Alternative Credit Card Payment Methods

Alternative Payment Methods: Methods that are used as an alternative to credit card payments. It is also referred to as CNP (Card Not Present) situations. The card and single mode of payment on your checkout page will not help you, only rob you of your customers by turning them down for the payment.

Let’s take an example;

Situation 1 (Without alternative payment methods) - 

So, John is on your checkout page, he has already selected your product. 

He tries to pay by his credit card. 

Error: Card Declined. Please contact your bank for more information. 

Retries

Error……

John abandons the order and goes away.

Situation 2: (With alternate payment methods.)

John tries and retries. Failed…

The third time, his eyes spot Pay using PayPal/Amazon option and he decides to go for it.

Before you know, the payment goes through.

Your new customer is equally proportionate to more revenue.

Alternate Payment Methods | Increased Sales:

The customers just need their product they want to check out very quickly and seamlessly, due to the competition you can lose your customer if you do not have a quick gateway or alternate payment method.

Take PayPal for example, the Express Checkout feature and cutting-edge technology have gathered wide popularity for PayPal as well as the merchant. Now, PayPal has become a widely known alternate method of payment for most of the merchants.

If you have a similar question or more, get an expert at Merchant Stronghold at the toll-free number +1 (888) 622 – 6875. We also provide other merchant processing services and high-risk merchant services.

Virtual Terminal and Its Benefits

Virtual Terminal: Virtual Terminal is an online application or operating system where a merchant can check all the transactions and get a detailed inquiry of it. By using virtual terminal merchant can accept the payment without physically using the credit card. It is contrary to physical payment where the credit card must be present at the time of the transaction. You don’t need an electronic machine (POS) or go through any hassle if you had opted for electronic payments. What you need to do is promote payment gateway, which will allow you to process your transaction without any inconvenience. You can get your payment even from miles away within a few seconds with the help of virtual terminals. Multiple companies are now offering these facilities one of them is IBM, PayPal, Linux and many more.

How does Virtual Terminal work?

As it is online, so it obviously requires an Internet connection. Usually, it is powered by the gateway, which means each and every transaction that the customer will perform would be processed by the gateway, which we are calling the virtual terminal.

For executing the transaction the gateway lands the customer to the payment page where he puts all the required card details manually, and then after getting a confirmation from the bank, the transaction takes place. For processing the transaction, the virtual terminal charges some amount, which is called gateway fees. Virtual terminal gives diverse options of payment to the customer. In case of recurring payments, the merchant can directly ask card details from the customer for the payment, which will allow deducting the charges till the subscription ends.

Benefits of Virtual Payments

Virtual terminal helps in processing a lot of transactions instantly. It is the solution that turns your computer into a payment processing device. It will allow you to accept your payment anywhere at any time without being necessarily present there. You can even process the transaction once you get the card details of your customer over the phone or e-mail.

Virtual Terminals also centralize data and make it more secure. So the chances of fraud or scam also reduce.

Unlike their physical POS counterparts, virtual terminals can handle recurring payments, easily.

How to get rid of poor merchant underwriting

Effects of Poor Merchant Underwriting

Your high-risk business may suffer from one or the other reason even without in-depth analysis and these are:

Incorrect Limit: You should set limits for your business as per requirement. It should not be too high or too low, as both will put your business at risk. Limits lower than required will hinder the regular processing of transactions. As a result, it may constrict the flow of cash or timely payments from the customer. If a limit is too high, this may lead to unexpected fraudulent charges.

Hidden Fee: An additional fee is there if the volume exceeds the limit. However, even if you have set your limit, some providers let it exceed without notification. And they also charge you with a penalty.

Downgrades: Once your high-risk merchant account is set, you are inclined to transaction downgrades if certain required features and security measures are not set along with the account. Although, setting up these features will cost you more. But it will help you in long run and enable smooth processing of transactions.

What Providers Check

Industry Type: Risk is in every kind of business but the level of risk varies from business to business. Few businesses are less likely to fraud and chargebacks as compare to others. Higher the level of risk, higher the amount of documentation.

Return Policy: Businesses that indulge in shipping products are risky because there are chances of non-delivery of product, wrongly delivery or delivery of the broken product that might result in chargebacks.

Business History: If you are not new in the market and have applied for a merchant account, underwriting will involve reviewing of your credit history as well as chargeback history (to know chargeback ratio) before approving or rejecting your application.

Financial Stability: To check the financial stability, underwriting may include your bank statement and credit. This is very important for the businesses while applying for a new merchant account, as it directly affects the decision of underwriting approval.

Tips To Handle The Credit Card Information

Keep your customer’s data safe with these useful tips.

Use Approved Software

When a merchant uses POS (Point of Sale) terminal, mobile running payment processor software or swipe machine to conduct transactions, as a merchant it is your duty to make sure that your hardware, as well as software, is PCI Compliant. There are many applications and card readers available that come with security loopholes. So, it is advisable to choose reputable hardware and software vendors who take full responsibility for the integrity of their product. For the long run and good reputation of your business make sure to use a tested and approved the solution.

Genuine Service Provider

You can avail services of a reputed service provider to install credit card processing software, manage credit card processing as well as credit card storage for your business. Service provider includes:

SaaS (Web-based software)

IVR phone services

It might also include companies to which the merchant outsources payment-processing functions. Through extensive testing of these service providers, you can make sure that they are trustworthy. Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) who performs a comprehensive audit of policies, procedures and the system of the service providers does this type of testing. You can only use PCI DSS Validated service provider as a part of a contract signed.

Storage of Sensitive Information

Payment processing regulations specifically prohibit the storage of credit card security code or any data contained in the magnetic strip of a credit card. Although you may have business reasons for storing credit card information. The card security number is in place to know whether a user of the card over the phone or internet has the possession. But if the security code is stolen, this approach will not work. In the magnetic stick, which is on the backside of the credit card, track data is stored. This contains the information of the account that is otherwise don’t show on the card. This data assists with authentication and the card cannot be fake.

FINAL WORDS

By simply following these five steps, you can meet your contractual requirements to protect credit card account information. Also, the merchant can be PCI compliant. It will also help merchant in gaining customer’s confidence and loyalty, which will help in increasing the revenue.

Advantages Of Mobile Payment For Transportation Service

If you are traveling to big cities, local commute (taxi or car) is the option most of us would

like to opt for. Your taxi driver may only accept cash payment which may cause you trouble like no cash, shortage of change, security issues etc. So it is better to use cashless payment methods, especially if you are related to the transportation industry.



Advantages

Mobile payment has many advantages over the traditional method of payment i.e. cash payment. When you are in the transportation industry, there is a lot of cash flow on daily basis, which most of the time is with the drivers as they are on road, providing services. It is not possible for the drivers to come back to the main station to deposit cash after every trip. So he has to carry cash along with him all day long until he is off duty. Due to which they become a target and may end up in unfortunate incidences (robbery). It is best to use a mobile payment method for security purposes, better services, and greater revenue. Let us discuss a few of the advantages of mobile payment in detail:

Effectiveness

It is very common for a customer to not have the exact amount or a change with him, resulting in wastage of time in arranging the difference for the customer. When you accept the payment through mobile, it merely takes 20-30 seconds to swap the card and get the customer’s signature. This will increase the effectiveness of transportation service and time saved can be utilized in serving the next customer, resulting in greater revenue.

Convenience

In today’s world, the flow of virtual money is more than hard cash. People like to use credit/debit cards instead of paper money. It is easy to carry, convenient and a secure way of making payments. The transportation industry is rapidly growing, which increases the demand for multiple payment methods for the customer’s convenience and safety. Most of the customers availing transportation services prefer making the mobile payment rather than paper money, as it is the most convenient.

Control

If you have more than one driver i.e. multiple drivers, it becomes important as well as tedious to control and manage funds effectively. You need to find out an organized way to watch your money. By using credit card processing, you will be able to keep an eye on payments made by clients, what each driver earned, everything you want to know with the help of an online merchant portal.

CONCLUSION

Apart from these three advantages, there are many more advantages of using mobile payments. The above-listed advantages help service providers to manage his/her business more efficiently, increase profitability as well as provides security. With the help of such payment processors, payment is directly deposited into the merchant account, so there is no chance of losing a payment.

What is Credit Card Processing & How does it work?

Credit card processing is not a new concept. Everyone claims to know the process: swipe the card, hit the button and the transaction is complete in a blink. But do you really know the process? Do you think that it is as simple as it seems? It actually is a much more complex procedure than what you witness. The fact is swiping the card and signing the recipe is the first and the last step of the procedure. In between lays multiple steps that include more than one person working invisibly for the customer to complete that particular transaction.

Let us understand the transaction process in just three steps

STEP 1: AUTHENTICITY

At the point of sale, a cardholder gives the card to the merchant to swipe the card on POS terminal to make a payment.

Credit card details are sent to the acquiring bank, which forwards the same to the credit card network

Authorization request includes credit card number used for the payment, expiration date, billing address, card security code and the payment amount.

Credit card network clears the payment and a request is sent to the issuing bank for authorization.

STEP 2: AUTHENTICATION

When the issuing bank receives the authorization request, it validates the credit card number, checks the availability of the funds in the cardholder’s account, verifies the billing address and validates Card security code (CVV number).

It is up to the issuing bank whether to approve or deny the request. When they make a decision, it sends back the suitable response through a proper channel (credit card network and acquiring bank).

Once the merchant receives the authorization, the customer is provided with the receipt at the completion of the sale.

STEP 3: CLEARING AND SETTLEMENT

In the clearing stage, the transactions get the post to the cardholder’s monthly billing statement and in the merchant’s statement.

For settlement, service provider routes the batched information to the association member, which in turn forwards all the approved transactions to the corresponding issuing bank.

The merchant sends all the approved authorizations in a batch to the acquiring bank by EOD.

The merchant account gets credited for the cardholder’s purchases by the acquiring bank (minus merchant discount rate). At this time, the issuing bank posts the transaction information to the cardholder’s account. The cardholder receives the statement and bill is paid off.

Then the issuing bank transfers the funds (minus interchange fee, which is shared with the credit card network) within 1-2 days. Then the credit card network pays from the remaining funds to acquiring bank as well as the acquiring processor.

What are the benefits of E-Check

Benefits of E-Checks

Let’s take a look at some amazing benefits of E-checks.

COST-EFFECTIVE

Pricey credit card networks can be avoided with the use of ACH as transaction fee is comparatively low. There is no limit on the transaction amount. If any merchant, looking for a cost-effective processor to accept large payments, ACH is where your search ends.

FUNDS

In traditional paper check method, it might take days to process a check whereas it is not the same with e-checks. Via E-checks funds get transferred faster and more conveniently.

RECURRING PAYMENTS

If a business is working on memberships or subscriptions, it is wise to choose the ACH electronic network rather than the traditional method.

IDEAL FOR SUBSCRIPTION-BASED BUSINESSES

There are many benefits to choosing E-checks for subscription-based businesses. Some of them go as follows:

AUTOPAY

Irrespective of a canceled credit card, ACH payment processing makes sure that the customer does not miss payments. Credit card numbers may change rapidly but it is very rare that the account details of the customer will change. With the use of ACH payment processor, it becomes easy to avoid payment gaps.

SAVE MONEY

Business can save a huge amount of money by long-term subscriptions. With electronic payments, network exchange fee is not applicable, which in turn helps the merchant to save a lot.

EASY & SECURE

In addition, it is easy to initialize online e-check payments. A merchant can create a simple and secure form as per the customer’s convenience. Autopay feature can be set within minutes that avoid extra work of writing checks every month.

REWARDS

With the use of ACH, savings are amazing, which can be available to attract new customers while retaining old ones. Schemes like an incentive for customers, rewards, discount offers or cash offers help businesses attract more customers.

WHO GETS BENEFIT

As a result, there are 8 types of businesses that enjoy benefits the most from E-check payments.

1. Membership Businesses

2. Schools

3. Non-profit Organization

4. A business accepting bulk payments

5. Online subscription-based businesses

6. Retail Businesses

7. Insurance Companies

8. High-Risk Merchants

Credit Card Payment Processing Services for Apparels Stores

Painless Payment Processing Service

When we talk about payments, the first thing that a merchant would expect is a secure and uncomplicated payment processor. But it is common to come across certain complications like wrong entry, human error, duplicate authorization etc. While dealing with these issues, it is also important to take care of data security and compliance. So choosing a payment processor that simplifies these complexities rather than increasing the mess is a highly important decision that every merchant has to take.

Payment Processor for Apparels Store

Three things that your payment processor should fulfill are:

1. Connect from anywhere

2. Connect to any payment

3. Connect via the device of your choice

It is important for the merchant to choose a payment processor that provides a comfortable payment experience to his/her customer so that you can win customers trust as well as his loyalty. It is important to understand what your requirements are while choosing a payment processor. Few “must haves” are:

FLEXIBLE PAYMENT PROCESSOR

Payment processor should work in favor of your business and customer, both. It should be well integrated, should reflect the working of the business (how business operates), type of payment accepted and back-end system. A highly integrated system works as a lifeline for the merchant and the business.

SCALABLE

Payment processor should be able to cop up with the growth of the business, else merchant will end up in wasting a lot of time, resources and money in the up gradation of payment processor.

SUPPORTIVE

There are times when things do not work as planned. Choose a payment processor provider that is by your side when needed. The provider should be available either by phone or through email or live chat whenever needed.

FINAL WORDS

We at Merchant Stronghold are a leading provider of payment processing services. We have a long list of happy customers who are engaged in the apparel industry and hence, we can do the same for you! Our team understands the unique needs of various industries including clothing and they are the best professionals to meet your business needs.