Where is the CVV # on Credit Cards?
July 8, 2009 by Matthew Hunt · Leave a Comment
I have had a few merchants recently not understand what the CVV # is on credit cards and how they can use it to protect themselves from potential fraud and/or chargebacks. In the image (the left) shows you where to find the CVV number on credit cards.
It is a three or four digit security code on your credit card. If your customer is prompted to enter that and it matches the security code on file the transaction goes forward, if it doesn’t match it is flagged and the transaction is halted. It’s important to match this up on mail-order and telephone-order businesses. I’d also incorporate it into my e-commerce shopping cart too. It’s not a 100% fool-proof, but it is just one more measure that enables Merchants to protect them selves from credit card fraud.
Back-up Hardware
March 31, 2009 by Matthew Hunt · Leave a Comment
Many Merchants today don’t have a manual credit card imprinter kicking around and that is not a good thing. Every Merchant should always have one those out-of-date “Knuckle Busters” handy with some carbon copy credit card slips.
The reason being is if your POS system is down you can quickly do a manual swipe on your customers credit card and let them proceed through the check-out without any hiccups. Doing this will enable you to still capture the card present rates and help protect you against potential chargebacks.
Now be sure to have your staff trained on these procedures of how to use this older equipment because I was a Winners the other day and their debit machine when down and the staff didn’t know how to manually process credit cards. I asked them to do it this way so I could be on my way. They said at this time they could only accept cash. I had 2 pairs of jeans in my hand and decided to leave even though a bank machine was two floors down.
I was not the only customer that did this. And most people would just leave.
If they had been trained right on the back-up procedures of how to process a credit card through a manual imprinter then they would made an additional $150 worth sales from me. Now I am sure that is hardly a blip on the sales volume of a Winners, but multiply that by how many times the POS system goes down in a year by lets say 10-15 customers by 100’s of locations and we are talking 100’s of thousands of dollars a year in missed sales all because staff was not trained correctly on how to process credit cards manually.
Technology is great, but only when its working. You can buy an inexpensive credit card swiper here.
Accept Credit Card Payment With Your iPhone!
March 2, 2009 by Matthew Hunt · Leave a Comment
Ever since I purchased my iPhone about 6 months ago, my mind has really opened to where mobile payment processing is going. Just look at this awesome application for payment processing on the iPhone.
It is my personal opinion the future of merchant accounts and the payment processing industry is going to be very closely tied to our mobile phones.
Too bad it only works with US merchant account(s). I think I will try and get this iphone app to work with a Canadian Merchant Account service provider.
Does anyone know of an iPhone credit card processing application that works with a Canadian Merchant Account provider…? If so, please let me know in the comment section below.
Canada Inches Closer to Mobile Payments
November 13, 2008 by Matthew Hunt · Leave a Comment
It is my belief that all card processing will eventually be replaced by our mobile phones. With Near Field Communication passing more and more tests, this new technology may replace who we transact in Canada’s marketplace.
The was a very interesting post well worth a read over at ElectronicPaymentsInternational.com on this very subject matter that you may find an interesting read.
You also may want to read this post titled:
Mobile Shopping – Another Reason Why Small Business Owners MUST Get Online!
What are your thoughts on where the Canadian payment processing market place is going…?
Internet Merchant Accounts – What You Need to Know!
September 27, 2008 by Matthew Hunt · Leave a Comment
There are three main components to make a E-commerce Payment Processing Solution work.
- Shopping Cart
- Payment Gateway
- Merchant Account
The Shopping Cart
The Shopping Cart is the Database that enables your customers to choose what products they would like to purchase on your website. When they are ready to purchase a item they will click on the shopping cart icon, which will lead them to your Secured Gateway Page. Most Web-hosting providers offer and shopping cart feature that can be provided for your website.
WARNING: Before choosing your shopping card service provider, make sure you know who your ‘Gateway’ and ‘Merchant Account’ providers will be and that they approve your shopping card service. I have seen many frustrated Small business owners design their sites and make their agreements with a shopping cart service only to later find out that the shopping cart service is not a approved vendor from the ‘gateway’ provider. Not usually an issue because most ‘gateway’ services approve many shopping cart service providers, but it is always better to work backwards before implementing into your website.
The Payment Gateway
The Payment Gateway is the component that provides the secure credit card processing. The Gateway will check to make sure the credit card information is correct and processing the order securely. Usually handled by the Merchant Account Provider depending on what Shopping Cart System you are using. Gateway services usually have a monthly fee of $20 – $60 a month depending on the service provider and sometimes a transaction fee too.
The Merchant Account
Merchant Accounts are your own specific account numbers that have been set-up to track and your processed payments for your credit cards, such as, Visa, Master Card, & American Express. Rates can vary on E-commerce Merchant Accounts from as low to below to 2% to as high as 4%. (High-risk accounts can be as high as 4-12%). Discount Rates are traditionally higher then their sister retail rates due to the fact that cards are not present for the transaction and it creates a higher risk for credit card fraud. In the industry this is called ‘Non-Qualified’ rates.
What You Must Have On Your Website Before A Payment Processor Will Accept Your Internet Merchant Account Application?
If your website is not built then there is no point in submitting an application for internet merchant accounts. You also need to have the following clearly listed on every page of your website particularly on the check-out pages:
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Use
- Refund Policy (you don’t have to provide refunds, you must state what your policies are.)
- Shipping Policy and costs (it is not enough to simply state there are shipping costs – you must show exactly how much.)
- Your whois info must match the same information on your application
- Your contact numbers found on your website must match the same contact numbers as on your application
- Your business must not fall under the ‘restricted list‘ of business models
- a SSL Shopping cart
Now your site may not be ‘live’ yet, but you must provide a guest login so the merchant account underwriters can review your site for the above aspects. If your credit checks and you meet all the requirements above you have good chances at getting approval. Now you approval may be conditional on ‘going-live’. What this means is they will approve your account and give you all the goods to connect your merchant account to your gateway and shopping cart, but will not deposit any monies to your account until you show them this all ‘live’.
Virtual Terminal – Credit Card Processing
September 27, 2008 by Matthew Hunt · Leave a Comment
A Virtual Terminal is where you can turn any web enabled PC into a payment processing terminal. It allows you to work in several card processing environments. Retail face-to-face, mail-order, telephone-order (MO/TO), and e-commerce for your websites.
This solution is perfect for those that have recurring billing because it also supports automatic billing. Gym’s and membership based businesses find this a real time saver.
Even though this solution can be converted into a retail face-to-face terminal with adding on an external PIN Pad, many merchant just opt for the traditional POS Terminal instead.
This solution is mostly used by B2B businesses or any business that doesn’t ever see the customer face-to-face. Another key benefit to this solution is it allows unlimited users, so if you had a sales force of reps out in the field they all could login on the internet and processing transactions at their convenience.
One of the best features is that this system keeps all the headaches of being compliant with PCI because this POS solution stores all the pertinent credit card information on their secure site, leaving you worry free of ever being hacked into or sued due to poor PCI complaint issues.
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