4 Credit Card Processing Tips for Consultants & Accountants

profits Following several years of regulatory and technology credit card processing changes, 2015 has been another big year of changes. As we close out 2015, what are you advising clients to maximize profits? Every consultant to distributors, especially for building materials, including lumber and millwork, electrical, marble & stone, and plumbing supply, needs to update their merchant services knowledge. These businesses tend to have both a retail and a ‘to the trade’ component, making old solutions potentially outdated, risky, and costly.

  1. EMV liability shift October 2015, shifted liability for counterfeit card, and sometimes lost and stolen card, transaction losses from the issuer to the merchant, if the merchant does not support EMV chip card acceptance. Since businesses never saw this fraud, the financial risk is unknown, but guesses put it in the 1-2% of sales range. The first acquirer (Vantiv) announced penalties effective January 1 if a retail operation does not support EMV chip card transactions. These fees will grow throughout the payment chain in 2016, and be passed down to the merchant. If profit margins are important, EMV compliance is not optional. Between growth in credit card fraud losses and new penalties, distributors need to make the change ASAP.
  2. EMV terminal selection. Retail Distributors fall into two categories: Those who use countertop terminals, and those who use anything else, including mag swipe reader or signature capture terminal. Only the latter are even capable of supporting level 3 data, critical for qualifying for level 3 interchange rates, which makes up more than 95% of credit card processing, or merchant, fees. Yet, the vast majority of recommended EMV solutions are incapable of level 3, and or there is no certification for it. While updating, add NFC for ApplePay and newer payment methods, and P2PE, which encrypts at the terminal head, further mitigating data breach risk.  The best EMV terminal selection for distributors may reduce merchant fees an average of 32% and mitigate data breach risk. Conversely, the wrong choice will directly reduce profit margins. 
  3. PCI Compliance. Internal and external data breaches are a serious growing problem (Lowes and Home Depot both admitted), and best practices are being shared among peers that are ‘risky’ at best. Top areas of concern are paper credit card authorization forms and electronically storing card data (without certified compliant tokenization such as a payment gateway). Both should be eliminated. Online pay pages and other technology solutions have negated the need for employees to ever have access to credit card data, not even for a minute. Has your own company eliminated them?
  4. Quickbooks. For operations that used Intuit Merchant Services because there was no other integrated choice, that’s no longer an issue. Third party integrations empower businesses to use any acquirer. Look for one that supports all payment methods needed (ACH, check, wire, credit card etc). If processing more than $500k annually, fees may drop up to 50%.

CHRISTINE’S RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CLIENT ADVICE TO DISTRIBUTORS:

  • Implement EMV ASAP to avoid penalties and fraud losses.
  • Only implement an EMV solution certified for level 3 processing to maximize profit margins.
  • Get PCI 3.0 Compliant to mitigate risk of financial losses from a data breach- Replace all practices that include credit card access by any employee, even for a minute, with a technology solution.
  • Replace Intuit Merchant Services to maximize profit margins.

Note: this advice is applicable to any business that has a customer base which includes some business to business and retail, even if retail is a small part of the overall payment types accepted.

EMV TERMINAL SELECTION IMPACTS PROFITS FOR BUSINESS TO BUSINESS

What’s the most important EMV implementation criteria for business to business retail? Supporting level III data, which increases profit margins by qualifying credit card transactions for the lowest interchange rates possible. With proper terminal selection, businesses can quickly offset the cost of compliance for chip card acceptance, and protect long-term profit margins.

“The most recommended terminals in the US, including all the First Data FD series, Verifone VX series, and Ingenico iCT series terminals, do not meet critical business to business needs to protect profit margins, ” said Christine Speedy, a global CenPOS Authorized Reseller.

Interchange is the primary component of credit card processing fees, typically accounting for over 95% of fees. For business to business (B2B), including building supply and HVAC, many customers use corporate, business and purchasing cards. By qualifying these cards for level III interchange rates, B2B merchants can boost margins significantly. For example, the MasterCard interchange rate can drop from 2.65% to 1.80%, for transactions under $7500, and even more for larger transactions.

What’s needed to qualify for level III rates? The US EMV ecosystem at a minimum requires a web-based payment gateway that has certified an EMV terminal with level III processing to a specific acquirer. That’s because the extra data needed for the transaction is too cumbersome for a countertop terminal, but can be easily managed with a cloud solution. For example, CenPOS has certified the Verifone MX915 to First Data, Chase Paymentech and Tsys, the latter which enables use with most processors. Merchants can use CenPOS via a web browser virtually instantly or an integrated application.

While there is no mandate for chip card acceptance, effective October 1, the party that does not support EMV (short for Europay, MasterCard, Visa) chip card acceptance is liable for counterfeit card, and sometimes lost or stolen card transactions. Additionally, non-EMV compliance fees have already been announced by at least one provider starting January 1, 2016.

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

 

Credit Card Processing and EMV For Business to Business

Are business to business merchants being steered to expensive EMV credit card processing solutions? Yes. Too many banks, acquirers and software companies have limited EMV terminal solutions, and none of them are the best solution for business to business (b2b) companies that have a retail component.

Critical Credit Card Processing Needs for Business to Business

  1. Level 3 processing to reduce merchant fees. level 3 interchange rates
  2. Card not present risk mitigation for key entered and online payments, including securing card data collection, and preventing fraud.
  3. Token billing to securely store card data for variable recurring billing.
  4. Flexibility to collect payments from multiple sources and multiple payment types.

Common B2B EMV terminal solutions

There are two types of terminals. The most common type has software loaded on the terminal. For example, the Verifone VX520 with Vx820 EMV & NFC pinpad.

Verifone VX520 VX805 EMV terminal

Verifone VX520 with VX805 EMV terminal

The second type requires an internet connection to a payment gateway. The gateway  manages the terminal, which is essentially a slave to the gateway.

ingenico isc250 signature capture terminal

ingenico isc250 touch signature capture terminal with EMV and NFC.

The first option above doesn’t meet any of the critical B2B needs, yet is the most common solution offered to every company, without regard to business type. The second option is capable of meeting critical B2B needs, but only if the payment gateway supports them.  The only payment gateway with EMV certified terminal and level III processing retail certification is 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’s secure, cloud-based solution optimizes acceptance for all payment types across multiple channels without disrupting the merchant’s banking relationships. 3D Merchant Services is an authorized CenPOS reseller.

Business to business merchants with a retail business element are advised to consult with a payments expert who offers level III processing for retail. The rest doesn’t matter if this need cannot be met, so it’s an easy way to differentiate those who are selling whatever they have to offer and those who are solving problems to make your business more profitable.

EMV handbook for merchants by Verifone

emv guide verifone merchant terminalVerifone’s EMV handbook is a comprehensive guide for both retail and card not present merchants. It’s hardware agnostic and the Question and Answer section is especially useful.

Two questions on page 17 about hardware need to be read together. To clarify the liability shift going into effect October 1, the merchant’s hardware (terminal) needs to be more than capable of processing chip card transactions.  It needs to be certified on the processor platform and EMV must be enabled on the merchant account. This is an important distinction.

There may be thousands of terminals in use technically capable of accepting chip cards, but either the terminal is not yet certified for EMV chip card transactions, or the processor has not certified the terminal to their platform.

Beware purchasing terminals that will ‘get you ready’ to be EMV compliant. Will the seller guarantee the terminal will be certified for the acquirer platform you need? For example, acquirers usually have multiple platforms but not all merchants can switch between them. With the liability shift just weeks away, merchants wanting to be EMV compliant should not wait another minute:

  • Buy only EMV certified terminals acquirer confirms can be enabled.
  • Verify firmware and or software is current before buying
  • Request an EMV TID from acquirer
  • Download file, usually required for countertop terminals
  • Install new software driver, if applicable, for virtual terminals

Christine SpeedyThanks for reading! If your business needs EMV certified terminals or Card Not Present risk mitigation solutions today, contact me at 954-942-0483 or 3Dmerchant.com/contact. I specialize in business to business and mid-market payment solutions.

EMV chip terminal for Microsoft Dynamics RMS

What are RMS user options for EMV terminals? Here’s four options for merchants to choose from while waiting for RMS integrated EMV terminal; as of August 24, 2015, there are no gateways driving US EMV certified terminals yet.

Which is best EMV terminal for RMS users to accept chip cards today?

emv smart card

EMV chip smart card.

Which option would you choose?

  1. Choose working virtual terminal and US EMV Verifone MX915 certified terminal with signature capture, hoping the gateway gets integrated into RMS later?  Or use it short term, and switch later if another option is integrated first?
  2. Choose a payment gateway that’s working on EMV certification and RMS integration with unknown ready date? hopefully will add 3-D Secure?
  3. Wait and see? The challenge is time. The closer it gets to Ocober 1, the harder it may be to procure terminals (shortages have been common all year), implement & train etc. Additionally, merchants may have stability challenges with gateways that are integrating terminals for the first time.
  4. Buy a countertop terminal with EMV certified pinpad, and use non-integrated? The units certified will vary by payment processor. This is probably the last choice, because it can never be integrated later.

Today, card issuers bear the fraud loss if they give merchants authorization to accept the payment for a counterfeit card at the point of sale. Merchants never know about this fraud because the processor/acquirer automatically manages the response. Starting October 1, this process no longer applies. If merchant doesn’t support EMV, but the card issuer does, the acquirer is liable and can immediately chargeback the merchant’s bank account via ACH. What’s the financial risk? Nobody knows, but an estimated 63% of card present fraud losses were covered by issuers in 2012.

UPDATE 2016: Contact us for Microsoft Dynamics RMS EMV certified solutions today!