Over the past couple of weeks I have run into many merchants that feel ripped off by their merchant sales representative. Time and time again I hear “I just didn’t know what to ask for.”. Like with any other purchase for your business, it is important to learn about your product. Here is a list […]
Payment Industry
Validating Credit Cards
Credit Cards Fraud Risks With fraud on the rise, online merchants face increasing risks. In card-not-present transactions, there are two basic levels of credit card validation used to validate that credit cards presented for payment actually belong to the person initiating the transaction. The first involves using the Luhn algorithm (also called the “Mod 10 Method […]
Merchant Services Affected by Financial Crisis
Credit Card Debt With the financial crisis, according to Fox News, American’s total credit card debt has reached 1 Trillion– up 6 percent from a year ago and the highest ever recorded. This may sound like good news for the Acquirer industry but it may have a bad spiral effect. Some may speculate that our […]
What Distinguishes One Credit Card from Another
Are Credit Card the Same? Not all credit cards are the same. No I don’t mean they are different colors, or have different designs on them. Different card issuers have cards types of cards. So how do people know they are picking the right credit card? There are cards that have rewards programs, cards with […]
Is It Getting Harder to Get A Merchant Account?
Credit card processing has been around for many years in some form or another. Back on the “Little House on the Prairie,” the Olsen general store allowed consumers to pay for items on an account. All the consumers were kept in a log book and paid when they could. We have evolved as a nation, […]
Is Your Merchant Account Considered High Risk?
Merchant Account Considered High Risk Many financial institutions are tightening up guidelines and raising fees. These days even acquiring banks are cracking down on various business types. No company wants to take on a possible financial loss. There are merchant services providers out there that specialize in high risk business, but you have to be […]
Merchant Accounts and the Payment Card Industry (PCI)
Merchant Accounts And PCI One would be hard pressed to find anyone in the United States or around the world that doesn’t have at least one credit card in their wallet. Whether you have one or ten credit cards, chances are you have used it to purchase something recently. I can only speak for myself, […]
What is an ISO and How Does It Affect Merchant Accounts?
All applications for a merchant account go through an underwriting process to gauge the level of risk for that particular business and business type. Some of these processors are directly affiliated with the member bank and in some cases owned by the member bank. All of these processors must be “registered” as an Independent Sales […]
How Can Accepting Credit Cards Benefit A Business?
It is amazing to me how many different sized businesses still are not accepting credit cards as a form of payment, and do not know about other value-added products. Many business owners I have talked to that do not accept credit cards at their business seem to have the same two objections. The first reason […]
Understanding Merchant Account Fees and Their Terminology
Over the past couple of weeks I have run into many merchants that feel ripped off by their merchant sales representative with regards to their merchant account fees. Time and time again I hear “I just didn’t know what to ask for.” Like with any other purchase for your business, it is important to learn […]