Disaster planning: credit card processing, cash flow and accepting payments

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Mobile credit card processing and online payments of all types can ensure business cash flow during and after a disaster. When the storm is over and people emerge to shop again, how will businesses manage accepting credit cards? Or get paid by check if mail is undeliverable? Critical issues include power, telephone and internet access, as well as human capital when employees scatter to many different places.

How can we help your business when a USA storm is imminent?

  1. Online pay page– hosted pay page supporting ACH/echeck with or without guarantee, credit card, wire and Paypal. No web developer is needed for this fast solution; just send our custom link to your customers.
  2. Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment- Login to a portal and Text or email your customers a pre-filled payment object with link to pay a specific invoice; optionally create detailed invoices on the fly if your accounting system is not available.
  3. Virtual terminal – your employees key enter the payment information via virtual terminal on a secure hosted web page or using the mobile app (free).

All solutions above are quick and easy to adopt and they work with your existing financial partners such as merchant services or check processor. Remote training videos can help users get up and running the same day as the account is activated from wherever they are. For the two self-pay options above, when using 3-D Secure cardholder authentication, liability for fraud shifts to the issuer, much like EMV does for retail. Additionally, the qualified rated for credit card acceptance in many cases is the same as retail.

It’s probably not realistic to get a credit card swiper on short notice because in the current retail world, EMV chip card and point to point encryption are critical to protect against fraud and data breaches. Use a store bought mag card reader at your own risk.

 

Good to know:

  • Works with all or most processors- bring a merchant statement, online login, or contact information with you when evacuating so we can connect to it.
  • No long term agreement- month to month
  • Plugins available for many software solutions
  • Encrypted virtual keypad protects cardholder data from key logger software (important when employees may be using their own PC’s)
  • PCI Compliant
  • Each user has unique login for compliance and tracking; same permission based login across all solutions.
  • Standardization across all locales for complete transparency, and compliance.
  • With simple cashiering you can even manage and track cash transactions.

Contact Christine Speedy 954-815-6040 or cspeedy At cenposreseller.com

 

MasterCard Bin 2 Series In Play: Declines and Fines

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Previously, MasterCard announced a new card number BIN series, requiring everyone in the payment ecosystem to update in order to support the new card acceptance. Merchants need to update software and or terminals to comply by the June 30, 2017 mandate deadline. The consequences are both transaction declines and heavy fines.

Credit card processing:

  • Traditional countertop terminals may need a software download, contact your processor.

    Verifone vx520 emv terminal

    Verifone vx520

  •  Point of Sale solutions or the payment gateway that drives terminals need to be updated. This may occur seamlessly in the background with no impact to merchants and nothing to download.
    verifone MX915 EMV terminal

    Verifone MX915 EMV chip terminal

    Equipment & Payment Gateway NOT affected:

    • Authorize.net
    • BridgePay
    • Cayan
    • CenPOS
    • Clover
    • Ingenico w/ EMV Chip Card Technology
    • First Data w/ EMV Chip Card Technology
    • Future POS (Version 5.0.96.30)
    • Gravity Gateway
    • Lavu
    • Merchant Link
    • Micros
    • NMI
    • Payeezy
    • Paytrace
    • Shift 4
    • Shopkeep
    • Swipe Simple
    • USAePay/Gravity Link

    Credit Card Terminals Requiring a Software Update:

    • Apriva cellular terminal
    • FD 50 TI (Non EMV Chip Card)
    • FD 100 TI (Non EMV Chip Card)
    • FD 130 (Non EMV Chip Card)
    • FD 200 TI (Non EMV Chip Card)
    • Ingenico (Non EMV Chip Card)
    • Verifone VX520

    Credit Card Terminals Requiring Replacement: These terminals are end of life and cannot be updated.

    • All Hypercomm Terminals
    • Fd 50 (non TI)
    • FD 100 (non TI)
    • FD 200 (non TI)
    • FD 300 (non TI)
    • VX 510
    • VX 570

    Consequences for non-compliance with MasterCard Bin 2 Series

  • Mastercard Transactions for cards beginning with a 2 in the range of 222100-272099 will be declined.
  • If you do not update your software before the deadline, you will fall into a status of non-compliance. A non-compliant occurrence is defined as any attempted and failed transaction that is confirmed as failed due to a merchant’s lack of readiness to support 2-Series BIN transactions.
    • $2,500 per occurrence in the first 30 days.
    • Escalating up to $10,000 in the next 60 days.
    • Up to $20,000 per occurrence for the subsequent violations.

    These fines may be assessed per merchant location per failed transaction for not implementing support of the new cards.

    Fines will be pushed to acquirers. If acquirers are compliant, but the merchant is not, the fines will be passed down. If you’re sitting on old software and terminals, now is the time to change! It’s simple for MasterCard to identify non-compliance.  Contact us for immediate help- keep your merchant account, get new compliant credit card processing technology.

Disclaimer: This list and accompanying information may be out of date at any time. Check with your acquirer for the most current information.

 

Mastercard Lane and Unique Terminal Identification (TID) Mandate

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The Mastercard Unique Terminal ID mandate is another attempt to stem and more quickly identify fraud at merchants using integrated retail point of sale solutions. This mandate was announced back in 2013, and requires unique terminal identifiers for each independent card reading device at a single location, not to be confused with the acquiring TID.

Effective January 1, 2017, merchants who do not adhere to the MasterCard Unique Terminal ID mandate will fall into a status of noncompliance. Fines for non-compliance go into effect December 31, 2017. Multiple card-reading devices, such as PIN pads and terminals, connected to a single host terminal are each required to have a Unique Device ID to remain compliant and avoid potential fines from Mastercard.

MasterCard Fines will be assessed for each transaction that violates this mandate.

If you do not regularly update your POS software, as is also required for PCI Compliance, you’re probably not compliant. with MasterCard and may be fined. Action: contact your POS provider for further information. Read your merchant statement messages for these and other critical alerts.

CenPOS Launches PCI-Validated P2P Encryption

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Florida-Based Payment Solutions Company, CenPOS, Strives to Make Customer Experience More Secure with Launch of PCI-Validated P2P Encryption.

Data breaches are on the rise and they are costing both consumers and merchants money.

Miami, Florida (PRWEB)July 29, 2017

The 2017 Identity Fraud Study, released by Javelin Strategy & Research, found that $16 billion was stolen from 15.4 million U.S. consumers in 2016.

When the consumer data that makes such fraudulent activity possible comes from the merchant’s database, then the merchant can also incur some major damages. In fact, the 2017 Cost of Data Breach Study: United States, found that the total average organizational cost of a data breach has reached a new high at $7.35 million.

CenPOS aims to reduce the vulnerability of sensitive consumer data — that could be used to drain debit card-linked bank accounts, make “clone” credit cards, or buy items on certain less-secure online sites — to hackers with the release of its Validated P2PE solution.

Officially released on July 7th of this year, CenPOS Validated P2PE encrypts cardholder data so businesses can simplify compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) and consumers can stop worrying about data being stolen between “the store” and the bank.

Surprisingly, Validated P2PE is not new technology. It’s the strongest level of data encryption in the market right now and is offered by other merchant payment services companies. However, CenPOS is the first and only company with the Qualified Integrator & Reseller (QIR) designation to offer a Validated P2PE solution.

The QIR designation is awarded by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, a global open body formed to develop, enhance, disseminate and assist with the understanding of security standards for payment account security.

According to their standards, “the quality, reliability, and consistency of a QIR Company’s work” should provide confidence that the merchant’s payment application has been implemented in a manner that supports PCI DSS compliance.

Chris Justice, CEO of CenPOS, is quoted saying: “We believe that loyalty is built on trust and that trust is built by delivering great customer experience over and over again. So, when consumers can have greater peace of mind because they know that the merchant has the proper data security in place to reduce exposure to painful events, like data breaches, we believe customer experience is enhanced and that consumer will choose that merchant over others who are less diligent.”

CenPOS Validated P2PE launched on Friday, July 7, 2017. To learn more, visit https://cenpos.com/solutions/data-security
More facts and further information about CenPOS, can be discovered at https://www.cenpos.com/

About CenPOS
CenPOS is a merchant-centric, end-to-end payments engine that drives enterprise-class solutions for businesses, saving them time and money, while improving their customer engagement. CenPOS’ secure, cloud-based solution optimizes acceptance for all payment types across multiple channels without disrupting the merchant’s banking relationships. | CenPOS | @CenPOS

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Christine Speedy, 3D Merchant Services, is an authorized CenPOS Reseller. There is no middleman; all solutions offered are direct CenPOS agreements with CenPOS direct billing.

Installment Prepayments Credit Card Processing Rules Change 2017

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Installment prepayment credit card processing rules change effective October 2017 will impact business profits and chargeback risk. Everyone in the payment ecosystem has or will need to make changes to comply, including acquirer, issuer, payment gateway, merchant, and sometimes software solution.

payment gateway SaaS recurringInstallment prepayment credit card processing best practices:

  • When capturing card data to create a random token replacing sensitive data for the first time, perform an Account Number Verification Transaction via a Zero Dollar Authorization. There’s a payment gateway procedure, including using specific transaction indicator, for this. If the solution you’re using performs a $1 authorization, often with a void or reversal after, that’s because the payment gateway, and or the implementation, are out of date and don’t support current requirements. Ask how yours works and contact us for help now if you cannot do a zero dollar authorization!
  • Payment gateway to identify all future transactions after storing:

– With an indicator that shows that the Transaction is using a Stored Credential
– With the Transaction Identifier of the initial Transaction.

  • The sales receipt must include phrase “recurring transaction”
  • A convenience fee cannot be charged on an Installment Transaction.
  • Transactions cannot be key entered into desktop terminals; a cloud based payment gateway is required

Guidelines and rules vary by card brand, business type and many other factors. Additionally, the rules are complicated. This article may oversimplify such complexities. Merchants are advised to use tools, including intelligent payment gateways, to help comply automatically to maximize profits and mitigate risk.

Reference: For example, read Visa Stored Credential Transaction Mandates and also Visa Core RulesTable 5-21: Requirements for Prepayments and Transactions Using Stored Credentials.

Before selecting a payment gateway for installments, ask these questions:

  • How will it help with new Visa Stored Credential Mandates compliance?
  • Does it support 3-D Secure cardholder authentication, for customer initiated payment?
  • What type of digital record is created at the time of customer opt-in to terms, how is it retrieved, and how long is it retained?
  • Does it support Zero Dollar Authorization?
  • Does the receipt dynamically change based on type of transaction, i.e. cash, credit card single payment, installment payment etc.
  • Does it level 3 processing for commercial cards (if applicable to business type)?
  • If I change banks or payment processors, how will it affect my customers? My business?

TIP: An easy starting point to reduce the list of options is to ask any payment gateway what type of digital record is created at the time of creating an installment agreement, and how will you access it? Need help to get compliant? Contact Christine Speedy to learn more about solutions for your business that are quick and easy to adopt, increasing efficiency and growing profits virtually overnight.