Payment processing fraud is erupting! According to a San Francisco digital trust and safety company, Sift, there was a 73% surge in online fraud in 2019. And most believe there is even more to come in 2020. Massive amounts of people are seeing their credit card and banking information exposed to massive data breaches day after day. Although Internet theft remains most prevalent, hackers and … Read More
What is a High Risk Merchant Account?
Here is a list of merchant types that are considered high risk: Adult novelty, Alcohol (card-absent) Website, Bail bonds, Business Opportunity, Collection Agencies, CBD, Continuity Programs, Dating Sites, Finance Related Services, Firearms, Gentlemen’s clubs, Nutraceuticals, Paraphernal (Headshops, Smoke Shops), Tobacco, Vape, Nicotine, Ticket Brokers, and Travel Agencies. They are considered “High Risk” because these industries experience a lot higher incidence of chargebacks and fraud. When … Read More
CBD Merchants and Credit Card Processing!
Selling CBD is legal, so why is it so difficult to get set up for credit card processing? The answer is because Visa and MasterCard do not want to process credit cards for CBD small businesses because there are a lot of chargebacks and they consider it very high risk. So what are you to do if you are selling CBD? There are legitimate processors … Read More
Culture of Trust Vs. Hidden Fees and 1-800-IGNORE-ME Tech Support!
I heard a talk last week from Ron Farmer, CEO of Fullsteam, a group of leading software and payments businesses across the United States focused on providing streamlined payments infrastructure and operational support to its subsidiaries. He spoke about the culture of trust and how that culture grows a business. He shared information from a book called, “The Speed of Trust,” by Stephen Covey, and … Read More
Protect Your Ecommerce Business and Your Customers’ Credit Card Info with Tokenization!
In today’s world of credit card fraud and data breaches, a merchant who has an Ecommerce site has to be doubly careful. More credit card refunds and fraud take place from Ecommerce transactions on websites than on card-present transactions inside a brick and mortar location. That is why the processing rate is higher for Ecommerce transactions than swiped transactions, because the risk of fraud and … Read More
Understanding the Risk of Taking Credit Card Payments as Deposits!
One of my merchants, Sarah, has a tour company. She books tour events months in advance. She needs to reserve buses, restaurants, and hotels months in advance. She has cancellation penalties on those reservations. Her spots are limited on the tour as well, so if someone cancels at the last minute and she doesn’t refill the spot, she loses income. Sarah had a problem with … Read More
Wawa Data Breach Part of ‘Concerning’ Industry Trend
We, at Electronic Money Company, wanted to share this very important article written by Jaclyn Jaeger, Editor with ComplianceWeek.com. We have highlighted a paragraph regarding risk mitigation measures. Unlike many processors, Electronic Money Company protects your business with point-to-point encryption terminals and tokenization for Ecommerce and mobile merchants to prevent hackers from getting at your card holders’ data. We highly recommend PCI compliance, plus we … Read More
What is Interchange?
Interchange rates and fees are established by the issuing bank associations. The rate and transaction fees vary depending on the risk of the transaction. Corporate cards are higher risk than rewards cards, but somebody has to pay for the reward. Rewards cards are higher risk therefore than a regular credit card. Regular types of credit cards have a higher risk than debit cards run as … Read More
Does PayPal Have Your Back on Chargebacks?
PayPal is an aggregator. They pile all of their merchants into one merchant account. When you choose to process with your bank or an independent merchant services provider, you get your own merchant account with a unique merchant identification number, i.e. MID#. This merchant account is in actuality a bank account. You are required to apply for the account. You will be asked to provide … Read More
Want Your Money Fast? Deposit Funding Now in 4 Hours!
People ask all the time, when do I get my credit card deposits in my bank account? In 1950, when the Diner’s club card was established as an alternative to cash, and in particular used when taking business clients out to dinner at restaurants, the turnaround time for deposited funds to the merchant was 60 days! When we first started selling merchant services in the … Read More