Friday, December 7, 2018

Important Difference Between PayPal and Merchant Account

Mеrсhаnt Accounts соmе with a secure payment gateway to uѕе on уоur wеbѕitе. You can customize thеѕесuritу levels that dеtеrminе what kindѕ of transactions аrе flаggеd оr dесlinеd thrоugh уоur рауmеnt gateway, and уоu can be соnfidеnt in thе security thаt рrоtесtѕ уоur customers’ dаtа because it nеvеr leaves уоur own wеbѕitе еxсерt thrоugh thе рауmеnt processor’s ѕесurе gateway. Pауmеnt card рrосеѕѕing соmраniеѕ аrе hеld to ѕtriсt industry ѕtаndаrdѕ about privacy, аnd will nеvеr ѕhаrе any of your сuѕtоmеrѕ’ dаtа.

PауPаl iѕ a private company and has diffеrеnt policies about сuѕtоmеr рrivасу. Thеу openly ѕtаtе thаt thеу will share customer infоrmаtiоn with third-party market research соmраniеѕ and thеir раrеnt соmраnу, еBау. Sесuritу with PауPаl also ореrаtеѕ diffеrеntlу: whеn a сuѕtоmеr mаkеѕ a рurсhаѕе thrоugh PayPal, thеу are redirected tо thе PауPаl wеbѕitе tо enter their finаnсiаl information, which can bе a ѕignifiсаnt ѕоurсе оf аbаndоnеd ѕhоррing саrtѕ in аn есоmmеrсе еnvirоnmеnt ѕinсе thе соnѕumеr hаѕ tо gо thrоugh mоrе ѕtерѕ to check оut.

A ѕtrеаmlinеd аnd efficient checkout рrосеѕѕ iѕ сruсiаl for garnering оnlinе shoppers in tоdау’ѕ fаѕt расеd wоrld. Additiоnаllу PayPal sets thе ѕесuritу settings, potentially rеfuѕing intеrnаtiоnаl trаnѕасtiоnѕ оr those with AVS/CCV miѕmаtсhеѕ.

PayPal also reserves the right to ѕhut down уоur ассоunt, lосking away your mоnеу, if they ѕuѕресt fraud; rеѕоlving thiѕ issue can bе lengthy and diffiсult, аnd уоur funds аrе inассеѕѕiblе for thе durаtiоn.

Finally, аt least in соmраriѕоn to Merchant Stronghold Sеrviсеѕ, If уоu encounter any trоublе with PауPаl, you will not have оnе реrѕоn thаt уоu саn rеlу upon tо bоth саll and еmаil fоr immediate assistance. PayPal iѕ a vеrу uѕеful аnd convenient payment option, but for most businesses, it ѕhоuld nоt bе the оnlу орtiоn.

Thursday, December 6, 2018

How Can I Make Sure That I Am PCI Compliant?

Many people believe that PCI compliance is required by law; however, except for in a few states that have adopted the PCI DSS as a part of their consumer protection laws, it is not. You won’t go to jail for not being PCI compliant, but that doesn’t mean that there are no consequences.


For one thing, you could be fined by any of the credit card companies that you accept through your merchant account. The size of the fine varies, but it can be quite large if a data breach occurred that resulted in significant financial losses.

More importantly, your business’ reputation could be hurt. The whole purpose of PCI compliance is to take steps to improve the security of customers’ financial data. While it’s still possible that your system could be hacked even if you’re compliant, if you don’t adhere to the best practices established by the guidelines, you’re at a much greater risk.

Studies have found that 60 percent of small businesses that suffer from data breaches that involve customer credit card numbers are out of business within 6 months to a year. The reason why is the breach of confidence. When word gets out that the company’s systems are not secure, their reputation is damaged, and it can be hard for a small company to ever rebound. With so much riding on your brand image, it’s not worth the risk, especially when you consider that being PCI compliant does not require much work for merchants.

Much of PCI compliance is the responsibility of the payment gateway or merchant services provider that you choose. The best thing that you can do to ensure PCI compliance is to choose a provider that meets all of the standards set forth by PCI DSS and install antivirus software on your computers.

You should also develop policies and procedures that safeguard your customers’ credit card information. Only employees that need to know the information should have access to it, and each member of your team who has access should have a unique account or ID that is password protected. Also, you should make sure that your data is kept safe by storing it on an off-site data center that is PCI compliant.

Merchant Stronghold offers merchant accounts through a payment gateway that is fully PCI compliant and allows businesses to accept electronic payments anywhere. For more information about our services, please contact us today.

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Setting up Your Business to Receive Payments in United States & Europe

Here we are going to discuss the merchant account requirements in UK, Ireland and other 26 European countries. For a merchant account to be initiated for collecting card payments the businesses need to have the following documents to file applications:

Proof of Citizen Ship: A copy of the passport or EU card, as the proof that the applicant is a resident of the European country.
The physical presence of business: Proof that the business or applicant has a physical existence in the United Kingdom, Ireland or 26 European countries. That can be any Utility bill with the address mentioned on it.
Applicant’s bank account: A bank account in any of the European branch.

The above are the essentials of the application that a merchant needs to provide while applying for the merchant account. Now, the type of merchant account is categorized under the two basic forms

Retail merchant account: This type of account is specifically designated for the merchants that deal with the retailing of products or daily utility services. Plus the account is also for the businesses that have a low volume of transaction or sales. This type is more inclined to products like fashion and electronic items.

High-risk merchant account: This type of merchant account is assigned for the businesses who deal high-risk business industries like Trial & Continuity, Tech Support and alike or high volume of transactions.

Basically, the above types of merchant accounts will decide the amount that bank will apply on transactions made and also the bank will decide if the business needs any type of guarantee to use the merchant account services.

If the business has used the card accepting services before they need to provide the previous 3-6 months year old transaction details that will help the bank to get the estimation of the business’ transaction and risk volume.

Thursday, November 29, 2018

How to Process Credit Card Payments After Signature Rule Change

In this article, we discuss the details related to Credit Card Payments After Signature Rule Change. We will discuss old and new rules related to the payment after signature. For more information, feel free to contact Merchant Stronghold at the toll-free number.


What was the Earlier Credit Card Payment Rule?

The MasterCard was the first network to announce the change. Before that, credit card payment followed these rules:

And that slip was kept by the merchant as a document of a genuine purchase.
Before the year 2017, a cardholder needs to sign over the payment slip after the successful transaction.
Now, in case of chargeback or fraud, a merchant is allowed to use this payment slip as a piece of evidence.
The other card networks such as Visa, Discover, and American Express were also following the same steps.

Why There was Need to Make Changes to the New Rule?

Other card networks such as Visa, American Express followed over the steps of the MasterCard. But the Visa made it optional to sign on the receipt. Here are factors that made card networks to change the norms related to signature.

Also, a signature is not a strong evidence to fight against chargeback/fraud for a merchant.
The Card brands wanted to speed up the payment process by eliminating a step that is Signature.
Most of the signatures were unrecognized by the customers.
Also, most of the people are adopting the internet banking methods, where signature rules are not applicable.
Moreover, by applying the proper safety instruments, a merchant can reduce the card fraud and number of chargebacks. And new methods are more reassuring than the previous ones.

This is one of the most recent changes and many customers are not aware of this. The process of Credit Card Payments After Signature Rule Change is a lot easy. However, many customers still wait to sign the slip after making the payment.

Looking for More Information Related to Credit Card Signature Laws? – Merchant Stronghold

If you need more information related to the Credit Card Payments after Signature Rule Change. Then feel free to contact Merchant Stronghold. We have a team of experts, 24/7 available to guide the merchants with their various issues.

Friday, November 23, 2018

Let's Understand Features Provide By Authorize.Net

Here are the features of Authorize.Net that are discussed in brief. For more details or any query get Merchant Stronghold executive to assist you.


Advanced Fraud Detection

There are various filters and transaction filters that can be added to avoid frauds.
Authorize.Net also offers IP address, regions or transaction from a specific location.

Secure Customer Data

By using Authorize.Net services, the customer can save their payment information and use them every time they make payments.
And, the data entered or stored by the customer remains safe from any exploitation.

Payment Types

If you are looking for expanded payment methods then you can choose authorize.net.
They offer EMV chip cards, digital payments, major credit cards, signature debit cards, e-checks and more.

Recurring Payments

Recurring Payments can give the sleepless night to a merchant as they have a high chargeback rate.
It also gives independence to the customer to make payments anytime without the hassle of entering the details again and again.

Account Updater

It updates monthly credit card transaction details.
This helps the merchant to avoid the interruption due to lost transaction details.

Invoicing

The customer gets the direct email of the recent purchase on their registered email address.
Also, it sends the email regarding any overdue payment to the customer as an alert.

The merchant should get Authorize.Net Credit Card Processing after looking at their plan very carefully. You can contact Authorize.Net to gather the information you seek.

Get Authorize.Net Credit Card Processing

Firstly, you need to register yourself as a merchant to Authorize.Net. After that, create a merchant account there as well. Here are the detailed steps that can help you get through the process:
  • Start by checking the pricing and plan offered by Authorize.Net by visiting the website.
  • After that, you need to check the requirements to get the services.
  • Click on the Apply Now button to get the service you need.
  • Enter the details related to your company including the geographical location information.
  • Authorize.Net will send you an email regarding your application and its status.
  • Once your verification is complete, you will be given the services you want.

You will also be provided a merchant account to manage and handle data associated with your business and get Authorize.Net Credit Card Processing.

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

What are the advantages of Multiple Payment Gateways Website

Advantages of Multiple Payment Gateways Website – If you wish to take your business online then we recommend you to create an eCommerce website for it. Once you have created an eCommerce website then the next question should be related to the payment options. The digital methods of payment have expanded up to an extent that people are very comfortable using the card and online wallet rather than using cash.


GLOBAL EXPANSION OF BUSINESS

Who doesn’t want to expand their business to the global market? Now, if you are the merchant with an e-commerce website then you have great opportunities right inform of you. You can start selling your products all over the globe using your website.

However, it is not as easy as it may sound, but you can definitely start somewhere, and this can be started by adding payment gateways.

Furthermore, if you are thinking to target a specific geographical location then the best way is to study the audience niche. Along with that, you can also look for the payment gateways popular in that region.

After that, you can follow the same pattern and keep adding more locations preparing a multiple Payment Gateways website.

TARGET TOWARDS BETTER REVENUE

Once you have added multiple gateways to your business, you’ll see an increased traffic on your website. This means you will get an increase in conversion rate, which could eventually lead to better revenue.

Furthermore, in a situation of crisis with a certain gateway, you can rely on another to keep your business going. Let’s try and understand this with the help of an example:

Suppose, you use 2 payment gateways A and B. One day, gateway A stops taking MasterCard payments and all the MasterCard credit card payments gets declined. In such a case, you can switch to gateway B and complete a successful MasterCard Credit Card Transaction.

So, one can say, one of the advantages of multiple Payment Gateways website is never losing a sale or transaction.

ADVANCED SECURITY AND SUPPORT SERVICES
ARE THERE ANY DRAWBACKS OF HAVING MULTIPLE PAYMENT GATEWAYS?

CONCLUSION
Now that you know about the advantages of multiple Payment Gateways website and also their drawbacks. Hopefully, this will help you and your business to flourish. In case you need more specific details related to your business then you can contact Merchant Stronghold.

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

What are the difference between Payment Gateway and Payment Processor

Payment Gateway vs Payment Processor

Payment Gateway – A Gateway that simply allows the merchant to access the e-commerce market by allowing the transaction. This is an online point-of-sale for the business. You just need to have a merchant license and merchant account. Then you can get a payment gateway for your business.

Payment Processor – As the name suggests, they process the transactions by exchanging data between merchant and bank. Also, a payment processor will also provide credit card machines and other equipment you use to accept credit card payments.


There are some processors who provide the payment gateway services as well. Also, you choose from the various payment processors and payment gateway service provider, depending on your demand.

How to Choose Credit Card Processing with Payment Gateway?

Comparing and then choosing the credit card processor for your business can be beneficial for your business. Here is a guide that you can use to choose the best credit card processing with a payment gateway.

A Processor that Offers Business Specific Services

  • What is the size of your business and your monthly transaction value? This can help you choose your chargeback limit according to the need.
  • Does your business require mobile processing? Or online transactions? If yes, then look for your Payment Processor to fulfill your demands first.
  • Read the contract very well and then sign the papers after a complete evaluation.

A Service Provider with 24/7 Support

  • Credit Card Processing with Payment Gateway is your necessity.
  • But make sure you get sufficient support as well.
  • And do check the services provided by the payment processors in the case of disputes and chargebacks.
  • This means the Payment service provider should also offer a good support in case of an issue.

Ask for Additional Fees and Other Service Charges

  • Do not forget to ask the details related to the Service Fees.
  • This includes the additional fees, PCI Compliance, and other charges.
  • Also, compare these charges of various Credit Card Processing with Payment Gateway to choose the under budget service.

If you need help while choosing a payment processor then you can contact Merchant Stronghold. We will provide you with an expert to guide you in the right direction and get your up and running in 24 hours.

Merchant Stronghold also provides the assistance with high-risk business and merchant accounts. Call us at the toll-free number+1 (888) 622 – 6875 or access the 24/7-email support now.