Accept Payments Online Merchant Checklist

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accept payments onlineBe wary of sites that list the top 10 best solutions to accept payments online, 10 best payment gateways etc. These sites solicit payment gateway vendors to get on the list. Those who pay the fee get on the list, regardless of whether they’re the best of anything. The vendor checklist below will help businesses that process more than $500,000 annually across all sales channels.

First make a list of needs, then compare to vendor options listed. Because a payment gateway is required for online payments, all questions are specifically for the gateway, regardless of whether the vendor also offers merchant services or check processing.

Circle immediate needs and write F next to potential future needs.

Where does your business want to accept payments now and in the future?

Make a list of all sales channels. The merchant industry impacts complexity of solutions needed. For example, a distributor might payments online, at a distribution outlet, via ecommerce, and ebilling; a law firm might accept payments online, but not in person. A non-profit may need to accept payments online and at events.

  • online payments
  • retail swipe
  • mobile swipe
  • ecommerce
  • einvoice
  • kiosk

Do you need level III processing?

  • Yes
  • No

Qualified merchants with at least a portion of business to business (B2B) or business to government (B2G) customers should require level III processing across all sales channels where payments are accepted. Manufacturers, distributors, and services that are generally business to business usually qualify.

How will the solution help automate interchange management, the bulk of processing fees?

  • Yes, has ‘automated interchange management system’
  • No, does not have ‘automated interchange management system’

If a company offers it, they’ll advertise it because it’s a competitive edge. Probably fewer than 10% offer it. There are many complexities and comparing may be a challenge. For example, if the authorization and settlement amount differ, the transaction will result in additional fees, Unless the solution resolves this difference by obtaining a new authorization. This item can be difficult for merchants to compare from solution to solution, so ask open ended questions.

Do you need online payments for credit cards, ACH or both?

  • credit cards
  • ACH
  • both credit cards and ACH

I once had a software company tell me their vendor had promised for years to provide online ACH. They’re still waiting. Shortlist only providers that process what you need now. Custom online payment forms are easy; Certifications for check or credit card processing is not as simple.

How does merchant know when a payment is received?

  • Email
  • Integrate to accounting or other software (Quickbooks, ERP etc)
  • Online report
  • Other

How does merchant differentiate between online payments and payments key entered by employee or other source?

  • Each payment identifies user that made it
  • Multiple accounts or deposits
  • None
  • Other

Can customers store credit card data?

  • Yes
  • No

Can customers store ACH data?

  • Yes
  • No
  • N/A

Are expiring cards managed proactively? Are customers notified in advance to self update?

  • Yes, proactive
  • No, no advance notice and ability to self update

Can tokens, which replace sensitive card data, be used across all sales channels and or company divisions needed?

  • Yes
  • No
  • N/A

Does the transaction occur on merchant server does user click to hosted payment page?

  • Hosted pay page
  • Merchant web page with iframe
  • Both options

Does it support multi currency processing?

  • Yes
  • No
  • N/A

 

What are customer service communication methods? circle all that apply

  • Phone 24/7 or limited hours
  • email 24/7 or limited hours
  • chat 24/7 or limited hours
  • Designated relationship manager

 

Other questions

  • What reports are available?
  • How long are they available?
  • Can reports be exported?
  • How can reports be shared?
  • How will solution help reduce PCI Compliance burden across all sales channels?

Online Payment Solutions:

  • CenPOS, a processor neutral omnichannel super payment gateway, available globally including United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, Latin America, South Africa, Asia Pacific, and more. Supports all merchant sales channels, multi currency processing, and level III processing all sales channels. Industry specialties: Automotive, manufacturer, distributor, private duty healthcare, non-profit, education. Free online pay page html5 available.

  • First Data Global Gateway e4, for First Data Merchants only.  Supports all merchant sales channels, level III processing in some sales channels. Industry specialties: Automotive, manufacturer, distributor, private duty healthcare, non-profit, education. Online pay page html available.

  • Authorize.net, a Cybersource/ Visa company, compatible with most processors. The gateway is available in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, Australia. Online pay page html available.
  • PayPal Pro, requires Paypal payment processing. This is included because of the simplicity and longevity for online payments, however, Paypal differs significantly from all others; payments must be manually transferred to the bank, increasing time to deposit, and fees are netted from every transaction, making reconciliation more challenging.

This list does not include solutions from companies that are registered ISO of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., because those are First Data resellers. (The text is found on the bottom of many web sites.)

 

Signature Capture Terminal for POS & ERP: Fraud Prevention

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ingenico ISC250 & isc350 reset

Ingenico isc250 signature capture terminal.

When a customer is prompted for signature, the transaction is basically over. An authorization has been returned and the signature is for merchant records. As has been reported on 60 Minutes and other media, often cashiers don’t even look at the signature. That’s a mistake.

The signature is critical to merchant defense of disputed transactions.

From MasterCard Transaction Processing Rules, December 2014, “When a signature is obtained as the CVM for a POS Transaction completed with a Card (but not when a Contactless Payment Device is presented), the Merchant must compare the signature on the Transaction receipt with the signature on the Card to determine whether they appear to be the same. If the Merchant believes that the signature on the Card does not match the signature on the Transaction receipt, the Merchant must contact the Acquirer for instructions. The signature would not match if the name appearing on the Card’s signature panel is different from the name appearing on the Transaction receipt (for example, if the Card were signed “Jan H. Hanley” and the Transaction receipt showed “Bob Hanley” or “F. Hanley”). The signature would be acceptable if the Cardholder’s first and/or middle names is abbreviated on the Transaction receipt (such as J. H. Hanley) or if a title such as Mr., Mrs., or Dr. is missing or is included.”

For high dollar transactions, most merchants will run extra security, such as validating the last 4 digits of a card. Often cloned cards will not match the front digits with the magnetic stripe data. Here’s a recommended process to reduce credit card chargebacks for reason “It wasn’t me.”:

  • Cashier asks to see card.
  • Cashier types in last 4 and hold onto card.
  • Customer prompted for signature.
  • Cashier compares signature to actual name and style.  Force Reset and get another signature if not a match. Call processor if unable to match.

Need a solution for signature capture? We offer both integrated and non-integrated solutions, including for Ingenico, Verifone, and Equinox terminals.

CenPOS Signs Exclusive Agreement With Bank of The Bahamas

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Miami, FL (PRWEB) January 28, 2015

CenPOS announced today that it has signed a mutually exclusive processing agreement and acquiring services with Bank of The Bahamas. The agreement covers the entire Commonwealth of The Bahamas and whereby Bank of The Bahamas will promote and rollout CenPOS’ suite of services to the business community throughout the country. These services include Mobile processing, Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment, integrated payment solutions, shopping carts, Point-to-Point encryption, tokenization, recurring billing, and Mobile Wallet. The CenPOS technology solution gives Bank of The Bahamas a significant competitive advantage in the Commonwealth as it covers a myriad of businesses ranging from the smallest to the largest billers in the country. Mobile Payments, ecommerce and Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment being the key drivers of this effort; thus, enabling the bank to easily provide payment acceptance services to merchants in the outer islands while mitigating risk and reducing merchant account acquisition costs.
“The Commonwealth of The Bahamas has one of the largest business communities in the Caribbean region in part due to the fact that The Bahamas is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Caribbean. Therefore, it made strategic sense for CenPOS to cultivate a business relationship with a local acquirer that shared in our vision and was willing to embrace a technological change to create a difference in the market place,” commented Jorge Fernandez Chairman and Co-Founder of CenPOS. “We wanted to partner with a local Bahamian Bank that understood the local business needs and was willing to create their own blue ocean strategy through the adoption of CenPOS’s technology offering, ultimately making the competition irrelevant in the market place,” added Fernandez.
“Bank of The Bahamas is proud to partner with CenPOS to continue to be the leader in delivering cutting edge technological banking solutions to our customer,” stated Renee Davis, Acting Chief Operating Officer of Bank of The Bahamas.
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. For additional information please call 877.630.7960.
About Bank of The Bahamas
BOB is a modern, full service bank with 13 branches in seven islands (Nassau, Grand Bahama, Andros, Cat Island Exuma, San Salvador and Inagua) and a long history of firsts in the local Banking Industry. The Bank caters to retail clients from all walks of life providing personal loans and mortgages as well as savings and chequing accounts, term deposits, money transfers, online banking and prepaid cards. Simultaneously, BOB’s Corporate and Commercial Department facilitates the financing and cash flow needs of the premier business establishments throughout the country. Since 2000 BOB’s Private Banking and Trust arm has also provided wealth services (estate planning, trust and corporate services) to local and international clients.

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For sales and software integrations, contact Christine Speedy, authorized CenPOS global reseller. 954-942-0483

Sekure cost review, Sekure Card, Sekure Merchants Review

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Merchant statement review

Merchant statement review, partial statement shown.

Did you get a call from sekurecostreview.com for a merchant statement analysis? Read my research, which points out why I recommend merchants never give this company merchants statements or any other business information. 3D Merchant Services has no affiliation with this company but was hounded by endless phone calls from them so I decided to research them and share what I learned.

The company web site is here: http://www.sekurecostreview.com, but they have more web sites with the same physical address.

Who is Sekure Cost Review?

sekurecostreview.com affiliated web sites:

    • Sekure Card Services – sekurecardservices.com

    • Sekure Merchant Solutions sekuremerchants.com

    • Sekure Careers sekurecareers.com – they hire telemarketers

The address is 1501 Broadway, 12th Floor, New York, NY.  The address is not a traditional office, but one where anyone can ‘rent space’ so that they have a ‘prestigious office address’. From www.newofficeamerica.com, “This modern, professional business center offers companies a prestigious corporate address right at the heart of Times Square on bustling Broadway, your clients won’t help to be impressed.”

US Business Affiliation?: There’s no business registered in NYS with any of the business names in the domains above. Further, past employees report that the company is actually based in Montreal Canada, even though they called exclusively on US based businesses.

“When I can’t find a business registered with the state their supposedly affiliated with, I won’t do business with them,” says Christine Speedy, 3D Merchant Services.

The Sekure Cost Review sales pitch:

The caller said that she was providing a free cost review “funded by major banks, processors” and others in the industry. That perked my ears. Who was paying for it?  I wasn’t able to get a straight answer other than the big banks etc and they may change from time to time. “Are you a processor or ISO?” “No, we’re a broker. We save you…” . I asked it they were a lead generation company for processors? “No.”  From my research and industry knowledge, in my opinion, they’re conducting lead generation which they then send to ISO’s, or independent sales organizations, and then they get paid for deals. That’s pretty common.

The pitch is that by providing merchant statements they’ll give a side by side comparison so that I could see if I was getting gouged. No obligation.

Statement reviews are a good idea when lacking technology know to reduce their usefulness. Sekurecostreview.com and affiliated web sites highlight four items about their business:

  1. BBB reputation: USA media has proven there’s little value in a BBB reputation since companies can BUY their reputation, and there’s no verification. (See 20/20 report among others.) All sites link to Sekure Merchant Solutions, a company potentially not even legally registered in NYS. Additionally, there are 32 complaints, and while nearly all were resolved, this number is much higher than companies in the same industry that are bigger by volume processed and number of merchants served.
  2. Low cost rates: The web cites $30M/mth and the phone called cited $40M/mth in transaction volume as the reason for their great rates. In my opinion, while it’s not insignificant, companies with $100M/mth or more are far more likely to have better options.
  3. POS: Reprogram or Free terminal. Free terminals are nearly always bad because the money has to be made up somewhere. That means possibly older but PCI compliant equipment, but more likely higher fees to cover the initial outlay, or long term contracts with heavy contract dissolution fees to get out of them.  All merchant agreements include future fee increase clause so at some point you’ll pay a lot more for free equipment.
  4. Sample Review: Looks like a pretty typical side by side review that takes the same transactions at the same interchange qualification and applies a different discount rate. Rate comparisons can be a terrible way to make merchant process choices.
    • Interchange management can reduce fees from .10% to over 1%.  That’s above and beyond any discount fee negotiation. There’s a bottom to discount fee negotiation- then what will you do to reduce fees?
    • Improved productivity can increase EBITDA significantly
    • Reduced PCI compliance burden increases productivity in other areas of business.
    • There’s other tools that reduce fees even more and shift fraud liability risk to issuer.

    Bottom line: As processor profits are narrowed, the bigger merchant savings comes from better interchange rate qualification in addition to efficiency improvements and reduced PCI Compliance burden.

Other:

Allied Memberships:  What does ‘allied’ mean? It does not mean an endorsement. For example, the NRF offers Retail, Service Provider, and University memberships. The only membership sekurecostreview.com qualifies for is Service Provider.  I didn’t find their company in any of the online buying guides. That doesn’t mean they’re not a member, just not in any area I searched online.

Is sekurecostreview.com a scam or legit?

They may or may not provide a valuable service to some merchants, but the negatives far outweigh the positives. Sharing highly confidential information in a world of escalating identity theft is just not worth the risk.

How can I stop Sekure Card calls? That’s a touch one because they may spoof phone numbers and or block caller ID.

  • Add your business telephone number to the National Do Not Call Registry through the federal website. After 31 days you can report them. Most phone calls to a business made with the intent to solicit sales from that business are exempt from the Do Not Call provisions, but if enough people complain, maybe they can help.
  • You could also write your Congressman and Senator that the current rules are outdated. (And why should be we subjected to 1,000’s of political calls with no opt-out method either?)
  • Anyone want to start a petition? https://www.change.org/start-a-petition/entry?source_location=blank_source___exp_us_expert_support_v1___sap_entry

What’s the alternative?  Just about anyone can provide a statement review. Find someone that knows about your industry and asks questions about your business without sharing merchant statements. It takes more time and expertise to get through these steps, but it’s a lot safer. Avoid choosing any vendor that has a web site without identifying an owner or single person by name. Look up the salesperson on linkedin.

See Christine Speedy on Linkedin and see Christine Speedy on 3D Merchant Services. You can also look up 3D Merchant Services in the official Florida registered businesses. At least you’ll know it’s real.

Disclaimer: This review contains information that may become outdated. It was accurate at the time written based on publicly available information.

Update 12/10/2018. I just got a call from Sekure at 800-915-0927: 

Sekure: “Christine, I’m following up on my prior call with a Sekure colleague a couple months ago. It looks like the only thing missing from our being able to complete the analysis is your merchant statement.”

Christine: “Please remove me from your call list.

Sekure :”Well I don’t know why you wouldn’t want the free analysis.”

Christine: “It’s not up to you to decide whether I want your calls or analysis. I’m telling you to remove me.”

Sekure: ” OK, will do.”

The above is not an exact quote. Hopefully the calls will stop!

Reviewed by Christine Speedy, PCI Council QIR certified. To reduce merchant fees with new or existing merchant account call 954-942-0483, 9-5 ET. CenPOS  Global Sales authorized reseller based out of South Florida and NY. CenPOS is an integrated commerce technology platform driving innovative, omnichannel solutions tailored to meet a merchant’s market needs. Providing a single point of integration, the CenPOS platform combines payment, commerce and value-added functionality enabling merchants to transform their commerce experience, eliminate the need to manage complex integrations, reduce the burden of accepting payments and create deeper customer relationships.

How long is a credit card authorization valid for?

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The short answer is, all preauthorizations, expire within 24 hours for swiped transactions and 3 business days for non-swiped card-not-present transactions. Preauthorizations are an ‘open to buy’ hold on a customer credit card. While merchants can still settle transactions after an expired authorization, it impacts fees and chargeback risk from disputes. This answer addresses manufacturers,  distributors, and business to business companies that process orders with future deliveries, some that can take days, weeks, or even months.*

“Authorizations and preauthorizations are commonly misunderstood”, according to Christine Speedy, 3D Merchant sales. “Merchants frequently say, ‘I’ve never had a problem settling a transaction that was more than 5 days in the past’. That’s true, but the downside is cost and risk management. In order to qualify for the lowest merchant fees for any transaction type, merchants must have a valid authorization. Additionally, if there’s a dispute, without a valid authorization, the risk of loss is significantly higher.”

Since it’s inefficient and nearly impossible for merchants to manage identifying when authorizations have expired for open buys, or when related rules change, a rules-based cloud payment system is critical. With automation to manage proper authorization and settlement, merchants will reduce merchant fees with any merchant account, and reduce risk.

CenPOS is a merchant centric payment platform that solves this and other complex credit card processing problems. Sales Christine Speedy 954-942-0483.