One of Canada’s largest department stores made a huge announcement today that may start the change in tides for the Canadian market place as it pertains to payments. Sears Canada did a joint press release with Visa Canada today announcing the acceptance of Visa Paywave at it retail store locations across Canada but perhaps what’s [...]
Mobile Payments
With the launch of Google wallet, there’s been a lot of buzz about mobile payments. Visions of paying for that hamburger at lunch by a wave of your mobile phone dances through the minds of Canadians fuelled by the constant media attention. But how close is mobile payments really? The reality is, unlike the months [...]
Online Fraud – What It Is and How To Prevent It
While there are definitely a lot of benefits to being an eCommerce merchant… the ease of starting up, no need for retail space, no need for hiring sales reps… one of the biggest downfalls is the potential to become a online fraud target. Fraudsters will typically target eCommerce merchants because the lack of checks and [...]
Visa Launches New Prepaid Card
Visa announced today the launch of Canada’s first prepaid healthcare spending account card. Collaborating with Great West Life, a leading Canadian group benefits provider, they have launched a new Visa prepaid card loaded with the employee’s health care spending account. This will help to ensure that employees are not paying out of pocket for medical [...]
Should Visa & Mastercard Allow Merchants to Surcharge on Credit Card Transactions?
On December 15, 2010, the Competition Bureau in Ottawa launched a lawsuit against credit card giants, Visa Canada Corp. And MasterCard International Inc. to argue the credit cards’ company’s policies on preventing merchants from surcharging and enforcing their “honour all cards” policies. The Bureau alleges that these policies are anti-competitive and hurt both consumers and [...]
Did Wikileaks Supporters Hack Visa & Mastercard Websites?
Even though the website Wikileaks first appeared on the web back in December 2006, and even though the website itself has won a number of awards over the course of its existence, including the 2008 Economist Magazine New Media Award, it did not become a household name until about a month ago… when the leak [...]
Buying versus Renting your Point of Sale Terminal
When faced with setting up a merchant account, amongst the many things to consider, one of the most important is the question on whether you should buy or lease your point of sale terminal. The reality is, you need a reliable piece of POS equipment to ensure that your business doesn’t suffer if it goes [...]
Merchants Have 6 Months to Make Sure Their POS Terminal is EMV Certified
What Does EMV Mean? EMV, which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, or more commonly known as Chip and Pin technology is coming to Canada. Already adopted in over 80 countries all over the world, this is proven technology that has had a high success rate in helping to mitigate fraudulent activity. EMV leverages a [...]
When Rates Are ‘Too Good’ to Be True And How to Tell
My mother used to tell me all the time, if it looks “too good to be true” than it probably is. This advice is applicable to all walks of life and especially pertinent to Merchant Service Providers. We all have the inner critic that screams inside us when we know we see something good, so [...]
