Finance/Capital Access

Gift cards continue to grow in popularity, with huge potential for merchants who understand how to promote and manage strong gift card programs.

Consider the following…

– Over $27.8 billion was spent by consumers last year on gift cards during the holiday season alone².

– Over 93% of consumers purchase or receive gift cards every year¹.

– Over 71% of consumers report spending more than the value of their gift cards.

– And 31% of gift card recipients say they are more likely to buy a full-price item than an item on sale³. (more…)

The security of cardholder information is important to both your customers and your business. In fact, since 2005, there have more than 1 billion stolen records in over 2,000 separate data breach incidents – with payment card data being the theft target in 48 percent of all breaches in 2011 alone.¹ And yet, only 4 percent of all breached organizations were PCI compliant at the time of their data breach.^2,3

What Is PCI DSS?

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was created by the major credit card companies as a guideline to help business owners implement the necessary hardware, software and other procedures to guard sensitive credit card and personal information.

The object of becoming compliant with PCI security standards is to help protect sensitive cardholder data from data thieves who are shifting their sights to small merchants because they think they are easier targets. If your business fails to become PCI compliant,3 you could be putting your business at greater risk from the growing threat of payment card data breaches and theft, which may result in substantial penalties (such as fines from banks, regulatory agencies, and card organizations), fraud and charge backs, as well as legal costs and lost customers. (more…)

Most chargeback situations arise at the point of transaction—at the time the transaction is completed—and most can be prevented with a little training.

Consider these 16 tips to avoid potential chargebacks.

1. Do not complete a transaction if the authorization request was declined. Do not repeat the authorization request after receiving a decline.

2. If you receive a “Call” message in response to an authorization request, call your authorization center. Be prepared to answer questions. The operator may ask to speak with the cardholder. If approved, write the authorization code on the sales receipt. If declined, ask the cardholder for another Visa card.

3. If an embossed Visa card is presented for payment, make an imprint for all card-present transactions. If you have a point-of-sale terminal with a magnetic-stripe reader, swipe the card through the reader for every face-to-face transaction. (more…)