Tag Archives: credit card terminal

Distributor EMV Credit Card Terminals – Profit busters, profit boosters

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Distributors have special needs for retail credit card processing to maximize profits and mitigate risk. Here we identify credit card terminals that are certain fall short on delivering in an EMV environment. The two most critical retail needs are requiring customers to comply with the highest security supported, and supporting level III processing. Additionally, P2PE, encrypting at the terminal head, is important for a security and compliance.

Only cloud payment solutions have the potential to meet the primary distributor retail processing needs.  This precludes all First Data terminals, one of the most popular brands distributed, and similar devices. DISCLAIMER: comments are specifically regarding business to business needs, not all retail industry needs, and are not in any way intended to imply anything negative about the terminals.

The terminals below DO NOT meet the two most critical distributor needs to maximize profits.

verifone vx520 emv terminal

Verifone vx520

Clover Mini by First Data

Clover Mini by First Data

First Data FD35 EMV pin pad terminal

First Data FD35 EMV PinPad, attaches to a variety of FD terminals.

Ingenico iCT250 emv capable countertop terminal.

Ingenico iCT250 emv capable countertop terminal.

magtek mini card swiper

Magtek mini card swiper.

The terminals below have the POTENTIAL meet the two most critical distributor needs to maximize profits. Special certifications and payment gateway logic is required.

ingenico isc250 signature capture terminal

Ingenico isc250 EMV

 

verifone MX915 EMV terminal

Verifone MX915 EMV chip terminal

Fraud liability review for MasterCard, American Express, and Discover (credit and debit)

  • If the card is chip & sign, and the terminal is EMV only, the card issuer is liable
  • If the card is chip & pin, and the terminal is EMV without pin, or pin debit without EMV, the merchant is liable
  • If the card is chip & pin, and the terminal is EMV with pin, the issuer is liable
  • If the terminal supports EMV & pin, but the customer uses chip & sign, the merchant is liable. Acquirers generally support chip and pin bypass to chip and signature. Merchants should only use solutions that require the highest security on every transaction, including prohibiting customer bypass.
  • If the terminal supports EMV & pin, but the customer does chip & sign, the merchant is liable.

Merchants should only use solutions that require the highest security on every transaction, including prohibiting customer bypass.

If you want to enhance your customer experience, make a change that also maximizes profits too.

Christine Speedy, CenPOS global sales and integrated solutions reseller, 954-942-0483. 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 merchant banking relationships. Keep your processor, upgrade your technology! Quick and easy to implement with no long term contract.

B2B Credit Card Payments And EMV Technology

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What’s the best EMV payment technology for business to business (B2B) merchants? Once the requirements are defined for non-EDI payments, the options are limited. Whether card not present only, or a mix of retail, phone, and ecommerce, B2B payments are different.

B2B Credit Card Payment Minimum Requirements.

  • Tokenization to store credit card, and possibly check and wire data
  • Level 3 processing (significantly reduces merchant fees through lower qualified interchange rates)
  • Payment optimization to qualify transactions properly. For example, if merchant does a pre-authorization, and captures at a later date, certain rules need to be met to avoid higher non-qualified interchange rates.
  • 24/7 payment options for customers to serve multi-time zone and increase security

EMV Terminals for B2B.

There are no desktop or countertop terminals that support level III processing, and that won’t change. These terminals are programmed with the acquirer instructions via download, and less frequently, may be connected to Point of Sale (POS) software.

To meet the minimum B2B requirements, a payment gateway is required. Merchants process transactions by accessing a virtual terminal via a secure web page, or with an integrated software solution. The gateway must certify level III processing for each card brand, and EMV, and the specific terminal, for each acquirer.

For example, CenPOS has certified the Verifone MX915 to TSYS, with P2P encryption, level III processing. Most acquirers and banks support TSYS as a way to connect to their platfor; for example, First Data, Chase Paymentech, and Bank of America Merchant Services. To date, no other gateway has certified level 3 processing for retail and EMV. The difference for distributors is huge; it’s not uncommon to reduce merchant fees an average of 30%.

Pending Certifications

Exercise caution on claims of pending certifications, if the solutions provider:

  • Doesn’t have any certifications to date, after a year or more to prepare.
  • Has never had level III processing for retail certification
  • Does not offer a way to automate interchange management in a mixed retail & card not present environment, or for card not present only

 

 

 

Hypercom Optimum M4230 Mobile Credit Card Machine Replacement

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Terminal failure? If your Equinox Hypercom Optimum M4230, 4220, 4205, or 4210 is not updated before 10/18/2015 it will fail due to an expired certificate. These terminals can be updated in the field through a 2 step download process, but waiting until the fail date will likely result in support delays.

The manufacturer certificates within the devices may be set to expire on October 19, 2015. When merchants power off or reboot their terminal at any time after this date, it will become inoperable. Don’t power off your terminal until you perform the required maintenance or upgrade to a new POS terminal.

To avoid service disruption and continue processing payments, please take these necessary steps prior to October 19:
1. Determine what version(s) of firmware resides within the terminals.
2. If the Boot version is 2009 0709 or greater (such as
2015 0227), then do nothing. If the BOOT version is lower, then download the firmware update, which takes about 30 minutes.

hypercom terminal 4220 4205 Act early, as each maintenance upgrade will require a minimum of 30 minutes..
We recommend updating to a new POS terminal that supports EMV and NFC to reduce risk and increase customer payment options.

If your company processes more than $1M annually, or has business to business mix of card present and phone orders, contact us for solutions. A new merchant account is not required. For all other businesses, contact your acquirer or salesperson for EMV terminal options that will work with your merchant account.

EMV chip card transaction video – Verifone MX915 with CenPOS Virtual Terminal

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Merchants will improve their customer experience accepting chip cards by training all users and cashiers. The transaction process is different for EMV than standard swipe transaction, in order to support the different flow for processing chip cards.

In 60 seconds, CenPOS users can view the new screen prompts for the cashier and the consumer to process a chip and signature and a chip and pin transaction.

TIP:  Having an EMV capable terminal does not mean a merchant is ready to accept chip cards. In the CenPOS environment, if a merchant installed a future proof, EMV capable terminal to get ready for EMV, the next step is to convert to EMV enabled. This always requires turning on EMV at the merchant account level, in addition to other steps. CenPOS has completed certifications for multiple terminals and acquirers to enable merchants to become EMV Compliant today. Contact your relationship manager for assistance.

If you’re not a current CenPOS customer, contact Christine Speedy for sales and integrations at 954-942-0483. Don’t just get ready, get EMV Compliant.

Need an EMV terminal? The problem with desktop terminals for mixed retail & card not present

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For mixed retail and card not present merchants, especially with a business to business customer component, a traditional desktop terminal can cause problems including failed PCI compliance, higher merchant fees, and increased losses from customer disputes  – the dreaded chargeback. To comply with EMV, now is the time to address multiple business needs to maximize profits.

Why is a traditional desktop terminal bad for mixed customer base?

Verifone VX520 VX805 EMV terminal

Verifone VX520 with VX805 EMV terminal

  1. Merchants have retail merchant accounts with their swiped terminal. When a transaction is key entered, it’s automatically qualifies for the worst non-qualified rate for the card type, because expected magnetic stripe data is not received.
  2. Key entered or card not present (CNP or MOTO/ mail order telephone order) transactions require additional data to protect against fraud losses. Users can bypass prompts if asked, but more importantly, the transaction is still presented as RETAIL, so retail rules apply for responding to disputes.
  3. Internal paperwork such as credit card authorization forms are PCI compliance nightmares and often don’t meet requirements to win disputes.
  4. For any business with a commercial account aspect, there is NO desktop terminal capable of qualifying merchants for the lowest fees, available only by supplying level III data.

What’s the alternative to a desktop terminal?

verifone MX915 EMV terminal

Verifone MX915 multilane signature capture terminal

Desktop software like PCCharge and ICVerify have all announced end of life because they cannot support new payment technologies like EMV. The swiper wedge that many small businesses have used do not support EMV and that won’t be changing, so they too will disappear. The alternative is a payment gateway with virtual terminal; a cloud based solution. Buyer beware. There are significant differences between gateways; many of them are not much better than a desktop terminal.

Virtual Terminal with EMV Buyer Tips:

  • Choose an agnostic gateway. That way if you want to change processors in the future, it’s not disruptive to operations.
  • Verify the gateway has an EMV certified terminal for your processor today. For example, First Data publishes their list of certified solutions here: First Data Integrated Partner Solutions Certified Listing.
  • Beware language such as, ‘EMV ready’ for both gateway and desktop solutions. EMV certified terminal is not the same as a certified solution that can be EMV enabled today with your processor.
  • Ask if the gateway supports level 3 processing for retail.
  • If the gateway cannot dynamically change transaction representment from retail to MOTO – and virtually none do- key entered transactions have the same risk as a desktop terminal.

What about mobile? Mobile EMV will largely be rolled out next year, as hardware needs to first be certified, and then all the other certification components will follow.

The only payment solution today that is supports level 3 processing for retail is CenPOS, which also has the most EMV terminal certifications of any gateways to date.

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 is available globally. For additional information, contact Christine Speedy, 954-942-0483.