Posts Tagged ‘payment gateway’

Merchant Accounts On The Internet

The growing online market has made it necessary to create and refine internet accounts for the merchants who have chosen to participate in online transactions. There are a variety of conveniences and functions which these online accounts can provide to their business partners.

A merchant may need to process both debit and credit cards, for example, along with checks and gift cards. A good internet merchant account may be able to bundle a variety of types of transactions into one secure software location, saving time, money, and error. This simplification and streamlining should result in lower costs for doing business online. Such service provisions should also be able to function within one location or across multiple stores, or at one or more than one PC terminal within a store.

Less chance of error or fraud is the natural result of an account with built-in safeguards such as multiple levels of secure passwords and/or logins. This in itself would again serve to lower costs.

Such a website could carry a webpage designed for the merchant, or could even carry its own web logo on the client’s web page to signal added levels of security. However it is designed, such provider partner service should integrate fully into the merchant’s onsite profile.

Simplicity and ease of use should be central to such software. It should be inexpensive to use. Credit card transactions processed within the merchant account should be simple. The software itself will help structure ways in which the merchant can function and so should be tailored to his specific goals, including providing opportunity for growth and for future expansion.

The environment in which merchant transactions take place should be a safe and protected one, where doing business is as simple and straightforward as taking a walk. The concept of user-friendly procedures should include real-time availability of data as well. A customized program will have the added benefits of saving both money and time.

Your online merchant account should offer a high level of service. Different parts of the customer market require differing services, and these divergent needs will require individual attention. No two merchant account providers will offer the same set of options or provide identical services, so it becomes necessary for the merchant to acquaint himself with what is available, and then set out to implement his choice.

Internet merchant accounts have been created for everyone’s benefit and should be dependable, adaptable, and safe. Once such a program is in place, the merchant will find that he has fewer fires to put out and greater capability for expansion and growth.

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Protecting Your Merchant Account ? How To Spot An Illegal Transaction

by Anne Torres

Threats to Internet users’ safety have been exaggerated proportionately with the growth of this technology. Regrettably, for e-commerce merchants, a good chunk goes to them. The risk of fraud is certainly higher in card-not-present transactions such as online purchases compared to traditional selling where the card is actually verifiable with the customer’s signature. For online businessmen, every credit card purchase is simply of higher potential to turn invalid. On the other hand, the situation is not helpless and there are ways to notice whether or not a credit card used by an online buyer is authentic.

The first obvious step is to ensure that information provided by the customer is correct and complete, including full address and phone number. In other words, you reduce the chance that a purchase turns out to be illegal when you have more information entered through your website matching what is contained in the card holder’s actual bank records.

Of course, it’s not enough to accept whatever information is given. You also need to verify, for instance by calling the phone numbers entered by the person on your client interface. If you just can’t reach those numbers, they’re probably fake and so is the customer who claims to be the legitimate owner of the account he plans to make a purchase with.

If you have an e-commerce merchant services account, the more you need to be conscious about preventing charge backs or having to pay the cost of invalid credit card purchases. Therefore, additional security measures might be necessary for particularly suspicious transactions. Ask the customer to fax both sides of the card itself as well as any government ID such as a driver’s license. Or require him to supply you with the Card Security Code which is a set of numbers found only on the credit card itself. Because most credit card theft happens virtually (only information about the account is stolen and not the card itself), knowing that a customer actually has the card increases the possibility that he is the legitimate card holder.

Spotting invalid purchases can in fact be easy and may just need common sense. For example, orders to be shipped to an address other than what is indicated in a card holder’s banking records could be against the law. Orders coming from free email services such as Yahoomail, Gmail, etc. are also a red flag considering the high occurrence of fraud using these services.

Larger-than-normal purchases, especially when specified for rush shipment, could mean a thief grabbing the limited opportunity he has to drain his victim’s account, knowing it will soon be frozen once the theft is reported. Orders made outside the country should also be looked into more closely simply because you will have practically no way of verifying whether or not the supplied address is indisputable.

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Are E-commerce Transactions Secure?

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.

Using Mobile Technology for Your Payments

by A Nutt

We now use our mobile phones for everything that we do. We talk on them, we text message, we email, take pictures, record videos, send those pictures and videos in messages, play games, and so much more. But now you can use mobile technology to make bill payments. That is how advanced this system has become

But how secure is this system? Is it something that you really want to do? Many individuals are not secure with this sort of system and others are. That is why it is good to evaluate the situation to see if this is something you would like to do.

Security Many individuals have mobile phone carriers that enable them to make their mobile phone payment right from their phone. Their payment account information is already in the system, so all they have to do is push a button and their payment is made. They then don’t have to worry about their payment again until next month.

But due to the fact that the Internet has become available on mobile phones, there are people wondering if they can make their other payments over their phone just like they do with their personal computers. Is it as secure?

Well, since mobile Internet is being phased out because mobile phones can access the same Internet that personal computers access, it is fair to say that it is just as safe. If you are accessing a secure site over your phone, you should have no issues making your payment. The only problem that you may encounter is the fact that you have to have a solid connection when you carry out your transaction. This will not compromise your security, but could result in you actually making a payment twice if you’re not sure it went through the first time. This can result in you having to consult with the company you made a payment to and telling them that you had a connection issue that resulted in a double payment.

Conveniences and issues It is very convenient to be able to make payments over your mobile phone, but there are still some phones that do not support the more advanced Internet access. Because of this, you may not be able to make your payments over your mobile phone, especially since thee are some websites that are not mobile enabled. They won’t display right or will not be able to give you the option to pay at all. In this case, you would be better off making a phone call to make your payment.

But the convenience of it cannot be denied for the fact that you can be sitting on a bus, on a subway, in a cab, standing in a long line at a department store, or even at a sporting event and pay your bills. You don’t have to wait until you get home in order to make your payment. You can do it right then and there without any issues. Just make sure you have an adequate connection to ensure that you can process the payment smoothly.

Will you do it? With this said, will you do it? Will you make your bill payments over your mobile phone? If you are in a situation where you need to make a payment right now, this may be a viable solution. This is especially true if it is the difference between you getting a very high late fee or not getting a very high late fee. If accept credit card payment, it could be the difference between having to pay a higher interest rate because of a late payment and not having to pay a high interest rate. That is the convenience of making payments using your mobile phone.

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