This mobile POS review compares 6 features for swiping credit cards via an iPad mobile app. The features are:

FEATURE	First Data Mobile Pay™	CenPOS mobile
Credit card processing- is the app compatible with many merchant services companies or is it proprietary?	proprietary	universal
Can the app store or use tokens in the transaction process? Tokens replace sensitive payment data. By enabling tokens for repeat customers, merchants can gain insights into customers.	No.	yes
Scalability: is it one app = one account, or can a merchant access data by user, by location, etc. Is it part of a suite of solutions to reduce PCI burden?	unclear	centralized control & reporting
Multi-channel: are all channels integrated with one reporting hub?	unclear	yes
Fee relief: does the app have any intelligence to help merchants manage the cost of accepting payments, including swipe vs. key entered?	no	yes
Data storage: How long is data retrievable for? Searchable and exportable data helps reduce reduce audit costs, creates efficiencies, and improves business insights	?	7 year minimum
Worthy Notes:		CenPOS is a private cloud suite of solutions compatible with light integration options to other software.
Business model:	User licenses per location	SaaS, per merchant ID

The review is based on publicly available information at the time of this writing. Technology products can change rapidly and readers are encouraged to review respective web sites for the latest information.

There are 62 Point of Sale (POS) apps listed on Infinite Peripherals App Partners. Infinite Peripherals is a leading provider of POS hardware for Apple products including the iPad.

To keep the list manageable the topics list is relatively small so merchants can see at a glance key differences. Your blog author, Christine Speedy, sells the CenPOS private cloud suite of payment processing solutions, that includes a free mobile app, compatible with all Infinite Peripherals products. Although other apps are also available from our partners, usually they don’t stack up to CenPOS after a consultation.

For more comparisons, search for this subject title: iPad credit card terminal.

For CenPOS sales, please ask for Christine Speedy.

This mobile POS review compares 6 features for swiping credit cards via an iPad mobile app. The features are:

FEATURE	LightSpeed Mobile	CENPOS
Credit card processing- is the app compatible with many merchant services companies or is it proprietary?	proprietary * Site lists preferred partners, does not indicate exclusivity.	universal
Can the app store or use tokens in the transaction process. Tokens replace sensitive payment data. By enabling tokens for repeat customers, merchants can gain insights into customers.	no	yes
Scalability: is it one app = one account, or can a merchant access data by user, by location, etc. Is it part of a suite of solutions to reduce PCI burden?	centralized control & reporting	centralized control & reporting
Multi-channel: are all channels integrated with one reporting hub?	yes, not clear to what extent for reconciliation	yes
Fee relief: does the app have any intelligence to help merchants manage the cost of accepting payments, including swipe vs. key entered?	no	yes
Data storage: How long is data retrievable for? Searchable and exportable data helps reduce reduce audit costs, creates efficiencies, and improves business insights	?	7 year minimum
Worthy Notes:	Mac front and back end with inventory management across stores. Robust POS solution- the payment portion is 3rd party	CenPOS is a private cloud suite of solutions compatible with light integration options to other software.
Business model:	User licenses per location	SaaS, per merchant ID

The review is based on publicly available information at the time of this writing. Technology products can change rapidly and readers are encouraged to review respective web sites for the latest information.

There are 62 Point of Sale (POS) apps listed on Infinite Peripherals App Partners. Infinite Peripherals is a leading provider of POS hardware for Apple products including the iPad.

To keep the list manageable the topics list is relatively small so merchants can see at a glance key differences. Your blog author, Christine Speedy, sells the CenPOS private cloud suite of payment processing solutions, that includes a free mobile app, compatible with all Infinite Peripherals products. Although other apps are also available from our partners, usually they don’t stack up to CenPOS after a consultation.

For more comparisons, search for this subject title: iPad credit card terminal.

For CenPOS sales, please ask for Christine Speedy.

This mobile POS review compares 6 features for swiping credit cards via an iPad mobile app. The features are:

The review is based on publicly available information at the time of this writing. Technology products can change rapidly and readers are encouraged to review respective web sites for the latest information.

There are 62 Point of Sale (POS) apps listed on Infinite Peripherals App Partners. Infinite Peripherals is a leading provider of POS hardware for Apple products including the iPad.

To keep the list manageable the topics list is relatively small so merchants can see at a glance key differences. Your blog author, Christine Speedy, sells the CenPOS private cloud suite of payment processing solutions, that includes a free mobile app, compatible with all Infinite Peripherals products. Although other apps are also available from our partners, usually they don’t stack up to CenPOS after a consultation.

For more comparisons, search for this subject title: iPad credit card terminal.

For CenPOS sales, please ask for Christine Speedy.

There are 62 Point of Sale (POS) apps listed on Infinite Peripherals App Partners. Infinite Peripherals is a leading provider of POS hardware for Apple products including the iPad. In the coming weeks I’ll post reviews on a very specific set of features. The features are:

• Credit card processing- is the app compatible with many merchant services companies or is it proprietary?
• Can the app store or use tokens in the transaction process. Tokens replace sensitive payment data. By enabling tokens for repeat customers, merchants can gain insights into customers.
• Scalability: is it one app = one account, or can a merchant access data by user, by location, etc. Is it part of a suite of solutions to reduce PCI burden?
• Multi-channel: are all channels integrated with one reporting hub?
• Fee relief: does the app have any intelligence to help merchants manage the cost of accepting payments, including swipe vs key entered.

To keep the list manageable the topics list is relatively small so merchants can see at a glance key differences. Your blog author, Christine Speedy, sells the CenPOS solution that’s includes a free mobile app, compatible with all Infinite Peripherals products. Although other apps are also available from our partners, usually they don’t stack up to CenPOS after a consultation.

Look for this subject title: iPad credit card terminal. Shown below is the Infinea Tab.  The Infinea Tab

Click the image above to visit the iPad peripherals manufacturer web site.

If one thing is certain, it’s the uncertainty of what the mobile payment space will look like five years from today. Professional sports organizations seeking new payment technology, while improving PCI Compliance (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards), need to consider whether the company they partner with will still be around in the future.

I recall back in the mid-90′s, working as a trailblazer bringing professional sports and related parties onto the internet. So many companies came and went. Yahoo, DoubleClick and Real are still in business. About a thousand other hot companies have long since disappeared.  Similarly the entire payment industry is going through a transformation, with hundreds of companies vying for a position in mobile payments or some other slice of the payment pie. Even big Google Wallet couldn’t generate a dominant marketshare. It’s a safe bet that 90% of them will fail, and some of them already have.

A little history might help breen caution. For over a decade, ISO’s, or Independent Service Organizations, grew dramatically. Instead of obtaining a merchant account from one of a few options via the big banks, businesses could buy the same product, or nearly the same product,  from an ISO, but often with lower mark-ups over interchange fees. As the economy grew in the last decade, a large number of companies borrowed against their residual earnings. When the economy tanked, businesses went under, and many businesses were over leveraged. There is a contraction underway in the ISO industry. The mobile payments space doesn’t typically have the revenue stream, and instead often relies on angel investing. A contraction will come for them as well.

What does an ideal mobile payment solution look like? The equipment makers and others pounded the drums for NFC, but to date, it’s made little movement. Ideally, both the consumer and merchante will benefit from any new payment solution. It needs to create efficiencies, and improve security.

CenPOS is a fast growing payment technology network that streamlines the payment experience for merchants and consumers alike. It has several advantages over other solutions:

1. CenPOS is non-disruptive to operations. It routes transactions to existing financial partners, including credit card and check processors.
2. CenPOS supports multiple channels. Kiosk, mobile, retail POS, ecommerce and more.
3. CenPOS reduces PCI burden.
4. CenPOS is scalable and flexible.
5. Integration options vary widely by need.
6. CenPOS started years ago as a company to create efficiencies for consumers and merchants. The others are playing catch up.

When all the facts are considered, CenPOS is the most robust solution on the market today, and with continual innovation, markets will drive future enhancements.

About CenPOS: CenPOS is an innovative payment processing network that streamlines the payment experience for both merchants and customers. It’s multi-channel support and SaaS model, has catapulted a shift in payment technology adoption in a variety of industries. CenPOS is fast, easy to use, and requires no capital investment to implement. For CenPOS sales call Christine at 954-942-0483 or click here for more information.

iPhone app credit card payments screenshots below are from the CenPOS retail app available for free download at iTunes. The two methods to use the retail app, do not include the restaurant and tip option, which are configured in the merchant set up.

SCREENSHOT 1:  RETAIL SWIPE. The standard screen is ready to capture data via magnetic card reader attached to the iPhone. The receipt can be emailed, or printed.

SCREENSHOT  2-3: OPTIONAL ADDITIONAL ACCOUNTING DATA. Next to the amount field is a small graphical image. Because this merchant has optionally chosen to collect additional data about the sale, the icon can be pressed and the clerk can assign transaction amounts to different accounting codes.

 The accounting codes are used throughout different sources, such as the virtual terminal, or via an API.  Merchants can use exsiting templates, such as the school/religious file, or provide one of their own to upload. Benefits include saving time assigning data later, as well as real time reporting to a remote location, such as multiple schools and churches reporting back to the archdiocese.

SCREENSHOT  4:  KEY ENTERED TRANSACTIONS. This images shows part of the different data captured when a transaction is key entered vs swiped. This is a key differentiator for CenPOS. Key entered transactions have a greater burden of proof for merchants to prove it was the cardholder making the transaction. Absent of magnetic stripe data, and based on merchant rules, CenPOS will automatically prompt for additional fields and send the transaction with the right information for qualified card not present interchange rates.

The CenPOS works with your existing processor, and is fast, easy, and requires no capital investment to implement. Call 954-942-0483 or click here for more information.

With a proliferation of newcomers to the market, merchants need to be aware of potential mobile payments security problems. The PCI Security Standards Council recently released new standards for developers as well as guidelines for merchants. One important aspect to ask questions about, is ‘store and forward‘.

If the mobile application enables you to accept credit cards when you cannot connect to the internet, clearly the data resides on the device, which creates a potential security risk.  This issue is addressed in a new Best Practice for Mobile Payments Developers released by the PCI Security Standards Council. Who can access the card information, pending presentment to your processor for an authorization? In what format does that data reside? If the user cannot access, is it possible other malware could access the data?

Editor’s note: Our CenPOS iPad mobile app does not support store on device and forward for presentment later. Merchants must have access to an internet connection. There are multiple options should you need to store payment data with that live connection:

1. Zero dollar auth- validate the card only, and store data for later billing.
2. Auth- Get an authorization for a specific sale, but don’t charge yet; store data for later billing.
3. Repeat sale- Process transaction now, and store payment information for future billing.

In each case above, the credit card information is encrypted and replaced by a random alpha-numeric character, or ‘token’.   The encrypted payment information can never be seen again.
Accepting Mobile Payments with a Smartphone or Tablet  (PDF download from PCI Security Standards Council)

For additional information about mobile payments solutions, please contact Christine.

TODAYS BULLETINS:

• Fraud costs
• Mobile Payments- as easy as Apple
• Historic $7.2 Billon dollar settlement may result in consumers paying swipe fees
• Interchange qualification question of the day: sales tax exempt and corporate cards

Retail Fraud Taking a Greater Financial Toll According to LexisNexis® 4th Annual True Cost of Fraud Study. This year’s cost of $2.70 per $1.00 in merchandise is up $0.40 from last year’s level of $2.30. One of the areas of major fraud growth is the mobile sector. This year, mobile merchants paid $2.83 for every $1.00 lost compared to just $2.00 for 2011, an increase of more than 40 percent. If you have losses due to fraud, call me to discuss prevention options.

One mobile payment solution that really stands out you may have seen in an APPLE STORE. I recently blogged about the Linea Pro hardware Apple uses. It’s more expensive than other options, but it also can help solve more problems. A recent client meeting uncovered a desire to collect donor information at special events for auction items. One option is to combine the Linea Pro hardware with CenPOS mobile; merchants can swipe the drivers license and collect just the name & address to append the payment file. If permitted by local law, full drivers license data can be swiped as well. For the Linea Pro, or any other mobile payment need, contact me for assistance to help choose the best solution for your needs.

Payment networks Visa and MasterCard, as well as a number of large retailers, agreed to a $7.25 billion settlement that may allow merchants to impose a “checkout fee” on consumers for credit card transactions and end a seven-year battle over credit card swipe fees.

• Read ABC News Article
• Visa Press release Visa, U.S. Retailers Resolve Claims in the Federal Multi-District Interchange Litigation
• National Association of State Procurement Officials Brief- 9/2012 (pdf download) if you do business with governments, read this.
• Expect announcements in the October Merchant update- until then, I recommend taking no action.
• Interchange qualification: corporate cards

INTERCHANGE QUESTION OF THE DAY: If a customer is tax exempt, how can the transaction qualify for lower interchange rates? If a customer is tax exempt, the merchant cannot qualify the business/purchasing card transaction with level 2 data for preferred corporate card rates, which requires a sales tax other than 0. Merchants rarely know what kind of card a customer has, and have no way of knowing what the rules are for that card. CenPOS solves this problem by identifying the card issuer in real time, and automatically prompting for the right extra data ONLY when needed. For example, when using alternative payment gateways or terminals, the merchant is usually stuck with 2.65% interchange rate. With CenPOS, a processor that supports level 3 data, and the CenPOS level 3 data prompt turned on, the merchant can qualify certain MasterCard transactions as low as 1.80%, a .85% savings. Look for CORP DATA RATE I (US) PUR, CORP DATA RATE I (US) BUS, EIRF or STD on your merchant statement for examples of transactions that may have been eligible for better rates.

Warm regards,
Christine  Speedy