More Payment Choices

Look first - No lock - no pay

I received an email just today from a trusted organization offering an item for sale. There was a link for payment online. The page where I landed was very simple with fields to complete and a choice to select. The last blanks were for credit card information and a button for "Submit".
I might have actually completed my information if the form had been more "sophisticated". I paused, looked and saw no lock. I knew this payment form had no security to protect my credit card information. With all the other ways to lose my credit card number to thieves, the least I can do is to take a moment to LOOK for the LOCK and NO LOCK then NO PAY.
If your organization needs an easy way to setup a Secure Web Pay that can be customized for your offer and organization then contact us at 800-341-4423 or rona@morepaymentchoices.com
We host the security certificate with both you and your customer receive confirmation by email. Protect your company and your customers.

What took so long? - Heartland Payment Systems

A class action suit was filed last month against Heartland Payment Systems for failure to protect cardholder data. What took so long to find a hack that began in May 2008? What are they doing to protect the numerous merchants who are exposed?

At this point only cardholders are included in the lawsuit. "Because of Heartland's inadequate data security, cardholders have had their card information compromised, have been exposed to the risk of fraud, have spent and will spend time to monitor their accounts and dispute fraudulent charges, and have suffered other economic damages." (PHILADELPHIA Jan. 30/PRNewswire-USNewswire)

What about the many, many merchants who will suffer the same type of loss by shipping, delivery of goods and services only to suffer a chargeback for sales on stolen credit cards. Seldom is a merchant considered a victim but I don't know how else to call it. Learn what you can and must do to reduce your risk of chargeback and potential loss of your merchant account. Request a tip sheet on what you need to do to reduce risk when accepting credit cards and debit cards 800-341-4423 or Request for tip sheet on accepting credit cards

Signature Debit or PIN Debit – Does it make a difference to the merchant?

Recent reports in the news focused only on the consumer perspective of using debit cards with a pin number or with signature on the receipt. How a customer uses their debit card does make a difference to the merchant in two areas – cost and exposure to fraud.

 

A quick evaluation of your merchant account fees will reveal how much can be saved by just asking customers to enter their pin number. Your best customers will be helpful in reducing your cost and limiting fraud exposure for both you and your customer. See below for how use of a debit card does make a difference for a merchant. Maybe you should be asking "Debit or credit?"

 

Use signature debit – Swipe debit card and do NOT enter pin #

Consumer

More time to file dispute of charge

Lower amount at risk due to fraud

Higher risk of NSF fees

 

Merchant

Higher risk of loss – chargeback fees plus loss of sale and goods

Less time to respond to dispute

Less protection from customers using stolen card

 

Use PIN debit – Swipe debit card and enter pin #

Consumer

By law, less time to file dispute – actual bank policy typically same as for signature debit

Lower risk of fraudulent charges from stolen card

Lower risk of NSF fees

 

Merchant

Lower cost per transaction – save 1% or more

Lower risk of loss due to fraud – only the card holder should know the PIN

Higher investment in pin pad (approximately $100)

Layaway is revived – already a payment choice at Kmart

I remember layaway – before credit cards and way before debit cards. All the major retailers offered layaway. You were required to come in the store and make payment by check or cash. For those youngsters – read in wiki – Layaway. 

Kmart has long provided layaway in many stores and is promoting again for the Christmas season.

You don’t have to be a giant retailer to offer layaway, particularly if you have a bit of storage space and/or your products are small in size. You set the policy on eligible products and term of payments for layaway. Even Kmart charges a setup fee and cancellation fee.

 You even have choices on how you accept payments for layaway. Sales may increase if you require your customers to come in the store to make payments. Cancellations and late payments may decrease if you offer auto-debit by ACH to your customer’s bank account. The online system from More Payment Choices makes recurring payments easy to manage and get paid.

Elayaway.com has grown by merchants and customers by offering layaway for the online retailers. Seldom can a business charge both the seller and the buyer – but elayaway.com has seized the opportunity.

1shoppingcart is one of the most popular and easy to use shopping carts that also offers recurring as a payment choice. Just remember not to ship the product until the final payment is cleared. You save on fees for both your business and your customers!

Recurring payments do have some unique rewards and risk. Consult with More Payment Choices before reviving layaway for your business. Call 800-341-4423.

Banks are using technology to discover new income – at their customer’s expense!

At More Payment Choices we have noticed an increase in phone calls from our merchants stating that our “system” created an overdraft for their customer. Actually the fact is that the banks are using technology to discover new income – at their customer’s expense!

Merchants need to be aware of what their customers believe when they receive a call blaming the merchant for creating an overdraft for them.

The customers mistakenly believe one of two things – related to using debit cards:

1.         The “system” will not approve a sale if they (the customer) do not have money in their bank account.

            2.         They have up to three days before the transaction clears the bank if they use the debit card without the PIN number. This is referred to an offline debit or signature debit.

 Merchants need to be aware that banks set the policy for their customers that is seldom read but included in small print with the monthly statement. A bank can choose to honor debit card transactions for a certain amount over available funds or even to include the overdraft protection program in the amount available for spending. All of this comes at a cost to the bank customer. How does a bank customer shop for a bank with the best overdraft fees?

Gone are the days when a person paying with a signature debit will have a few days to make a deposit to cover a purchase. The banks have updated their “system” to assess a fee when their customer makes a purchase without available funds even if the transaction is not actually received for a few days. What do you think? Are the banks doing this to protect us from creating a larger overdraft or is it a way to increase revenue for the bank?

Merchants need to know that the overdraft fees are out of their control and customers must have funds available in their account to avoid fees.

See what the news says in an article published in USA Today titled “Banking: Purchases trigger overdraft fees before they clear.”

Every merchant should have a website

You have heard the story - everybody needs a website because everyone looks for yours before calling.
Every merchant should have a website for just that reason. Build a website and host it for a very reasonable investment.
We use Lunarpages.com for hosting our multiple websites and forwarding domain names to existing pages. They are easy to use, reliable and reasonable rates.
What more could you ask?
Find out more about the Lunarpages.com Basic plans

Don’t Text and Drive – Use Jott Instead

I must admit that I stole the headline right from their website www.jott.com

This is so much easier and safer than texting or writing while driving. Just call Jott and state your message to send to yourself, spouse, friend, associate or a group. In less than a minute, they receive an email and an audio file without being disturbed by the phone ringing. You will see many more features such as reminders and web links that you might love as much as I do. The service is free so use it a lot or a little but whatever you do – jott – call 1-866-JOTT-123

Forget the Passwords! – Put them in the Safe

Remember back in the day when you had one password that you used for everything? Then things tightened up for security and the passwords got harder so you added a number. Now the password changes every month and must have a capital a symbol a number. The old standy just doesn’t work anymore. How can you remember them all? I was constantly sending the email for “Forgot your Password?” and wasting time waiting for the reset, plus thinking up a new password.  If you are reading this then you know the story.  I tried the folder on my PC (at least I didn’t name it passwords) but then I would forget to update it. Ok – I knew this was not the best solution. How would it look if our data security person caught me? Even with my “solution” I was stilI was pounding on my keyboard and mumbling as I was trying passwords when one day our data security guy stopped by my desk. The time was right to tell him what I thought! After patiently listening, Halleluja, he had a solution. I don’t know what took him so long!  Now I use this wonderful little tool called Password Safe. I love this one because it only requires one complex password to open it up. I can remember one password.  It’s easy to organize my id, password and the website by groups and names. I can choose to browse to the url, select autotype to put in the id and password then all I do is hit enter. No more mad typing and mumbling or covert unprotected folders. If I need a new password then I just open the folder, select random generator for the password. I don’t have to think about it or add it to the safe. Did I mention that this was FREE! You should make a contribution to support further developments. Check it out for awhile and see if you like it like I do.

How to Reduce Stress and Stay Happy

Last time I talked about the need for data backups. Is there anything you can do to help avoid computer crashes? Yes there is, one important thing is conditioning the power that comes into your PC, printer, or router. The best way to accomplish that is by the use of an Uninterruptible Power Supply or UPS. A UPS will not only supply power to your PC when your incoming electricity is out it will also act as a power filter and maintain the AC power to your PC within its acceptable limits. What does that do for you? Maintaining the incoming power keeps the components inside your PC happy. They do not have to deal with and compensate for power that is too high or low, this reduces stress on the electrical components and just like us, it is good to reduce stress; it leads to a long life. 

A UPS can be purchased at your local electronics store or online and the cost is very reasonable. APC is one of the largest manufactures and they have a tool on their website to help you size your UPS to fit your needs. That link is here: http://www.apc.com/tools/ups_selector/index.cfm . For example, I used the tool to come up with a UPS to protect an average PC. The tool gave me 3 choices, the best value was the BE550R, that gave me at least 22 minutes of run time after a power outage and the price was 59 dollars. It was easy, and what makes it even better, if you already have a UPS you can trade in the old one and they will either properly dispose of it or refurbish it for resell.

This basic underlying protection is the foundation of protecting all of your data. Use it to protect one of your most important business tools, your PC.

Dennis Schmedt

CISSP

More Payment Choices

800-341-4423

dennis@morepaymentchoices.com

www.morepaymentchoices.com

www.collectmorechecks.com

Backups

If you are like us then you have all of your pictures, much of your correspondence, maybe Quicken for your taxes, all on your PC.  It is a great place to keep records.  Modern PC’s are very reliable and you expect it to work every time you boot it up and it does……..most of the time.

You have backups of all of your important data right? So you can just put all your important data right back on your new hard drive. No? It is hard to remember to backup isn’t it? I did manual backups for many years; I would try to remember to keep a copy of important information stored every month. What I found was, even though I had a backup it was always at least several months old, sometimes longer. It was just not something I could discipline myself to do even though I knew it was important. I tried several backup programs, but they were cumbersome to use or didn’t work very well and sometimes both. The really good backup software was expensive. That put me on a mission and after extensive research and trying several different backup programs; I chose Handy Backup three years ago.  It is inexpensive and it WORKS! The setup is easy to understand. It is a very secure system that allows you to encrypt all of your backups with a very high level of encryption.  This is what we use for all of our company and personal backups. Rona and I both know that that the restore function works.  We experienced hard drive failures and hardware upgrades.  We were able to successfully restore the files we had backed up and get back to work very quickly. Off-site storage is the most secure way to keep all of your information safe and ready to restore when you need it. You just set it up and go. You don’t have to remember to do your backups; Handy Backup does it for you. You can buy a copy here: Handy Backup    off site storage here: Handy Backup Storage or if you just want to try it out to see how you like, it download it here: Handy Backup 30 day trial download

Dennis Schmedt

CISSP

More Payment Choices

800-341-4423

dennis@morepaymentchoices.com

www.morepaymentchoices.com

www.collectmorechecks.com