Payment Card Processing Best Practices

General Requirements

• Honor all card brands equally
•  If you accept any cards of a particular brand you must accept all cards from that brand equally
• You cannot establish a minimum or a maximum for card purchases
• You cannot impose a surcharge or fee for card payments separate from cash or check but you can give a discount for paying in cash (check)
• You cannot establish special conditions for accepting cards
• You can impose a convenience fee for certain payment channels, but there are conditions and limitations and the fee must apply to all payments received through that channel
• You cannot ask for personal information unless instructed by the Authorization Center (a Code 10 authorization). This includes home or business phone number or address as well as drivers license information. The exception is for Mail Order / Telephone Order (MOTO) or Internet transactions for which you can collect an address for delivery and a zip code for the Address Verification Service.

Display card program marks

• Signage for your physical location is available through Wells Fargo for free for Visa, MasterCard, and Discover; available separately for American Express (if needed)
• Logo files for online display are available
• Display card marks on MOTO / printed materials

Secure cardholder data

• Do not store cardholder data in spreadsheet, word processing, database, or other software
• Create and disseminate to staff a card information security policy
• Design forms with cardholder information / signature line in box at bottom of the form. When processing the transaction, write the last four digits of the card number and the authorization number on the upper part of the form, then separate and shred the cardholder information from the bottom of the form

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Features to Look for in Payment Processing Platforms

According to recent statistics, credit cards issued in the United States alone hold a value of approximately $2.92 trillion. Add that to the fact that 83 percent of Americans aged 30-49 own a credit card, and you have a customer segment with a spending power that can tangibly contribute to your business’ growth.

That’s why if you are looking to sign up with a modern payment services provider, you need to make sure your payment systems are equipped with a few essential features.

The first thing you should look for in your new payment processing service is its ability to integrate with other key business tools. Overall, an integrated payment platform makes your payments faster and more efficient. But when paired with the other features on this list, it also brings a few additional advantages to the table. With such a system, you can eliminate redundant data entry and drastically simplify the reconciliation process. The platform automatically syncs transaction data with your accounting software, making the matching of sales to bank deposits a simple, near-instantaneous task. This allows you to save time on your payment processing activities. Further, it helps you complete your payments with virtually just a few clicks.

While multichannel simply means offering multiple ways to pay, a true omnichannel platform unifies all payment streams (in-person, online, mobile, invoice, recurring) into a single system. This is crucial for simplifying reconciliation, providing a seamless customer experience, and ensuring all data is tracked in one place. It goes a long way to have a POS system that supports the key forms of payments for your audience and that is able to be flexible in adding new ones later down the road.

There are several ways to accept payments today, including but not limited to digital wallets, phone and mobile payments, and ACH payments. Your best bet is to look for a system that can support a wide variety of payment types and doesn’t limit you to using only 2-3 ways to pay. While you may not need to pay attention to all aspects of this process now, over time, that could change. Overall, this lets you broaden your horizons and expands your ability to accept all kinds of credit cards and alternative payment methods in the long run.

All payment providers hold different charges for credit card processing. It is always important to research and compare pricing models to avoid overpaying. You must understand how the interchange rate (the fixed cost) is passed on to you.

In addition to platform service costs, you will find that most modern payment processing software comes with unique cost-saving measures. Automated features such as tip acceptance, real-time sales data syncing with accounting software, and automated invoicing are ways modern payment platforms can reduce manual administrative costs day-to-day.  This is usually possible due to the way these payment processors deploy their services. But it also has much to do with their backend systems. By finding a company that offers a payment processing platform with the key features that your business can directly benefit from rather than a generic, one-size-fits-all solution, you can make the most of your platform.

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How Long Credit Card Payments Take to Reach Your Bank Account

Most small businesses receive credit card payments within one to five business days, depending on the processor’s funding schedule. Some providers offer faster deposit options for an additional fee. 

Here’s what affects merchant account funding times: 

• Processor cutoff times: If your business batches credit card transactions after your processor’s daily cutoff time, settlement may not begin until the next business day.
• Weekends and bank holidays: Transactions processed outside normal banking days often settle on the next business day.
• Funding speed options: Many payment processors offer next-day or same-day funding, shortening deposit times for an extra fee.
• Bank posting schedules: Even after settlement, your bank’s internal posting times can affect when money appears in your account.
• Merchant account risk reviews: New businesses or unusual transactions may trigger temporary holds while the processor verifies activity. 

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What Is a Secure Payment System?

Payment fraud is increasing, and U.S. consumers experience more fraudulent transactions than shoppers in other countries. Secure payment systems safeguard customer information, which is essential to mitigating the risk of credit card fraud and protecting your business’s reputation.

Implementing trusted payment processing software improves financial transaction integrity. Moreover, it proves to customers that your small business can handle data protection and security just as well or better than that of your competitors. In this article, we define the components of a secure payment system, provide examples, and discuss how to choose trusted payment services.

What are secure payment systems?

A secure payment system (SPS) refers to the technologies, infrastructure, and policies that protect sensitive information. It keeps personal data and credit card details confidential and prevents unauthorized access during checkout, ensuring safe processing, transmission, and data storage.

What makes a payment system secure?

An SPS works by applying encryption, tokenization, and authentication. The infrastructure consists of many components. While some elements are mandatory across all platforms and systems, others are specific to certain industries or apps.

How do SPSs protect businesses and their customers? For starters, encryption is a fundamental component of payment security. Electronic processing — whether through an Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfer, in-person credit card payment, or e-commerce purchase — scrambles information into unreadable text. Even if hackers access the data, it's unintelligible.

Tokenization increases security and occurs before encryption when using payment gateways, EMV chip cards, contactless payments, and digital wallets. It replaces sensitive information like credit card numbers with a token, a unique identifier without any exploitable value, meaning it's worthless to malicious actors.

Authentication methods prevent unauthorized purchases by verifying the user's identity. These vary by payment method. For instance, in-person sales require a signature or four-digit PIN. Credit card networks use 3D Secure for online transactions, which may ask for a PIN, password, or 2FA verification.

Mobile payment systems like Google Pay and some digital wallets use biometrics (touch ID or face ID) and device authentication. These methods confirm the payer's identity by scanning facial or fingerprints and reviewing the hardware's profile.

Fraud detection services monitor financial transactions for suspicious activity. Payment processors often have built-in fraud protection systems and may offer add-on tools for high-risk industries or locations. The systems analyze data and patterns to flag or halt unusual transactions.

Lastly, bank or processor-specific systems may take additional steps to confirm the payer's identity before processing a financial transaction. These may include a one-time password or fingerprint scan.

How to choose a payment system

Credit card processors play a significant role in payment system security. The best services partner with your business to fight fraud while delivering excellent checkout experiences. When choosing a payment provider, consider your company's sales channels, accepted payment methods, and risk posture.

See if the processor offers resources or assistance with small business PCI compliance. Also, review their dispute resolution process, fraud detection systems, and customer support options.

Why businesses should prioritize financial transaction security

Fighting fraud isn't easy. But can you afford to lose money and your customers' trust?

The AFP survey found that 30% of organizations couldn't recover funds lost due to payment fraud, whereas 41% retrieved at least 75%. Data breaches, chargebacks, and negative reviews impact your company in countless ways, from the time it takes to respond to clients or follow data protection regulations to operational costs and losses.

Using an SPS and implementing strategies reduces these risks. With the right payment processing partner and a multilayered approach, you can deliver excellent customer experiences while fighting fraud. Best-in-class tools give you a competitive edge and protect your reputation. Instead of putting out fires, your team builds stronger customer relationships. Source

How To Choose the Best Credit Card Processing Company

The best credit card processing company for your business strikes the right balance of cost, functionality and support. Processing fees and monthly costs are the obvious starting points when comparing providers. However, considerations such as ease of use, support, integrated sales features and free software can help you spot the best value for your specific needs.

Here are a few questions to keep in mind when you shop for card processing services...

What is your average sales volume per month? Higher transaction volumes equal lower processing fees. A good rule of thumb is once you reach $5,000 in monthly transactions, you can benefit from an interchange-plus or tiered processing service. Before then, a flat-rate service such as Clover can be economical.

Do you sell in-person, online, mobile or combined channels? Where you sell determines your processing hardware and system needs. If you sell in-store, you need checkout registers. If you sell on the go, you need mobile card readers and a mobile processing app or mobile POS. If you sell online, you need a secure payment gateway. If you combine sales methods, you need a payment processing service that seamlessly connects all of your sales within an integrated system.

Do you need free equipment and POS systems? Free equipment and POS software add value to a service, even when paired with higher processing fees. When comparing services, consider what any free perks would cost if you went with a lower-fee processor that doesn’t provide them.

Do you already have registers, terminals and POS software? A processing service that integrates with registers, terminals, POS systems or accounting software that you already use can save in upfront costs and minimize business interruptions.

Is your business high-risk? High-risk merchants generally find the lowest fees with traditional merchant accounts with tiered pricing.

Are you selling restricted items? Many popular card processing services limit what you can sell. If your business falls outside their approved list, you’ll need a traditional merchant account provider.

How fast do you need your funds? Virtually all card processing companies deposit funds within one to two business days, but charge an added fee for same-day deposits. If you need quick access to funds, look for a provider that offers this for free.

Do you need 24/7 support? Most providers offer 24/7 service for network outages and other business-critical events, however, a few limit support at lower plan levels.

Do you sell globally? You need a processing service that supports international cards and exchange rates.

Do you use QR codes, payment links and online invoicing? You need a card processing service with an online portal feature that supports these cutting-edge payment methods.

Do you want to accept e-checks and bank transfers? Look for card processing services that support ACH payments.

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What Is An Online Merchant?

An online merchant is a business that sells goods and processes payments over the Internet. This e-commerce store transacts through a virtual terminal and payment gateway. These merchants are similar to physical store merchants except that the point-of-sale and all business is conducted online.

What Does An Online Merchant Do?

The role of an online merchant is to sell products on their website. It is most common for new business owners to start off as online sellers. This is different than an online merchant because the merchant has more responsibilities such as managing inventory and organizing payment services. These merchants can choose to charge a flat rate or monthly fee aka recurring billing.

For an online merchant to be successful, they must maintain the product or service quality, set pricing, manage payment services, and execute strategic marketing. Advertising online is essential for business growth and sustainability. It is important for the merchant to be knowledgable of new media trends in order to properly maintain the company brand and successfully sell products.

Online Merchant Transaction Process

The process of a transaction from the card holder’s bank account to the online merchant account is intricate, but broken down becomes quite simple and clear. Below is a flow of online payment processing from point-of-sale to the online merchant bank account.

What Are The Different Kinds Of Online Merchants?

01. E-commerce Merchant

An E-commerce merchant sells products or services exclusively over the Internet. An online merchant account is different than an online seller. The online seller only buys products and sells them for profit. The online merchant has additional responsibilities. The major responsibility is that the online merchant is in charge of payment processing. They also need to manage inventory, develop the company brand, and promote the products or services.

02. Wholesale Merchant

A wholesale merchant, also known as a wholesaler, purchases goods in bulk. After the products are purchased, the merchant redistributes them to retailers in smaller volumes. In the past, it was more common for wholesale merchants to operate out of large warehouses, but lately, the trend has swayed towards the merchant acting as a broker of the transaction. This method of business is called drop shipping.

03. Retail Merchant

A retail merchant, also known as a retailer, purchases goods from wholesale merchants in smaller quantities. The retailer sells products directly to consumers. Usually these types of merchants are much better at marketing and advertising then wholesalers.

Retail prices are always higher than wholesale. One major contributor to the price difference is that retail spends more on promotion, PR, advertisements, and marketing. The retailer is also more responsible for their public image and customer service since they are customer-facing.

Retail merchants are essentially resellers. This allows them to change labels and repackage products using a different brand. Not all companies allow the packaging to be changed. Trademark rights and other agreements can affect the freedom a retailer has for re-branding. This selling strategy is effective, however there is much more involved in product promotion. Reselling seems to be the most popular form of product distribution among business owners. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is apparent that retail merchants will be taking their business online more and more as social distancing and shelter-in-place continue.

04. Affiliate Merchant

An affiliate merchant is a business that generates sales of products through a network of affiliates using links and ads. Affiliate merchants advertise merchandise on a website and then earn a percentage of the sale when the buyer makes a purchase. A membership fee is commonly charged for merchants to be a part of the network. An additional commission is taken from every sale in order for the affiliate program to function.

The Status Of Online Merchants

Every year online sales grow as more merchants open online. This trend is likely to continue, especially considering the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the public’s decision to not shop at physical locations. Instead, shoppers are being driven to use their debit card, American Express, Visa, Mastercard or Apple Pay to purchase products from online merchants using e-commerce websites and online credit card processing resources. Source

Credit Card Processing Best Practices

Following best practices for processing credit card transactions can help businesses avoid potential fines, protect against payments fraud and improve customer satisfaction...

• Maintain sufficient funds to cover processing fees. Otherwise, an account could be sent to collections, and collections fees would be incurred.
• Reconcile deposits regularly to identify and resolve discrepancies quicker.
• Avoid excessively retrying a declined card. Repeatedly attempting to make a transaction with the same card can lead to authorization issues; instead, instruct staff to request an alternative payment method from the customer.
• Respond promptly to chargebacks. Merchants are given a limited amount of time to respond to chargebacks, and failure to respond in time could result in the merchant losing the case.
• Monitor and analyze transaction history to detect anomalies that might be signs of fraud and identify trends that could inform payment processing strategies.
• Maintain compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). This worldwide information security standard, defined by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, helps prevent fraud through increased controls of the data held and exchanged by businesses that process card payments. Using a PCI-compliant payment processor can simplify the compliance process.
• Equip POS terminals with EMV chip readers. EMV chip transactions are more secure than transactions using a magnetic stripe, as EMV technology encrypts transaction data.
• Implement point-to-point encryption (P2PE) and tokenization. With P2PE, payment data is encrypted at the point of sale and can be read with the appropriate key. Alternatively, tokenization can be used to minimize data breach risks. Tokenization allows the cardholder to make a payment without providing card or bank account information to the merchant.
• Educate staff on secure processing procedures, including proper handling of card transactions and recognizing signs of fraud.

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