April 5th, 2017 by Elma Jane
Fighting chargebacks is important to a business. Whether you process transactions at a point of sale location or operate an e-Commerce business making sure you have implemented a process to dispute your chargebacks is critical.
Basic concepts that can be used to begin learning how to dispute chargebacks:
Keep accurate records of data that is easily accessible. Keeping track of your sales and products have a much easier time in collecting the information necessary to combat a chargeback.
Act quickly, don’t wait! You only have 10 days to respond to a chargeback or retrieval request. If you do not respond in 10 days you lose to a chargeback, and It gets worse; as you will not be able to re-present your case.
Compile and submit the documents to your processor. Make sure the documents have the original chargeback documents attached as well as the other supporting documents.
Follow up to make sure they have been received. Your processor may have an online system that allows you to submit documents directly into the processor chargeback system and some even allow you to view submitted documents in REAL TIME.
Monitor your chargebacks, this will help you understand what processes work for each specific chargeback type.
KEEP YOUR CUSTOMERS HAPPY
NationalTransaction.com 888-996-2273
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: chargebacks, data, e-commerce, point of sale, processor, transactions
March 7th, 2017 by Elma Jane
Financial intermediary between a customer and merchant include:
Card Associations – Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.
Card Issuing Banks – are the financial institutions affiliated with the card association brands and provides credit or debit cards directly to customers.
Card Processors – also known as Acquirer or Acquiring Banks. They pass batch information and authorization requests so that merchant can complete transactions in their businesses. These institutions are the link between payment account providers and card associations.
Payment Account Providers – are companies like NTC that manage credit card processing, usually through the help of a Card processor also known as Acquiring Banks.
Payment Gateways: These are special portals that route transactions to a card processor or acquirer.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: banks, card associations, credit, customer, debit cards, financial, gateways, merchant, payment, processors, provider's, transactions
March 1st, 2017 by Elma Jane
ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS
When it comes to electronic payments, certain types of businesses are considered high risk.
Most merchants do not realize that electronic payment processors carry a financial risk on merchant accounts, and normally fund merchants prior to receiving payment from the client’s bank.
Essentially, a merchant account is an unsecured loan.
Different factors used to determine when a business is a high risk are:
- Types of products
- Services they sell how
- How they sell them
Online transactions are considered high risk because there are increased risks of fraud.
A key factor used to determine the risk of a business is chargebacks.
Chargebacks include customer refunds and fraudulent transactions.
Payment providers assess this risk to determine the percentage of chargebacks your business is likely to experience.
Businesses that are considered high risk where they take advanced payments:
- Travel agencies
- Ticketing services
Electronic payments provider is necessary if you want to accept debit and credit card transactions.
For high-risk electronic payments please feel free to call us at 888-996-2273.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: bank, chargebacks, credit card, debit, electronic payments, fraud, loan, merchant accounts, merchants, online, payment processors, transactions, travel agencies
February 13th, 2017 by Elma Jane
Smart Device for Lodging Transactions
Function meets form with this latest payment terminal.
Accepts All Payments – Magstripe, Chip (EMV) Cards, Mobile Payments like Apple Pay (NFC) and Manual Keyed.
An All-In-One Smart terminal – simplified, single card slot for Magnetic Stripe and EMV. Customer display for PIN, signature, tipping, receipts and more. Interactive 7″ touchscreen. Connects to Wifi or Ethernet. With built-in printer.
Security – PCI certified, End-to-End Encryption. Data is protected by the latest technology.
Supports Lodging Transactions – Check-In/Check-Out, Quick Stay, Incremental Authorization/Update. Sale, refunds, and voids.
Reporting (HQ) – a simple dashboard where you can monitor your sales, refund transactions, get business insights and alerts, and view settlements and transaction in real time. Accessible on the internet or from the HQ App on your Smartphone.
Robust Payment processing – access your funds within 24-48 hours, 24/7 customer service, convenient reporting, PCI program & data breach coverage.
For Electronic Payments call now 888-996-2273 or go to www.nationaltransaction.com and click get started.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Electronic Payments, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Near Field Communication, Payment Card Industry PCI Security Tagged with: data, EMV, mobile, payment, PCI, Security, terminal, transactions
January 25th, 2017 by Elma Jane
PIN vs. Signature: What’s the Difference?
PIN Debit – PIN transactions are routed through what are known as (EFT) electronic funds transfer. It immediately deducts the transaction amount from the customer’s checking account, which is linked to the debit card used for payment. EFT processing takes place when the customer chooses debit when prompted and then enters her PIN. PIN debit transactions are often referred to as online transactions because they require an electronic authorization.
Signature Debit – Signature-based debit transactions are authorized, cleared and settled through the same Visa or MasterCard networks used for processing credit card transactions. Signature debit processing is initiated when the customer selects credit when prompted by the POS terminal. Signature debit transactions are referred to as offline transactions because a PIN debit network does not play a role in processing.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: credit card, customer, debit, debit card, electronic, electronic funds transfer, online, payment, PIN, POS, terminal, transactions
January 18th, 2017 by Elma Jane
The cost of accepting card payments is driven primarily by the interchange. When you settle your transactions each day; payment network routes them to the respective card associations (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and UnionPay) and debit networks through the interchange. Card associations and debit networks establish the rules and manage the interchange of all transactions; for which they charge fees to offset their costs. Interchange fees are paid at the time the transaction is exchanged.
Although interchange fees are applied to all credit card processors equally, they fluctuate in amount, based on a variety of factors. Card associations quote the lowest rate for a transaction, assuming that a number of requirements (which vary according to the card type, the type of business accepting the card payment, and the transaction channel) are met. Transactions that meet all of the requirements for your industry are charged the “qualified rate.” If one or more of these requirements are not met, the transaction is categorized at a more expensive interchange level, known as a Mid-Qualified Non-Qualified the most common “downgrades”.
Some common causes of downgrades include manually entering or requesting voice authorization for a significant number of transactions rather than use a POS device, or you routinely settle
transactions more than 24 hours after they are authorized.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: card associations, card payments, debit networks, interchange, payment network, transactions
January 12th, 2017 by Elma Jane
Accepting non-cash payments from your customers are valuable. If you don’t, you will miss out on sales; because of the growing numbers of customers who only carry plastic or wish to pay online. Today, you have many payment solution options.
Credit Card Terminals – you might remember the beginning of the credit card era and i’ts evolution with today’s countertop terminals. From the traditional swipe of their credit, debit or even gift card to make a purchase to today’s modern terminals. Like accepting EMV chip cards (to be in compliance with a PCI mandate) and NFC payments like Apple Pay.
Beyond the basics; these systems are generally supported by reporting sites that can help you monitor sales, and assist you with maintaining customer loyalty programs.
E-Commerce Solutions – online sales are growing every year. If you are considering an expansion of your business online; you need a complete hosted payment solution for transactions in all payment environments. Including in-store, back office mail/telephone order (MO/TO), mobile and e-commerce, that make your customers’ experience as intuitive and efficient as possible.
Point of Sale Systems – smart registers have evolved into high-tech point-of-sale (POS) systems due to technology advances. Not only taking customer payments; but it can transform your business with an advanced marketing programs, inventory management and sales and profitability tracking and reporting. Over the past years these advanced systems have become cost-effective and easy to use.
Wireless Terminals – in today’s hardware you have the option of accepting payments wirelessly, through a full-service terminal that is smaller than a countertop model, or through a mobile card reader plugin for a smartphone or tablet.
The advantage of a full-service wireless terminal is that it allows for receipt printing on the spot through the device and most modern full-service wireless terminals are EMV compliant and accept both EMV (chip card) and NFC payment types.
Call now 888-996-2273 and speak to our payment consultant to know which solution is best for you.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Reader Terminal, e-commerce & m-commerce, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Mail Order Telephone Order, Near Field Communication, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Point of Sale Tagged with: card reader, chip cards, credit card, debit, e-commerce, EMV, gift Card, mobile, moto, nfc, online, payment solution, payments, PCI, point of sale, smartphone, terminals, transactions
January 6th, 2017 by Elma Jane
Online fraud is not going away; hackers are becoming more sophisticated. While technology offer more avenues for consumers to pay, they also offer new ways for hackers to steal data.
There are several factors that increases the growth of online fraud:
EMV migration: because of EMV migration, fraud in face to face transactions becomes more difficult and moves to card-not-present transaction. This has been observed after EMV is implemented in other country.
Banking activity: it is moving online not only via online-only banks, but also mobile and online bank services.
An increase of online marketplaces: financial services pros are more proficient in identifying fraud compare to individual consumers who become sellers that can be victims of online fraud.
How can e-commerce and financial services companies reduce online fraud?
Merchants: Ensure that you have payment security. Fraudsters use sophisticated technologies, ask your payment provider for encryption and tokenization. You can also use BIN LookUp as an added security and number of benefits. Bin LookUp allows merchant or institution to check more about the transaction.
Online marketplaces: Marketplaces can protect their reputation by validating new sellers using sophisticated device and applying advanced models and machine learning to detect unusual patterns of activity that indicate misuse.
Banks: Fraudsters continue to innovate. Bank technology needs to be flexible and stay one step ahead.
For account set up or terminal upgrade call now 888-996-2273 or visit www.nationaltransaction.com
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, e-commerce & m-commerce, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale Tagged with: banks, card-not-present, data, e-commerce, EMV, encryption, financial services, fraud, merchants, online, payment, provider, Security, terminal, tokenization, transactions
December 27th, 2016 by Admin
Merchant aggregator is an entity that can run many transactions through a single merchant account, an opposite to the traditional merchant account since you’re the sole owner.
Preferred for a smaller business because its not intended as a long term scalable solution to accepting payments.
For businesses that want to expand their processing needs, traditional merchant account will outgrow an aggregator, since the goal is for a business to grow, but it will always come to what’s best for individual business.
While you have the pros of quick application process and instant approval there are a lot of cons to check before getting an aggregator account.
CONS of an aggregator account:
CUSTOMER SERVICE – aggregators are hard to get hold of.
FEES – fixed fees .
FREQUENT HOLDS and DELAY OF FUNDS – aggregators hold funds 24-48 hours before depositing, while longer holds occur 30 days. (A client of ours who signed up with an aggregator came back in tears and wants to open her merchant account with us again because her funds was held with the merchant aggregator. She then promised will not leave and stay for life with NTC).
LOWER LIMITS – processing limits lower, annual limit of $100k.
PROS of a Traditional Account:
CUSTOMER SERVICE – 24/7 technical support.
FUNDS – next day funding, no frequent account holds.
FEES – tailored to your business needs.
LIMITS – varies by financial strength and business
Setting up a Merchant Account? Call us now! 888-996-2273 or go to www.nationaltransaction.com
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: customer, fees, funds, merchant, merchant account, payments, transactions
December 12th, 2016 by Elma Jane
Wireless Freedom with Smart Terminal!
Point-of-sale with WiFi capabilities. Now customers can take advantage of total mobility within their location when accepting payments, and managing their business either in-store or remotely. The device is NFC enabled for contactless transactions, and also designed to be easily transported due to its rechargeable battery.
Perfect for Pay at the Table!
Intended to provide cardholders with the ability to pay from anywhere within a business, the Smart Terminal is the ideal solution for processing transactions (and tips) tableside. Other benefits for this service include:
- 8 hour battery life on a single charge.
- Customer screen displays for PIN, Signature, tips, and receipts (via paper/email/text).
- Cardholders have the ability to complete transactions quicker, increasing profitability.
- Enhances the customer service experience.
Available for Retail and Restaurant customers only.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: cardholders, customers, nfc, payments, POS, terminal, transactions
