-channel retail, Smartphones, social media, tablet, tokenization, transaction, website, Wi-Fi
May 19th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Keeping your business’s finances in order doesn’t have to take all day. Bookkeeping is a necessary for small business owners, but it’s a time-consuming chore.
If you use QuickBooks for payroll, inventory or keeping track of sales, there are several timesaving shortcuts you can utilize to make bookkeeping easier.
Time-saving tips for getting the most out of QuickBooks in the least amount of time. Help you spend more time building your business and less time using QuickBooks.
Download data whenever possible. Even after factoring in initial setup time, downloading banking and credit card activity directly into QuickBooks is a huge time saver. Doing this will minimize the chance of human error and enable you to record activity faster than if you did it manually.
Make the Find feature your friend. Using the Find feature is the most efficient way to locate a particular invoice in QuickBooks. Those who usually open the form and click Previous until the form appears on the screen know how tedious this process can be. The Find tool will search for almost any transaction-level data, depending on your filters.
Memorize transactions. QuickBooks has the capability to memorize recurring transactions (invoices, bills, checks, etc.) and set them for automatic posts daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually, eliminating the need to enter the same transaction into the software every month.
Use accounts payable aging. Use this feature for a snapshot on who you owe money to and manage your cash flow more efficiently.
Use accounts-receivable aging. Use this feature for a snapshot of information on who owes you money, how much you are owed and how long the individual has owed you.
Use classes. Classes can be very helpful to track income and expenses by department, location, separate properties or other meaningful breakdowns of your business.
Use QuickBooks on the go with remote access. Remote-access methods include QuickBooks Online, desktop sharing and QuickBooks hosting on the cloud, which allows you to take the program on the go and make changes no matter where you are.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: accounts, accounts payable, banking, banking and credit card, bills, Bookkeeping, card, cash flow, checks, cloud, credit, data, desktop, desktop sharing, finances, hosting, income and expenses, invoices, online, program, QuickBooks, Remote-access, software, transaction
