Which merchants will receive the new low debit fee rates? This video provides a detailed look at rate differences and how to examine your merchant agreement schedule A and statement. While all merchants qualify for them, only a fraction will actually have debit discounts passed down from their processor. Will you be one of them? Pull out your merchant statement, then watch the video so you can compare data.

On October 1, 2011, new debit interchange rates go into effect as a result of the Durbin Amendment, part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.

Have you ever needed to check if a credit or debit card is valid, but you don’t want to authorize or charge yet? We’ve added a new feature for our CenPOS Virtual Terminal called Positive Card. CenPOS will go out to the networks with a zero authorization amount to validate the card with the issuer prior to being stored.

REVIEW OF ENCRYPTED PAYMENT STORAGE OPTIONS NOW AVAILABLE:
Positive Card- validates card. Merchant validate CVV, address and zip code passes fraud check and decide whether the answers are acceptable before storing. Why would you accept a card if it doesn’t pass everything? Only Canada and the UK participate in AVS check; If you know your customer, you may wish to allow the card anyway. This feature allows you to enter a card, then make an educated decision as to whether you want to store it for recurring billing.
Repeat Sale- Offered for check/ACH and credit/debit. Process a transaction and it creates a new token to use for future sales transactions. CVV not allowed per PCI Compliance. Later, check the Token Box, enter the Token ID, amount and invoice #. That’s it.
Recurring Payments Module: Offered for check/ACH and credit/debit. Set up client contracts and store multiple cards, payors, and payment methods for a single account. Regardless of where a token was issued (resale, recurring, positive etc) the token is the same for all.
Securely store any payment type for variable amount token billing or fixed recurring billing.

FAQ:
How do I get this feature? Administrators login to the Virtual Terminal and turn on for each user you want to have access. (This also applies to the other options.)
Will this also validate checks? No, It resides in the credit/debit. If you have a need, let us know.
Are there fees? Yes. 6/14/11 MasterCard charges $.03 for this service, effective with their announcement to support zero auth address verification (AVS), card verification code 2 (CVC 2) validation or both. Expect similar fees on all networks now or in the future. Standard CenPOS per transaction fees apply.
Can we use tokens for the EBPP/ E-invoice service? Not yet, but it’s in development. Currently customers will click the email and enter payment information for each invoice.

The tools are in place for you to eliminate faxed authorization forms that expose payment data and reduce PCI Compliance scope. If you need help using the features or how to deliver the token approval form for signature to your clients, please do not hesitate to call.

A review of Braintree Payment Solutions and CenPOS universal processing platform for recurring billing follows. While there are several items that both share in common, this review highlights more of the differences. A key difference not outlined in detail is that while both offer a gateway, only one is a switch. A gateway accepts data and passes it through. A switch dynamically makes intelligent decisions based on a number of  through-puts, including merchant defined rules and a host database which is continually updated in real time. The CenPOS switch empowers merchants with more controls over payment processes and the hosted platform provides scalable, flexible technology to change with legislative, merchant, and payment industry changes.

With its promise of portability,  Braintree provides more flexibility than has been available from even the biggest credit card processing providers, for ‘online only’ businesses with a subscription recurring payment requirement.  Since the average small business changes suppliers every 12-18 months, Braintree’s promise of portability provides superior flexibility.

Transferring card data presents significant risk to the merchant in the case of a data breach. To protect from liability, suppliers who hold encrypted card data will generally not release data without a written promise to absolve from any and all liability in the event of any future data breach.

The CenPOS platform excels in markets where greater flexibility is needed in types of payments accepted, where they are accepted, or where interchange optimization is essential such for business to business. Wholesale distributors, law firms, medical billing companies, professional services, IT services, schools and staffing companies will benefit from the broader array of options of CenPOS. For recurring billing, there are very few options for merchants to bill a customer a variable amount with tokenization.  CenPOS provides superior flexibility for mid to large businesses to be PCI Compliant and manage processing costs.
 

In summary, merchants should evaluate all the reasons to choose a service provider for what they have now vs. what they need to leave the service provider later. A free trial or extended out will help users make the right choice.

Click here for more information about CenPOS recurring billing or here for CenPOS.

This how to video demonstrates how to install a sim card in the Verifone Nurit 8020 wireless credit card terminal Model 8020US50K04. You can enlarge to full screen view.

Open the battery pack. Unlock the SIM cardholder. Turn machine over so the latch opens.  Match the gold on SIM to face the gold on the inside electronics. Relock, replace cover.

Please LIKE on Youtube, Facebook or add a PLUS 1 if you like this video. Thank you!

See also Nurit 8020 M20 wireless terminal review.

Can I store encrypted credit card data and bill different amounts to a customer?  Yes, and this video demo of our most advanced virtual terminal shows you exactly how. This is a universal PCI Compliant virtual terminal, meaning it’s compatible with all major credit card processors.

Almost any virtual terminal solution can securely store card data for recurring billing, where the card is charged the same amount each time, but none of the most popular virtual terminals offers a secure token solution to charge a variable amount.  Chase Paymentechs’ Orbital ®Gateway, Authorize.net ®, and PC Charge® all offer recurring billing, but do not offer variable amount billing for their standard gateway. If there is a custom option, I’m not aware of it.

Chase Paymentech Orbital, Authorize.net, PC Charge are all gateways. Our solution is a SWITCH, and also  a gateway. What’s the difference? A gateway passes data over the internet to facilitate an electronic transaction. A switch identifies the data,  makes logical decisions, and then routes the data based upon pre-defined parameters. For example, a gateway passes card data from the point of collection to the payment processor. Our switch can identify the card issuing bank, determine what’s needed to qualify the transaction for the lowest cost interchange, and then pass the data needed to meet that requirement. This is just one example of what switch technology can do.

Do the federal red flag rules apply to your business or organization? What are your legal obligations to protect your customers from identity theft? This video does a great job of explaining if the red flag rules apply and everything related you need to know.

This video is posted as a separate item from the article ” Are you complying with the Red Flags Rule? ” because there are elements that are or will be out of date due to new federal legislation signed into law in July 2010, including the Durbin interchange Amendment.

Discussion?

I made a video about Non-profit credit card processing rates telling non-profit merchants what to look for on their merchant statements to know if they are qualifying for special credit card processing interchange rates they are entitled to as a non-profit. If a non-profit does not see this data on their merchant statement, I tell them to call me and I’ll help them out. I give free information to non-profits all the time, to enable them to use more dollars for their intended programs rather than paying it in credit card processing fees.

Captain Morgan (his youtube handle) is threatening me saying this is misleading advertising. “there are NO special interchange rates for Non-Profit businesses”. He’s going to report me to the card associations and everyone else who will listen.

Here’s an example of interchange rates. All “for profit” merchants can qualify for .95% signature debit. All  501(c)(3) merchants can can qualify for .80% signature debit for the same transaction.  Is that not a special rate?  CaptMorgan would have  you believe that Visa/Mastercard simply hands over these rates to everyone. But that’s not true. By rule, any non-profit can QUALIFY for these rates. But that doesn’t mean their PROCESSOR GIVES them those rates. The card associations set the interchange rates, but it’s up to the payment processor to decide what they’ll actually charge merchants.

Technically the two rates above are called CPS/RETAIL and CPS/RETAIL2 EMERGING MARKETS. There are a select few types of businesses that can participate in EMERGING MARKETS interchange rates. If the merchant is one of the qualified types of business, the proper corresponding SIC code on the merchant account set up will drive the ability for the merchant to hit emerging market interchange rates.

If all the credit card processing companies were doing such a bang up job, I’d have never made the video. But after seeing one too many merchant statements with the non-profit not qualifying for emerging market rates, I did something about it. Here’s the kicker. On a ‘pass through’ or wholesale price plan, the merchant pays interchange plus a merchant discount. (That’s the short version, though it’s much more complicated than that.) If the non-profit is set up incorrectly, they’ll pay .95%, for example, instead of .80%. The processor does not make any money on interchange.  NONE of the .15% difference goes to the processor.  But because some salesperson has no idea what they are doing, and it happens ALL THE TIME, the non-profit frequently pays more.  The salesperson doesn’t benefit, the processor doesn’t benefit, and the merchant pays.

CAPTMORGAN comment: “Are their special credit card processing rates for non-profits….? The answer to that is NO… NOT in any way…. ? This lady is full of it….. Visa / MC considers all markets by which they have limited presence in to be “emerging markets”. These markets are specifically; government, schools, utilities, insurance, cable / broadband, and pay television (OD); – nothing more…”

I think his comment is contradictory. YES, there are other types of merchants that ALSO qualify for emerging market interchange rates. I could have mentioned all of them in the video, but then, it would have been too long. If I did mention it, I’d give the same information and advice. Because I’ve also rarely seen a merchant statement for a government, school, utility, insurance, cable / broadband, or pay television that had emerging markets on their interchange qualification. How does this happen? If the merchant has been with the same processor for a long time, the emerging markets category may have been created after the account was established. With the wrong SIC code, the merchant never qualifies for the special interchange rates because nobody at the processor is watching out for their client and the client doesn’t know these rates exist, what to look for, or they are not given enough information to figure it out.

I listened to my Non-profit Credit card processing rates video two more times to see if I have some potential liability.  Hey- who want’s trouble? I could, and probably should,  take it down just to avoid any remote chance of trouble. But after listening again, I don’t see anything wrong with it. You be the judge. Watch the video. Do you think it’s misleading or false advertising? Does this guy not have anything better to do than to try and make life difficult for others?

Please write your comments on the video or blog. Thanks!

How can non-profits lower credit card processing costs for online donations? Video presentation specifically reviews these costs with real examples so controllers and CFO’s can benchmark their current costs vs actual lowest costs possible. Based on Visa and MasterCard Associations  2009 interchange rates and actual non-profit merchant statement reviews.

Lowering Credit Card Processing Rates for non-profits presentation