Bankcard Processors: Tips for Efficient Credit Card Processing

Here are some payment processing tips every business owner should know...

Know Where Your Money Goes

Finding a good credit card processing rate is all about doing research on credit card fees. In general, interchange rates are usually a good option. These are fixed expenses, and they’re the same for all payment processors.

You should also look into assessment fees. They’re also known as:

Card brand fees
Card network fees
Card association fees
Network Access and Brand Usage fees

These fees are the costs passed through to credit card brands like Visa and Mastercard. Each brand charges its fees at different prices and they update them quite often. Keeping track of these fees is essential.

Secure Your Transactions

Secure payment processing is both in your and your customers’ best interest. It ensures your business will remain trustworthy. It also minimizes any financial losses that may come from the fines associated with compromised data. For an example of what not to do, look at what happened to Target in 2013. Following a huge data breach, they had to pay an $18 million settlement. However, their actual losses are estimated at somewhere around $291 million.

Use Address Verification Services

The Address Verification System (AVS) is a fraud prevention measure for card-not-present transactions. It compares the billing address provided in the transaction with the address on file with the card issuer. AVS doesn’t detect all types of fraud, but it’s a great way to prevent suspicious transactions. In most cases, you’ll implement AVS through your credit card processor. You’ll also need to keep track of its effectiveness over time.

Optimize Your Processing Speed

At best, slow transaction speeds result in customer annoyance. At worst, they’ll directly affect your sales volume. To ensure your processing speeds are sufficient, you should:

Choose a reliable payment processor
Update your POS equipment regularly
Maintain a stable internet connection

Another way to optimize your processing speed is to focus on reducing friction in your checkout process. Whenever possible, reduce the number of prompts your customers must click through to complete a transaction.

Train Your Staff

With in-person payments, your staff will likely be the weakest point in the transaction process. To avoid human error and help them handle customer data efficiently, it’s important to provide effective training.

Some key areas you should train your staff in include: