Archive for the ‘credit cards’ Category

Back in 1998 (through 2000 or so), I worked for a small company (called PaymentNet / then Signio) that handled online transactions. Verisign later purchased this company, and the product team I led integrated the “client” - the portion that took the credit card information and sent it to our servers for processing. The product name is Payflow Pro - maybe you’ve heard of it?

I’m going to limit this discussion to Visa / MasterCard credit cards — Amex and others operate slightly differently.

First, there is the bank that the consumer’s credit card is attached to. That bank is called the “acquiring institution” … it handles the “credit” you have on your credit card.

Then, there is the merchant bank. That’s where the business opens up a “merchant account” to be able to accept various forms of credit cards.

The merchant account is connected to another company called a “processor”. This “hidden” layer is the company that actually moves the funds from the acquiring institution to the merchant account (that process is called “settlement”). The processor also handles talking to the acquiring institution to make sure that the customer has the funds available (a process known as authorization).

Some well-known credit card processors are First Data Merchant Services (FDMS), Nova and PaymentTech.

Sitting on top of the processor is one of two primary systems either a swipe-card terminal (like those you see in Wal-Mart) or a “gateway” company that does basically the same thing, but over the Internet - that’s what Verisign Payment Services and Authorize.Net do.

Note that the waters are even muddier in many cases, for example, Wells Fargo can act as every piece of the puzzle in some circumstances.

So, what actually happens when you purchase something at Wal-Mart using a credit card?

a) You place your items from your “basket” onto the counter and scan them. the checkout system provides a total.

b) You swipe your card through a “terminal”, which reads the # off the magnetic stripe.

c) Wal-Mart dials their processor, and asks if you have the funds available on your credit card. The processor talks to your bank (the acquiring institution). If funds are available on the card, they are marked as “held” in your account (an authorization) - if not, the transaction is declined (yuk). Authorizations that are never settled tie up your credit card funds for a period of time, usually 10 days or so.

d) At the end of the day, Wal-Mart marks all the transactions they want to receive funds for, and submits them to their processor in a “batch”. The processor then contacts the acquiring institutions and transfers the funds to your merchant bank - which may make the funds available instantly (in a day or two), or may hold them for a while, or may hold the funds in a “rolling reserve” (keeping some funds held back in case a consumer fights the transaction, called a chargeback).

In the online world, replace the cash-register with an online shopping cart, and the electronic credit-card with terminal with called a “gateway” such as Payflow or Authorize.Net. the process is basically the same, with slightly more complexity.

Be careful going “a-la-carte” with ecommerce credit-card services: if the gateway you chose can’t talk to the processor your bank uses, or your software can’t talk to the gateway, you’re hosed. That situation was MUCH more common (things not working together) back in the mid/late 90’s than it is today. However, most “brick and mortar” banks (like your local branch) still don’t have a clue about online credit-card processing … if they attempt to sell you a “leased terminal”, it’s best to run the other way and find a solution from reputable online source.

As an online merchant looking to accept credit cards, all you really need to know is that all services purchased through a single solution will usually work together seemlessly.

Credit Card Services Review 2010. Thanks to http://www.nicktemple.com/

One of the riskiest ways of obtaining some things you demand is via the net. Online shopping is looking more and more well-known with each and every merchandises springing out in websites from merchants all over the world, promising good quality and immediate service to your needs.

However, 2 out of every 50 online purchasers have been scammed and ripped off their hard-earned money in just a few seconds through purchasing something online, or so they thought. Here are some pointers to check before making an online purchase to keep you away from getting scammed online.

Risks of Internet Shopping

There is that possibility that since you are using your credit card or debit card to buy products on the internet, your card information as well as you personal information will become available to scammers who can misuse them for their personal gain. Given that they do deliver the goods you ordered for, it may not look or match the description or the pictures it had on the internet when you decided to buy it. After all, we don’t have any way other to check the item before we buy it online. All we could do is to rely solely on the pictures posted by the seller. If you get very unlucky, you’ve already processed the payment and the goods never get delivered which also means you just got scammed.

Check Out The Dealer’s Credibility

The first thing you need to look for when verifying the seller’s credibility is that they should have a current physical address and a working home or business phone number that you will be able to call anytime for inquiries. If seller has positive intentions, he should have a very good return and exchange policy that is visible to the customers, as well as a privacy policy posted along with his advertisement. A large number of shoppers on the internet are carried away with beautiful internet sites. A pretty web page is not really an indication that they are legit sellers.

How to Know If It’s a Secure Site

When I go online shopping, the first thing I look for in the seller’s website is the padlock symbol which is located normally at the bottom right corner of the website. As for the website address, I usually go with those that have https:// instead of just the ones that has http:// only. Be sure to click on the padlock symbol to check if the information in the seller’s certificate matches the information that he has on his seller profile.

Scammers Are Usually All Over The World Wide Web

If you’re receiving a lot of spam mails in your email, you better be extra cautious in getting things web from these kinds of advertisements. They were separated by your email provider in a separate folder for a reason and you don’t want to fall prey to the online world predators. If what they are generally offering is too perfect to be true, then chances are it most likely is. If you ever have friends who have bought something on the web before and they got their items safely and they got it as it absolutely was advertised, then you might want to try it out for yourself since you have first hand testimony from customers themselves who may testify to the authenticity of the internet seller they got their goods from.

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If you run a retail business, then you wouldn’t ever want to hire an employee that was incapable of doing their job. Well, the point of sale software that you choose for your business is essentially an extension of your employees. Thus, it’s important that your point of sale software performs up to your expectations. There are dozens and dozens of different POS software solutions on the market, and while they may not seem all that different at a glance, some are in fact better than others.

Before you set about deciding which point of sale software is going to be best for your business, it’s important to establish your expectations. You should write down a list of which factors are most important to you in your software. Consider if you have any products that require unique purchasing systems, or if your business offers some sort of membership program that can affect pricing or offer deals to customers. If you know the answers to these questions before hand, then youll have an easier time narrowing down your choice.

While the more unique elements of your business may demand specific point of sale solutions, the basic features of the software are also important to consider. Most POS software packages are able to accurately calculate and display prices of objects, discounts, and taxes, as well as systems for processing credit and debit cards and voiding transactions. If your business is a restaurant, you’ll want to be sure that your software can create checks for individual tables and handle special orders, as well as other restaurant-specific functions.

Another consideration to keep in mind when choosing your POS software is if you will have multiple points of sale in the store. It’s important that all of them are able to interface with each other in order to provide for accurate inventory, daily sales figures, and so on. Many POS software solutions provide a web-accessible record that allows a business owner to keep track of what’s going on in their business from anywhere in the world.

Similarly, for a business that operates across multiple locations, it’s important to have a system that can deal with that. You may want to share some settings across all your locations, while customizing others for individual locations. Make sure that the software you choose has this capability.

There are some other important factors that you should think about when choosing your point of sale software. For example, it’s a good idea to get POS software that can communicate with whatever accounting software your business operates with. The better the two programs can communicate with each other, the better. Its also important that modern businesses are adaptable ” your POS software should be quick and easy to make changes to.

There are literally hundreds of other minor characteristics that can make a POS software solution perfect for your business. Be sure to think about your priorities and write everything down so it’s easier to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each solution.

Not only are POS systems allowing consumers to experience a better shopping experience, but some of the offered merchant services also allow businesses to better manage their information. As retailers accept credit card, hassle of using cash is eliminated.

Shopping online is one retail activity that seems to be thriving, even during tough economic times. More people are now using the internet for their shopping needs. According to a recent study released by McAfee, Inc., the worlds biggest security company, and carried out by Harris Interactive, “72% of consumers said the economy has not changed the way they shop online.” Instead, the study revealed that “fears about online security and personal information are the biggest drivers behind terminated online sales.” The study also found that, “nearly half of consumers have terminated an order or abandoned their shopping cart due to security concerns.”

Legitimate online retailers are now embracing the best and most effective security measures to protect their customers. In recent years, there have been a number of technological advancements that have made online shopping more safe and secure.

In order to protect credit card and other financial information from being stolen, e-commerce sites now use secure transaction methods when customers order and pay for products from their site. After placing an online order from a secure verified site, the customer clicks on the link to the page containing the order form. The customer will then be taken to a secure section (i.e… https://) of the merchants web site.

Once completing the payment form, they will click the submit button and send the order by way of https:// to the secure e-commerce server. A secure site will have a padlock in the browser window or SSL trust marks. It is important to note that the recent study released by McAfee, Inc found that about “60 % of consumers feel safer when shopping on sites with a trustmark and 47 % of consumers look for trustmarks to feel safe when shopping on a lesser known site.” As well, the survey found that “one-third of consumers would rather buy from a smaller website with a trustmark than from a larger, more well-known online retail site.”

Online merchants use the Secure Sockets Layer protocol, which encrypts sensitive information and securely transfers the data over the SSL connection. The transaction takes place over a secure encrypted connection such as https://. When a web browser points to a secured domain, a Secure Sockets Layer verifies both the server and the client. An SSL Certificate enables encryption during online payments and transactions. An encryption method is established with a unique session key so that secure transmission can commence. The SSL Certificate contains distinctive and verified information about the certificate owner. A Certificate Authority authenticates the certificate owners identity when it is issued. The SSL Certificate sets a private communication connection allowing encryption of the data during transmission. Encryption will scramble the data creating secure privacy. Each SSL Certificate consists of a public key and a private key. The public key is used to encrypt information and the private key is used to decrypt it. If an unauthorized user is able to capture the data, he or she will not be able to decrypt the transaction.

Shopping on the Internet has quickly become a major part of the U.S. economy. Because of the fears about financial and personal information theft, online merchants have stepped up to the plate and taken steps to alleviate consumer fears by implementing the most advanced security measures designed to keep online criminals from accessing their accounts.

Online payment processing company provides industry leading payment gateway services for card issuers and businesses that accept credit card and INTERAC direct payments.

Do you have a business that you would like to promote online? That is very much possible by having your own website. But if you are going to process a payment online, you will need to have a merchant account.

Having a merchant account for your website is very much advantageous as you will be able to get people from all over the world to buy from you. At the same time, there is a chance that you will get the sale right away as most of the buyers will not think twice especially if you have the product that they want.

But do you know that there are several types of this account? There is a merchant account that will match your current business. These are the types of accounts that will fit your business.

There are a number of businesses that use merchant account for internet. They are the ones who would use this account to be used in getting payments from their clients. They can get credit card payments and be able to verify them online. These accounts have a credit card billing verification system in order avoid fraud.

If you would see several websites that have a “Buy Me” tab, then that is an internet account. You can just click on that tab and you will be directed to the payment page and put in the information needed. This is one convenient way of shopping for people who does not want to go out of their homes.

The next accounts are the high risk ones. They are the ones that are said to be exposing the banks making the levels of security at high risk. Examples of these accounts are those being used in travel, adult sites and the likes. The reason why they are considered high risk is that they have increased instances of refunds because of products that did not meet the expectations of the buyers.

If you are also going to look for an account online, be sure to get the ones from popular payment sites. In this way, you will gain the trust of your clients to do business with you as they know that the chances of their money will not be lost through processing.

So if you want to start your online payment scheme, you can get a merchant account to be your assistant to your business. You can easily close the sales and easily process them online to bring in profit.

Despite the believing of several people, credit cards in general have a lot of advantages for users and there are many reasons why I can say that. As matter as fact, according to recent research those credit card users having a better handle of credit cards, often argue a positive comment about credit card and they always talk about its benefits. On the other hand, all the users with bad credit card score and having problem with payment could talk about stronger about those disadvantages you can take about credit cards. I personally think that we are not talking about God and the devil that we know “in absolute terms” God represent all your advantages “the good” and Satan evidently represent the evil. We are just talking about the advantages you can receive from the use of credit cards. In the following lines I would like to share with you some of these advantages and describe with more details some of them.

- You dont need use cash: It is a basic thing you have experienced. The use of credit cards helps you to avoid carry large amounts of money with you. The use of credit card is more flexible and easy to use than cash money. It could be a benefit because is better use a unique payment instrument than use a lot of money with you.

- Credit card act as a loan: Something very important is that you can have available your own short-term loan. A credit card as a short-term loan where you can have a specific amount of money available each month for you. Also, there are banks that offer to their customers an extra-limit amount which could be based on a percentage over your current credit card limit. This limit is often used for people when day want have a short-term loan without having to go to the bank and start a complex negotiation process.

- You can make payments from home or office: If you want to purchase a Pizza when you are at home with your friends or family, there are several shops in Australia that accept credit cards payment through telephone. It is a great advantage because you dont have to use cash money while you stay at home. On the other hand, if you are in your office, you can also make orders of goods and services and pay through telephone with your credit cards.

- You can purchase online: The use of credit cards to purchase In the Internet is an ever-growing market that is everyday getting a higher popularity around the world. There is a community of more than 1.5 billion people around the world that could be a target to pay with credit cards in the Internet.

- Credit cards help you to keep a good credit score: Credit cards can also help you to have a presence in the credit bureaus and banks that are evaluating your credit card score.

- You can have discounts and several bonuses: The use of credit cards can represent a benefit when you receive bonus and discounts in shops.

Credit cards are changing the way people do business all around the world. In America, you will now find that there are business franchises and large superstores that take nothing but cards. However, taking up a business card is a different thing altogether. The main factor that you will have to consider is what category to look for. Some of the top issuers of credit cards offer different interest rates and packages for small businesses compared to large corporate types. So whether you are a small business owner or a corporate executive, you can control your companys expenses very simply through acquiring a business credit card.

Several credit card issues have very good deals and one really has to know where to look. A good example of a fair credit card is the AT&T Universal Business Rewards Card. This card offers you an introductory APR of 0% on purchases for 6 months and a low regular rate of 10.24%. On top of that, it allows balance transfers and charges no annual fee. You get to set credit limits for your employees who get additional cards.

The Business Platinum Card from American Express OPEN is best suited for companies with 2 employees or more with revenues of about $250,000 a year. The card offers you no APR interest rate but it charges you an annual fee of $450.00. it does not allow balance transfers but offers you great amenities like complimentary airport club access.

The Plum Card from American Express OPEN is designed for a business that deals with revenue in the 6 to 7 figure range that looks to control cash flow and business expenses. It also has no interest rate, just an annual fee of $185 which is payable from the second year. The Gold Card from American Express OPEN has the same requirements as the platinum card only that the annual fee is just 4125 and is payable from the second year of issue. The Blue for Business Credit Card offers an introductory APR of 0% for up to 15 months of purchases from the date of issue. It then charges a regular rate of 9.24% onwards.

Thus there is no end to business credit card types in the market. The major work lies in your part to find one such business credit card that can provide you excellent services. Watch out for the features of the cards before you sign a deal for them. Try to find out all nitty-gritty of the credit cards before you really have one for you.

During the present credit crunch scenario, everyone wishes to minimize debts and small business owners prefer the use of debit cards to send and receive money for business purposes. These cards help separate management of business funds so that you dont have to mess up your business debts and personal funds. According to the survey of Synergistic Research Corporation, 35% small business owners use debit cards.

Debit cards are now popular not only because they ease transactions, but also because the banks promote them more. As the interchange rate of business debit cards is higher, banks want their business checking account customers to use debit cards to carry out large volumes of business transactions.

When more and smaller business owners start using business debit cards, the banks prepare themselves to offer several services. Payroll services offered by banks were found to be useful for small business owners.

Using debit cards, business owners can reduce the hassle required for payroll solutions. Reports say that several enterprises face problems associated with processing of payroll checks. Now, business owners can use payroll services provided by banks and credit the salary account of the employees directly without paperwork. Employees can receive money using their account and manage funds using personal debit cards.

In the modern business world, no one is ready to wait for several days for check clearance to get payments. Suppliers can now receive money using debit cards so that payment arrived instantly. This is useful for business owners as well because you can have full control over the transaction. You will use the existing balance in your account and so, you never have to spend anything more than you have. For receivers, debit cards are more reliable as money is available without any delay.

Debit cards incur no annual fees like credit cards. Moreover, you never have to pay any extra fees or interest rates when you use debit cards. Considering the volume of transactions for your business, you can save money in the long run with debit cards. A lot of paperwork can be eliminated with regular use of debit cards.

You should set overdraft protection to protect yourself from spending more than you can afford. If you dont pay proper attention for this overdraft, you have to pay more fees for the bank for exceeding the limit.

Also, you must keep the PIN number safe because scammers can easily get access to your bank account using the card and PIN number. As a result, you will lose all your hard earned money.

An ideal solution for those who are looking to get their finances under control and reduce their overall debt position would be opting to transfer your credit card balance to a 0% interest card.

However, successfully changing to this type of arrangement requires a lot of discipline - and by extending these offers to you, the banks are ‘banking’ that you don’t have any!

First of all, it’s important to read all of the conditions attached to the 0% card offer. In order to recoup the lost interest revenue, the credit provider might charge higher late payment, over limit or missed payment fees, which could cancel out the benefits you’ll receive from the 0% interest rate.

When moving your debt across to their account credit card providers will also often charge a “transfer fee”, which can be up to 3% of the total amount of debt. This means that on a 2,000 credit card debt, the transfer fee would be 60. Should you transfer two or more credit card balances across, you will be charged for the total number of transfers, so it’s easy to see how these charges can quickly build up. Many introductory offers reduce or waive these transfer fees, but make sure you read the fine print.

Also, while these offers generally allow for a 0% interest charge on a monthly basis, occasionally they require that a monthly “finance charge” be applied to the account. This can be as small as 50p or 1.00, but again, it crucial that you read the fine print and understand all of the rule and conditions that accompany your new account.

Tips for success:

Read and understand all of the conditions attached to the balance transfer offer, so you know exactly what you’re in for.

Ask plenty of questions. How long does the 0% interest rate last for, for example - and what does the interest rate revert to once the 0% interest period is over?

Commit to paying down the debt. Just because the interest payable is zero, doesn’t mean you should let the debt sit there for months. Use this as an opportunity to pay off as much of your credit card balance as possible, before a higher interest rate kicks in again.

Before you move to a new credit provider, approach your bank and ask them if they can give you a better deal on your current credit card account or business credit cards. They may be able to wipe a few percentage points off your interest rate in order to retain your business.

Credit crunch is killing several businesses and hence, small businesses are looking for ways to control business expenses using debit cards. Synergistic Research Corporation conducted a survey among small business owners and reported that 35% of such owners prefer using debit cards for their business. As they use debit cards at home, they find it convenient to use at work as well.

Banks now promote debit cards for its customers with business checking accounts as banks also benefit from these business customers. The amount of business transactions is huge and hence, banks can profit from the interchange rate of business debit cards.

When the business owners show interest in conducting business transactions using debit cards, the banks are ready to offer more offers and services. The interchange rates for business debit cards continuously increases as the volume of transactions increases.

With debit cards, you dont have to mess up with payroll checks. All organizations have to find affordable and easy payroll solutions with lesser amount of paperwork. Debit cards make it possible by offering simple solutions to pay for your employees. Without the need for any paperwork, you can send money to the bank account of your employees.

To pay for the suppliers, there is no need of paperwork and delay involved in the issue of checks. Small businesses use debit cards to send money to the suppliers. This way, payment is instant and highly secure. Further, there is no chance of frauds associated with debit card transactions. However, there are still a higher percentage of people who dont accept debit card payments. This scenario is changing now as the popularity of debit card increases.

Debit cards incur no annual fees like credit cards. Moreover, you never have to pay any extra fees or interest rates when you use debit cards. Considering the volume of transactions for your business, you can save money in the long run with debit cards. A lot of paperwork can be eliminated with regular use of debit cards.

You should set overdraft protection to protect yourself from spending more than you can afford. If you dont pay proper attention for this overdraft, you have to pay more fees for the bank for exceeding the limit.

You must keep the PIN number of your debit card safely because anyone who has access to your card and PIN number can drain your bank account completely.