PCI Compliance

The buzz in the payment card industry is PCI. PCI stands for Payment Card Industry and consists of members of the five major card brands (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Japan Credit Bureau).

In short, PCI DSS (Data Security Standard) states that every merchant that stores, transmits, processes or handles credit card data needs to be PCI compliant. PCI DSS are in place to protect cardholders, networks and merchants from the risks and costs associated with credit card fraud. Security breaches at major retailers and recently at several credit card processing networks highlight the need for all parties to be compliant.

If you are a merchant who stores credit card information, or processes transactions wireless or over the internet, you need to submit to quarterly scans of your system to ensure that your system is secure. If you process using a dialup terminal, you still need to validate your PCI compliance, but this is done through the completion of an annual questionnaire.

For more information, please visit https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/

Why Settling your Day's Transactions is Important

You may choose to settle or "batch" your terminal once a week or every other week because you wish to be efficient. While this may save a few seconds each day, the consequences of not settling your terminal can be costly and result in issues between you and your customers.

First, the only way that funding is initiated from a credit or debit card transaction is when the terminal is settled. Therefore, if you do not settle your terminal, you simply will not get paid for any of the credit or debit card transactions in your terminal.

Second, the major card networks and issuing banks do not like to have "open" transactions for an extended period of time. To encourage merchants to settle their terminals in a timely fashion, they will surcharge transactions within that terminal once they do settle. For example, a 1.49% transaction if not closed in a timely fashion could downgrade to a higher rate of 2.95%

Third, not settling promptly can create problems for your customers. Keep in mind that nothing happens in terms of you getting funded or your customer's card being charged until you batch. So, let say you wait 2 weeks to batch out your terminal. That means that your customer's card will be charged 2 weeks after the actual transaction at your store. Your customer may end up disputing the charge and initiate whats called a chargeback. A chargeback will cost you up to $35 per occurrence.

The bottom line here is settle those terminals! It's good for your cash flow, saves you money and good for your customers' peace of mind.

Who do you trust?

There seems to be an overwhelming tendency for merchants to default to their bank when they need to set up a merchant services account. After all, merchants trust their bank because they keep their money safe and allow them access to their funds 24 hours a day. However, a merchant services account is an "add-on" for banks meaning that they don't have to be competitive. And when that merchant needs service, they are calling a service center many miles away from their store. We do the majority of our business and service calls in person.

Case in point, I recently spoke to a retail merchant who opened her store 2 years ago. When she went into her bank (one of the largest banks in the nation) to open her business checking account, she was offered a merchant services account. Her bank went on to sell her a Hypercom T7-Plus terminal for over $500, then over charged her on her processing fees. We sell this terminal for less than $300 and use the same processing networks as her bank does. We also have one of the most reputable financial banking institutions standing behind us, so merchants can be assured that they will always be funded in the most timely manner.

The bottom line here is that we do it better than banks at a price point that is less, far less than what a merchant's "trusted partner" does it for.