August 25th, 2017 by Elma Jane
A travel merchant account helps you manage all your transactions. It also allows you to integrate into your booking software; plus, there are more features that you get to process payments in a secure environment.
Virtual Merchant Payment Terminal
This is a web-based system that allows you to view processed payments in real-time. You can access it using any web browser, and the transactions are conducted over a secure and encrypted connection.
Customers get receipts for their payments via email once the transaction is complete. You can also handle installments and recurring payments online. It also accepts different payment methods, including gift cards, electronic checks, and credit and debit cards.
Loyalty Programs
With a travel merchant account, you are able to reward your loyal travel customers. You can personalize your loyalty program for customers basing on their behavior. A loyalty program can offer free products or discounts on certain tour or travel packages.
Also, you can make gift cards part of your program. With these cards, you can simply load them with any dollar amount and present them to your customers. Plus, they’re re-loadable and offer a great way of advertising. These programs can go a long way in boosting your customer’s loyalty.
Trams & Sabre Integration
If you’re using Sabre Travel Network for agency services, you can easily integrate your account into Sabre to improve your travel options. This integration allows you to provide convenient payment methods for customers searching for cruise lines, hotel properties, car rental services, and airlines.
Also, for those using Trams for accounting and reporting, NTC travel merchant account lets you make a simple integration. In the long run, you are able to focus on growing your travel agency and offer quality services to your clients.
Mobile Processing
Accepts payments fast and on-the-go with mobile processing solutions that are PCI compliant. With this service, you only need to use a mobile device card reader to swipe cards.
Mobile payment processing allows you to use your own iOS or Android device with a free mobile app which you can integrate with your account to manage transactions.
Offering a convenient and smooth payment methods to your clients is one of the ways to grow your business. National Transaction Corporation merchant account, offers secured travel payment processing services e-Pay, to process your payments; with no delays and at a very competitive rates.
Also, you can accept payments from anywhere and get 100 percent funding. Faster deposits for bookings, which can occur as quick as the next business day.
To speak to our travel payment consultant, call now 888-996-2273
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: card reader, credit, debit cards, electronic checks, Gift Cards, Loyalty Programs, mobile, payment processing, payments, PCI, swipe, terminal, transactions, travel agency, Travel Merchant, virtual merchant
January 9th, 2017 by Elma Jane
The Travel industry payment experts! Why NTC?
NTC is the preferred payment processor for over 3,000 Travel Related Agencies.
High application approval rates while striving to eliminate holds & reserves is a big part of our Travel Merchant’s success.
Guaranteed Lowest Rates
Next Day Deposits
We Integrate with Trams & Sabre Red
Integration with a wide range of Booking Engines
Live US Based Concierge Service within three rings
Preferred by Many Associations including ASTA
NTC ePay Electronic Invoicing
Highest Approval Rating
Accept Payment from Anywhere in the World
Online Reporting and Processing Tools Included
Get the most from your Payment Processing Call Now 888-472-7112
Not all Travel Merchant Accounts Are The Same!
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: merchant, online, payment, payment processing, payment processor, travel, travel industry, Travel Merchant
November 21st, 2016 by Elma Jane
What makes travel merchant high risk?
Travel environments are unique and transactions are usually keyed in. There’s almost always a delayed delivery period, and large ticket transactions.
One card holder may be paying for multiple tickets and they tend to be seasonal; with peak season months generating an unusual spike in their “average” monthly volume and chargebacks, pose a potential threat by travelers who are unable to complete their trip.
These factors can cause for either a reserve or account termination. Therefore travel merchant accounts are considered high risk.
Most merchants do not realize that merchant processors carry a financial risk on merchant accounts, and normally fund merchants prior to receiving payment from the client’s bank. Therefore, a merchant account is an unsecured loan.
The merchant runs a transaction and at the end of the day they settle their batch. The merchant will receive the funds for that batch in their bank account within 2 business days, even though the travel arrangements the client paid for do not take place right away.
Here at National Transaction Corp, we specialize in understanding what makes your transactions as a travel agent unique and how they affect your merchant account.
Educating the merchant and ensuring they have a good understanding of what makes travel merchant account high risk, is one of our specialties.
Call NTC to speak with a Travel Merchant Account Specialist today!
Dial 888-996-2273
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: bank, card, chargebacks, financial, loan, merchant, payment, processors, transactions, travel, travel agent, Travel Merchant
January 13th, 2016 by Elma Jane
If you’re a travel merchant or any merchants using Internet Explorer we want to share this information with you.
As Microsoft ends support for anything older than Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), security experts urged IT managers to migrate to newer versions of Internet Explorer to avoid risk exposing themselves to a new wave of attacks.
Back in August 2014, IEBlog shared important information on migration resources, upgrade guidance, and details on support timelines.
After January 12, 2016, only the most recent version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical support and security updates.
Vista SP2 and Server 2008 SP2 users will only be supported on IE9; Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 users will need to upgrade to IE11; and Windows Server 2012 customers will need to migrate to IE10.
This will apparently ensure they get the benefit of Microsoft security updates and technical support.
Internet Explorer is one of the most commonly targeted platforms in the world for cyber-criminals, businesses would do well to get their house in order. Staying on unsupported versions will have a serious impact on your business.
To know more about Support Lifecycle Information click here
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: merchants, travel, Travel Merchant
August 10th, 2015 by Elma Jane
Everyone’s looking for the next great idea. The one that will make their travel practice jump. The right niche, the next great marketing trick. The killer idea.
I understand the sentiment.
No doubt, ideas are important. You must have the right marketing to properly present your company, to make it take hold in people’s minds and develop into its own entity, to take on its own personality.
But, I ask you, is a great idea enough? Isn’t there something that comes before the idea, something that is equally if not more important? I’d rather start with the right people. People with the right intelligence, the propensity for making things happen. People with killer attitudes.
Here’s the thing: you can give a great person a mediocre idea and they will do something great with it. On the other hand, you can give a great idea to a mediocre person and it will languish. At the end of the day, great ideas require the right people for execution. It’s not the idea that makes people work. It’s the people who make the idea work. Surround yourself with great people, that’s the surest way to succeed.
It is a real joy to work with smart people. You can give a smart travel professional an idea, and they get it, know its value and can understand how to implement it into their practice. Likewise, hand over an opportunity to a determined travel counselor, and then get out of their way. A determined travel professional is willing to do what it takes to build their practice. People combine the qualities of intelligence, determination and passion become top travel specialists. No excuses. Do or die, and with a smile.
Intelligence, determination and passion – those three ingredients are found at the heart of every great travel practice. Those are not the abstract qualities of an idea, they are human traits, personality qualities. Such agents make a study of their practice, an art, a craft. They are determined to succeed and their determination is contagious and attractive because of their passion for travel.
Choose your associates carefully. If you work alone, be the person you must be to execute well. Dust off your attitude. Wake up, take charge, motivate yourself, learn from the best, keep moving forward. Renew your vow to be truly great at what you do. Take it on yourself to smile at clients, to be passionate on their behalf and to bring all of your faculties to bear on every assignment. Clients are like everyone else, they enjoy working with enthusiastic, smart travel agents.
Cultivate those attributes, insist on being your best, and watch your practice grow.
by Richard Earls in Publishers Corner
Posted in Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: travel, travel agency, travel agent, travel industry, Travel Merchant
June 29th, 2015 by Elma Jane
Posted on June 28th, 2015 by Richard Earls in Publishers Corner
“If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe.” – Abraham Lincoln
Louie was one of the hardest working men I had ever met. A restaurant owner, he was up first thing in the morning, worked all day in the kitchen and on the floor and went to bed late at night. The next day, he would do it all again. I was amazed at his ability to put in those hours and I was sure that his new venture would be a great success. A year later, he was out of business. I told Louie’s story to one of my business mentors and he shook his head knowingly. He was not surprised at the restaurant’s failure. “Too many business people have to work hard because they don’t work smart.”
He was right, of course. Louie loved his restaurant. Passion for his business was not an issue for Louie. Problem was, he didn’t much care for the business end of running a restaurant. Louie loved mixing with the customers, coming up with new dishes, and talking about food. However, his costs were too high, and he just didn’t get the need to market beyond simply serving good food. His marketing had little rhyme or reason and employees rotated through his establishment in revolving door fashion. Passion, by itself, wasn’t enough to sustain the business.
My appreciation for the Protestant work ethic was radically altered by Louie’s misfortunes. Hard work counted, but smarts counted, too. Like many good travel consultants, he was spending more time IN his business than he was spending ON his business. I see the same situation with many travel consultants. They work very, very hard and they are passionate about travel. But not all of their tools are sharp enough for the job in front of them. Their marketing is sporadic and their sales technique is haphazard and not studied.
How can travel agents be better business people? The answer is deceptively simple.
There are lots of things to be done every day. There are clients to call, there are deadlines for payment, and there are meetings to attend. But it occasionally pays to take a step back from the day-to-day processes that are absolutely necessary and just think about what we are doing. Are we as efficient as we could be? Are we delegating tasks to give us more time at what we both do and enjoy best? Are we investing adequate time in marketing and professional study? Are we growing our client list as well as maintaining it?
Growing your individual travel practice takes time and patience, but it also requires ongoing thought and planning. It takes a willingness to adjust course mid-stream and to break bad habits. Too many agents tend to be sporadic and reactive without giving their craft the study and attention it deserves. They are so chronically short of time they will even explain that they don’t have the time to plan. Their business is running them instead of being run by them.
Give yourself some time each week to review your progress and to adjust your practice. Allow yourself that luxury. Take the time to meet with yourself and review all of your business assets, the points of contact where the public encounters your brand. Set the time aside and make it your own. Take time to review the way you are doing things and whether there are ways to improve on your practices. Read trade journals and associate with peers either at work or on forums like TRO’s Community. Attend trade shows and think about the art of travel planning.
The time you spend just thinking about travel planning will make you a better travel planner.
Posted in Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: travel, travel agency, travel agent, Travel Merchant, travel merchant account
