Best Practices - Never Ask For Credit Card Numbers To Be Emailed

As a business that accepts credit cards, never ask for a credit card number to be emailed.  If you provide a form for a customer to complete, you should state very clearly that full credit card numbers and expiration dates should never be emailed on the form.  Also this applies to this same info left on voice mail.  This is for the security of credit card data of your customer and for your business to adhere to PCI Compliance per the card brands.

If you have questions about this subject or other concerns related to Point of Sales Systems or credit card processing, contact us anytime via email info@tampabaymerchantservices.com or call us at 727-916-7294

Stand Alone Credit Card Terminals & It’s Communication

Many years ago before the internet, the old “ma bell” phones and the phone lines operated on sending/reading pulses.  With the advent of the internet a new system has come to the market called voice over internet or VOIP.  Today most if not all phone system uses VOIP or Digital Phone lines. If not in your office / business, but at the switching stations.

Today’s credit card terminal, when using a phone line and the built in modem, is based on the old “ma bell protocol. Voice over IP or Digital Phone lines simulate this pulse, which isn’t always sufficient for what the terminal is looking for. For this reason if a merchant has VOIP we recommend  processing over IP instead.  It must be a wired internet connection.  Wi-Fi will not work for the vast majority of stand-alone credit card terminals.

If you have questions about this subject or other concerns related to Point of Sales Systems or credit card processing, contact us anytime via email info@tampabaymerchantservices.com or call us at 727-916-7294

E-commerce Websites & Card Testing By Fraudsters - Up By 200%

If your business has a website that takes credit cards, beware of a fraud that is increasing. Non-profit businesses are more at risk because the obstacles to prevent the fraud are normally not used.

The fraudsters’ uses e-commerce websites to test stolen credit card numbers to see which ones are still good. This type of fraud is up 200% first four months of 2017 compared to the same period last year, according to a report from Radial’s E-commerce Fraud Technology Lab.

They can high jack the use of the site for running test transactions. This is done by a very sophisticated manner using bots and scripts repetitive tasks at lighting speed. Attempting hundreds of card payments online in minutes. If this happens at your site, it will cost in transactions fees just for the test. Any good payments funded can later results in charge backs. If you have too many charge backs that exceed a threshold, per the card brands may results in the shutdown of your merchant account.

To protect your business from being a victim of this type of fraud, review your security setting to make it harder for the “bots” to run the scripts. Do this by turning on or add an extra requirement for verification. This feature will require the person prior to entering credit card info, to enter a security code from a randomly generated image. Consider turning on an email notification so every time a credit card is used for a purchase on your site, you will receive an email. This could alert you to this fraud because, if attacked, you will receive numerous emails very quickly. Depending on the software / services you may be using, there can be additional security features available.  In some gateways you can also limit how many transaction will be allowed to go thru in a day. It’s called daily velocity. If you use authorize.net you might want to consider their Advanced Fraud Detection Suite by using Authorize.net 13 fraud-fighting filters and tools.

Last if you find you are attacked, turn off your gateway so no new transactions can be tried at once until you have made your site secure to stop the testing. If any fraudulent transaction were good, void or refund depending on the status.

If you have questions about this subject or other concerns related to Point of Sales Systems or credit card processing, contact us anytime via email info@tampabaymerchantservices.com or call us at 727-916-7294

Understanding The Differnce Between Surcharging And Convenience Fee

More and more I am asked about the following. There is much confusion on this subject.  We hope this will help to clarify it for you.

CONVENIENCE FEES

A convenience fee is associated with an "added value" that the cardholder receives in connection with a non-face-to-face card purchase in the form of an alternate payment channel outside of the merchant's customary payment channels. For instance, a movie theatre is permitted to charge a convenience fee to cardholders that purchase movie tickets for a future showing through the Internet. This alternate payment channel offers the cardholder added convenience since they do not have to be physically present to complete this transaction, thus a convenience fee is allowable. The movie theatre (this would be their customary payment channel), however, may not levy a "convenience fee" at the ticket counter.

Visa and MasterCard define a Convenience Fee as a fee assessed by the merchant to the cardholder for payments processed through an alternative payment channel. A convenience fee cannot be assessed to the payments received in the customary, or standard, payment channel since there is no added convenience to the cardholder.

The standard convenience Fee rules are:

- Convenience Fee can only be charged in an alternative payment method.
- Non face to face transactions only.
- Disclose it is for using an alternative payment method.
- Has to be flat or fixed amount, not a percentage of the sale.
- Applicable to all alternate payments accepted including cash and check.
- Included in the transaction total.
- Disclosed prior to the completion of sale.
- Cannot be charged by a third party.
- Cannot be added to a recurring transaction.
- Cannot be assessed by e-commerce only merchants.
- The Fee must be clearly and conspicuously disclosed to the cardholder and afford the cardholder an opportunity to opt out of the sale.
- The fee should not be advertised as a fee assessed by MasterCard or Visa.
- The fee cannot be advertised or otherwise communicated as an offset to the merchant discount rate.

Offering the customer the option to pay with a credit card is not considered an added convenience, and merchants may not assess a convenience fee for any transaction completed through the customary payment channel.

SURCHARGING

A surcharge is a fee charged to the cardholder for using a credit card to pay for goods and/or services. Any merchant is able to implement a surcharge as long as they follow the guidelines.
The surcharge amount may not vary with each customer/transaction
The surcharge amount must be consistent, whether a flat fee or percentage is charged.
The MAXIMUM Surcharge Amount is 4%, however the surcharge must be in-line with the Discount Rate, i.e. effective rate of cards currently accepted. Merchants should calculate their effective rate for the past 6 months, and then take the average to obtain their surcharge amount.
Merchants must register and wait 30 days before implementing the surcharge.
Merchants must disclose at the Point of Entry to the store that they surcharge.
Merchants must disclose at the Point of Sale (checkout) that they surcharge.
Merchants must disclose the dollar amount surcharged on every receipt. Currently the only terminal certified with First Data to support surcharging are Dejavoo terminals.
Merchants MAY NOT surcharge any debit cards, signature, prepaid, or pin. Surcharging is for Credit Cards only.
Merchants who surcharge may still be liable for fines if they mistakenly surcharge a debit card.
Merchants who surcharge will not be able to accept American Express.

If you have questions about this subject or other concerns related to Point of Sales Systems or credit card processing, contact us anytime via email info@tampabaymerchantservices.com or call us at 727-916-7294

This article was written by Megan Best of Electronic Payments and reprinted with permission.  All Rights Reserved.

Your Business Needs A Gift Card Program, Why? How about more revenue!

You know you have a great product you offer to customers, then why not let them purchase a gift card to give to a friend? Build loyalty too. Promotional give away.  Use for refunds, instead of cash.

Here are some hard numbers.

93% of US consumers either buy or receive a gift card every year. The fact is, if you don’t have gift cards, you’re losing a huge revenue opportunity. A large portion of this 93% are going to buy a gift card no matter what, because it’s the simplest and most flexible gift to give someone—they’ll be setting out on their shopping trip intending to buy a gift card from one place or another. If you don’t have gift cards, these consumers will look elsewhere for them, and that’s lost revenue for you.

72% of people use more than the value of their card—on average, people spend 20% more. It almost seems as if the number should be higher—anyone who uses a gift card for a store almost certainly has to go over by some small amount. But what’s really important is the second half of the stat—the 20% figure shows just how much extra revenue beyond the gift card you can get, and that’s not including the potential for repeat customers.

55% of gift card recipients go to a store more than once to use the entire gift card balance. This is an aspect of gift cards that has long-term effects—a customer who attends your store twice is already likely to come back again afterward. The next time they’re thinking of buying a product that you carry, the image of that product sitting on your shelves will pop into their head.

There’s plenty of other stats, of course, but these three capture the core value of gift cards—nearly all customers want to give or receive gift cards, recipients will return to your store multiple times to use them, and they’ll very often choose to spend beyond the value of the gift card. The benefits are clear, and the numbers support it—without gift cards, you’re missing out.

Contact us via email or call for details on a free gift card program. 727-916-7294

Visa and MC Settlement Update: Appeals Court Overturns Settlement

Back to the lower court for new settlement discussions or a trial...

Visa & Mastercard Settlemen Update

More Junk Fees

They just keep coming.  A new junk fee I recently came across.  I am often asked what is your rate? It’s not about one rate, one needs to look at the sum of the total. Here is another example about another “junk fee”. Monthly Funding Advantage is a made up fee. Also I am seeing a new junk fee called “EMV non-enabled Fee” at a rate of 3 basis points. This fee will hit restaurants that does not have a POS to accept Chip Cards.

Give us a call to find out how we can help you eliminate junk fees. 727-916-7294

Omnichannel retail - What is it and Why?

Customers want more than most retailers are able to offer. Modern consumers want to buy online, but pick up or return at the store. They want to browse product information on their laptop or smartphone, get coupons or discount codes, even make a purchase on their mobile phone while in a store. New consumers are naturally combining channels as they browse, research and buy.

With 90% of consumers researching products online before they buy and 25% of shoppers buying online after they’ve experienced and touched the items in-store, the path to purchase is no longer a straight line. Today’s tech savvy consumer demands flexibility from retailers as they drift from in-store to mobile to online and back again. The age of the brick-and-click is here and retailers need to catch this wave or get washed away as more and more of their competitors adopt the agile omnichannel model of retail.

In an omnichannel world, retailers can combine data from every transaction and interaction, from any channel, into a unique individual file for each customer. Customer records can include previous in-store and online purchases, deliveries made, coupons used, gift cards purchased, comments on social media, phone interactions – anything and everything that can be used to gain deeper insight into customer behavior patterns.

With a better understanding of their customers, retailers will benefit from higher customer satisfaction, which will ultimately result in more sales and brand loyalty. Being open for business 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, frees customers once bound by the dated constraints of store hours. This gives them added opportunities to interact with your brand on their own time and allows you to literally ring up sales while you sleep.

We have an affordable solution for retailers which give the best of both worlds. An integrated system means that retailers will be able to streamline their operations, saving time and effort with joint reporting, a unified inventory, and centralized sales information.

Give us a call to find out how we can help you.  727-916-7294

What Makes A Business / Merchant “HIGH RISK”?

High risk has to do more with the charge back exposure, since the acquiring / sponsoring bank is responsible for all charge backs if a business were to cease business and close for any reason.  A better way to characterize a business as high risk is harder to place

Why then is a business “harder to place” for taking credit cards?  This is because an acquiring / sponsoring bank will not even consider or approve a business based on various details that are not in line with their underwriting guidelines.  Most of the time it about the financial expose and loss. As an underwriter they look at worst case scenarios in regards to financial expose and loss.  For example, if a business had their processing account stop abruptly, this will have a serious consequence to their cash flow, which might affect delivery of product or service on payments taken previously.  This in turn causes customers to dispute credit card transactions when the product or service is delayed and everything for the business spiral out of control. 

Let’s examine travel agents.  There are several factors that make this type of business “high risk or hard to place”.  The vast majority of travel agents are good people who run legitimate sales through their business, but the problem lies with what is outside of their control.  They can do an excellence job booking a vacation well below market price, but a last minute deals from hotel or an airlines that significantly drop their rates the week before the vacation starts due to a surplus of rooms / seats.  In this example the customer books this last minute deal and goes to the issuing bank and disputes the original credit card charge and will likely win the dispute.  Also consider the travel agent has no control over how their vendor operates and if the customer has a bad experience for any number of reasons they are likely to get buyer’s remorse and dispute the charges. 

Another example is electronic cigarette most acquiring / sponsoring bank will reject this type of business type on principle alone citing it is too easy for a minor to purchase the product online.  It’s the potential of taking part in facilitating the sale of nicotine products to minors that the acquiring / sponsoring bank is avoiding due to nothing in regards to financial expose and loss.

Banks having been doing this a lot longer than you have been in business and have enough experience and history to know that even a good business can go bad.  They look at the long term, “how much do we stand to lose if this company closes its doors tomorrow?” Acquiring / sponsoring bank are typically on the hook for charge backs for six months after the delivery of a product or service. We hope this might help to give you a better understanding into this subject.

If your business is "high risk" or not, we can help.  Contact us at 888-506-9225 or info@tampabaymerchantservices.com

Dirty Little Secret Of Equipment Leasing – Part Three

To add to this subject and mention new information, a law suit was filed recently by the Attorney General of New York.  Read more on the link provide below. The company involved is Northern Leasing Systems.  This is just one company involved in this “leasing” industry.  In the complaint it mentioned deceptive sales practices, which I have heard about from business owners.  In additional it states, “Northern Leasing’s lease terms are onerous and totally one-sided in favor of the company.  The credit card equipment leased to consumers by Northern Leasing is valued at only a few hundred dollars (at most) when new, yet over the course of a Northern Leasing lease consumers pay thousands of dollars for the equipment." This echoes info in my previous post where I mentioned the cost.  Again, do not lease your credit card terminals or equipment.  It is just not a good business decision. 

http://www.ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-schneiderman-sues-northern-leasing-systems-inc-deceptive-business-practices-and

 If you have any question about this, please feel free to contact us at  info@tampabaymerchantservices.com or call 727-916-7294

Don’t Get “Squared” by Square Up

I am noticing more and more merchant using Square for processing their credit cards.  On the surface Square may seem like a good option and for some it maybe.  If you are just starting out and not sure how well your new business my take off and depending on what you are selling or services of your new business, perhaps it is a good option. For example, right now it is more of a hobby that a thriving business.  Square might be a good option. 

However consider the down side of Square.  In many cases the cost for processing credit cards can be higher with Square.  Because Square is an aggregator you have no true merchant account.  They refer to their customers as sellers.  When one opens an account, they take much of what one presents with little vetting or underwriting.  If they question later what you do or sell or how you sell it, all then without warning your money will be withheld.  Then the fun begins with getting help or having a conversation with a person.  Consider other service related issues.  See the example below:

By the way Square is losing money, Net Loss of $48 million - per page 13 4q 2015 letter to investors

If you want to have first class customer service, in most cases less cost than what Square, call us 727-916-7294

Is There Any Benefit Obtaining Your Merchant Processing Account Thru an Association?

The short answer is not always.  It dependents on how much the Acquire charges or not charges.  What is an Acquirer?  Read our earlier post on this subject. at the following link.  This is not to say other benefits from the “Association” are not good, I am only addressing the credit card processing.  I have talked to several businesses that belong to the “Association” and one of the many so called benefits is the lower cost of processing.  Many of these same merchants are very closed minded about considering another alternative.  The few I did get to see had good rates, but not as low as we offer.  Do yourself a favor, let us look at your processing statement and we will analysis it to let you know just how good of a deal you are receiving from your “Association”.  I am sure you will be glad you did.

If you have any question about this, please feel free to contact us at  info@tampabaymerchantservices.com or call 727-916-7294

Dirty Little Secret Of Equipment Leasing – Part Two $10,000 for a credit card terminal!

I have written about the many different ways the banks or Processing Companies can rip your business off taking hard earned money out of your pocket.  One of the worse in my opinion is leasing of credit card terminals.  When you lease a credit card terminal you are paying about four times of what it would cost you to buy the terminal out right.  Read more in my original post  at Dirty Little Secret Of Equipment Leasing

I bring this subject up again because a merchant I was dealing recently recently discovered a lease payment coming out of his bank account when he went to change his bank account.  As it turns out it was for from a lease that was started more than 10 years ago.  He was paying around $90 per month. That is around $10,000 for a credit card terminal!  Not sure why the business owner did not catch this before.  Or his accountant and / or bookkeeper did not notice or discover this payment all these years when they worked with his taxes and bank account?

Another situation for another business I came across, the merchant has one lease account / payment started two years ago, then a “new” rep came into the business around a year ago and added another lease account.  Why? Good question, the rep left the industry so we cannot ask her.  Keep in mind these two leases are with the same leasing company.  I was helping the merchant sort this out and was on the phone with the leasing company and I asked them the question, why did they let her have two leasing?  Did they do any due diligence?  Well let’s say they had no real answer to the question.

Again, to you a business owner, DO NOT LEASE.  READ BEFORE YOU SIGN! ASK QUESTIONS. KNOW WHO YOU ARE DEALING WITH.

 If you have any question about this, please feel free to contact us at  info@tampabaymerchantservices.com or call 727-916-7294

Visa & MasterCard Released October 2015 Interchange Updates

Just like in previous year the card association has updated or added some the interchange categories. See below.  This is all we could find that was changed.  What will almost certainly happen as in years past, many ISO and service providers will use this as a reason to charge you more.  With our interchange plus pricing arrangement, we do not charge you more for our processing.  Do you know how your processing company handles these changes?  

Miscellaneous Changes
• Business Standard transactions are now broken down into 3 categories based off of dollar amount.

MasterCard
New Categories
• Business Debit/Business Prepaid/Large Market-Healthcare (1.00% + $0.00)
• Business Debit/Business Prepaid/Large Market-Healthcare Maximum (0.00% + $5.00)

Maybe it is time to let us help you with a rate review.  Contact us today, to save for tomorrow.

Call 888-506-9225 option 103 or visit  www.tampabaymerchantservices.com

Everything Too Good To Be True CAN For A Short Time

Scrapped after one year:

http://www.paymenteye.com/2015/11/03/amazon-feels-the-squeeze-in-mpos-market/

Our thoughts on this:

Subsidized pricing might work for a short time, but not forever. This is way Visa and MC work! There's no secrets, no special rates or double secret Interchange. You either make money or you do not. You cannot get any work-around to the pricing that they charge. Square will be the next to increase rates (after IPO).

Call us today at 727-916-7294 option 103 or visit our website at www.tampabaymerchantservices.com if we can help

Gift Cards Are Gold For The Merchant

The holiday gift card season is here.

Each year, gift card sales go up by about 10% over the previous year. Ever wonder why the big restaurants have the promotion of purchase $100 gift card and receive an extra $20 gift card? Continue reading.

Over a billion dollars in gift cards have gone un-redeemed.

More than 10% of gift cards never get redeemed. That's great for a retail store or restaurant. You get the cash, but don't have the expense.

However, make sure you are following the gift card laws of your municipality. Even if not cashed, you have some legal obligations for un-redeemed gift cards.

For accounting purchases, a gift card is not counted as a sale until it is actually redeemed. The money you receive for selling a gift card becomes a liability until the gift card is exchanged for merchandise.

Nearly 85% of people between 25 to 34 years old are giving gift cards this year.

Only 40% of those over 65 will be giving gift cards. I'm in this group. Maybe that's why I don't like gift cards.

22% of those with a gift card make a purchase of an item that they would normally not purchase.

72% will spend more money in your business than the value of the gift card.

On average, gift card users spend 22% more money than the value of the gift card.

77% of all Americans have given out a gift card in the past year.

$25 is the most popular gift card denomination.

55% of those using gift cards need more than one trip to the store in order to redeem their gift card.

Read the statistics at: https://www.cardcash.com/gift-card-statistics/

For help with getting started on a gift card program call us at 888-506-9225 option 103 or visit
www.tampabaymerchantservices.com

Why Can’t I Get a Small Business Loan from a Bank?

Having trouble getting financing from a bank? You’re not alone. So far in 2015, big banks have approved only 21.7% of small business loans. Despite a recovering economy and an increasing demand for small business credit, banks have become less and less inclined to lend to small businesses.

But why? The answer isn’t as simple as low credit scores. While it’s true that small business owner credit scores are still suffering from the effects of the Recession, other factors are at play as to why banks are suddenly shunning small to medium sized businesses from their portfolios. Let’s take a look at some of them:

Riskier: Small businesses are riskier lending propositions than larger businesses for a variety reasons. For one, small businesses are more sensitive to the ebbs and flows of the economy. Because big businesses are generally more self-sustainable than small ones, larger businesses can weather a dip in the economy. However, any prolonged economic downturn can have lasting consequences on a small business and may even cause them to default on a loan.

Decline of community banks: Historically, community banks have always been more willing to give microloans (generally loans of $50k or less), the amount that small businesses often seek. However, many of these banks have either been consolidated by big banks or have closed completely. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the number of community banks dropped 41% between 2007 and 2013, a bad sign for small business owners looking for loans.

Not as profitable for banks: Perhaps the biggest reason bank lending to small businesses has slowed down is that it’s just simply not as profitable for banks as it used to be. Lending to small businesses in the lower dollar range is too costly and risky for banks. For instance, the cost to process a $50k loan is comparable to a $500k loan, and with 51% of small business owners looking for loans below $100k, you can see the problem.

So with banks not lending to small businesses the way they used to, where can owners turn for small business credit?

We Can Help
We specialize working with small businesses by partnering with companies that provide lending to businesses like yours.  Whether a restaurant owner is in the market for a quick $25k or a beauty salon owner wants $15k to cover sudden expenses, we can help.

What we can offer is different from a bank in that we completely eliminate the mountain of paperwork, long waiting times, and stringent payback policies. Bad credit or low credit score is not a problem.  Whether it’s our Merchant Cash Advance or Business Loan, these  financing programs are an easy and fast solution for small business owners looking for credit.

Call us today at 888-506-9225 option 103 or visit our website at www.tampabaymerchantservices.com

Are You Being Charged Junk Fees?

Just like in your business you want and need to make a profit to pay overhead and expenses. This is true in the credit card processing business for the company that is providing the service.  With interchange plus pricing you will see the mark up because of the transparency.  This is what we promote and suggest that any business that is looking for credit card processing insist on. Some companies will give a low ball "show" rate only to make it up somewhere else. Hence the reason why you might see "junk fees". There can be that line that is crossed when too much is too much.  Sometime it is just plan sneaky. One of the worst offenders that I have seen recently is the attached statement.  

If you have any question about this, please feel free to contact us at info@tampabaymerchantservices.com or call 727-916-7294

Say Good Bye To Your Credit / Debit Card As You Know It

Perhaps you can remember back when you got your first computer let’s say around 20 years ago?  How about your first cell phone?  Was it a flip phone just making phone calls?  How well would your old computer work today assuming it was still available?  Of course it could not do much in the world today.  In a similar way this is the problem with the credit / debit cards we are using today.  It is a technology from the 20^th century, operating in a much advanced 21^st century.   The magnetic stripe card we use today: the technology was developed back in the 1960’s and the ability to apply it to a plastic card came about in mass production in the 1970’s.  The data from these cards can be easily copied and reproduced to another plastic counterfeit card.  Until the “owner” of the card realizes the card data was stolen, the card can be used to purchase items.  Typically the fraudsters will resale these items for cash.

Since then new technology has been developed to make it much harder, if not impossible to replicate cards that can used in advanced credit card device readers.  It is known as EMV.  This payment security standard was developed by Europay, MasterCard, and Visa in 1994, hence “EMV”.  In the mid-1990s, EMV-compliant payment cards began to be issued and EMV-compliant POS terminals began to be installed in countries around the world. While different markets have migrated to the EMV standard at different speeds, the U.S. has been the one major international country not adopting the standard. Since 2011, however, the global card networks that first created EMV have renewed their push to bring the EMV standard to the United States.  Some ask why has it taken the US so long to adopt this or any new standard with a more secure technology than we use today?  The answer is not clear, however, in my opinion; the best reason is until recently it was less costly for the banks to absorb the fraud losses than to pay for the new more costly technology.  What seldom gets mention if at all about fraud loses is much of theses cost can ultimately hit the original accepting merchant that unknowingly took the counterfeit card.

An EMV card resembles the current magnetic-stripe cards with one significant difference, the EMV “chip” or microprocessor that is embedded in the card. EMV protect against duplicate card fraud. Unlike a magnetic-stripe card, an EMV card is not swiped through a reader. Rather, it is inserted into a slot on the terminal.  When the EMV card is inserted, a metal contact on its face connects the card to the terminal and the two devices are then able to communicate.  While the EMV card is used for a transaction and during the communication process for an approval response from the issuing bank, there is new dynamic CVV code used in the authorization request.  This dynamic CVV changes for each transaction.  It is validated against what is expected at the host.  The result is the primary account number is static yet data changes on each transaction.   The problem that EMV will not help against fraud is in a card not present environment such as goods sold on a website. 

Although EMV it is not a magic bullet, it is far better then what we have today.  For example card fraud in the U.K. began to drop following EMV implementation. But in 2008 and 2009 fraud losses began to rise, driven mostly by card not present transactions and cross-border fraud initiated with counterfeit cards using information captured from legitimate cards’ magnetic-stripe. After more countries had adopted EMV, card not present transactions and cross-border fraud losses fell. During the first six months of 2010 the same period the previous year.  Since its adoption in the European countries, and the U.K. in particular, EMV has effectively eradicated face-to-face counterfeit card fraud in card payments. Consequently, the U.K. case study has significant implications for U.S. merchants since it highlights the tangible reduction in fraud witnessed in a country following EMV migration.

Although many merchants may be skeptical of EMV migration given the significant upfront costs of upgrading payment acceptance terminals, over the long run merchants and the industry as a whole will benefit from a reduction in fraud. The magnetic-stripe is no longer able to fend off fraudsters armed with low-cost magnetic-stripe readers, card-duplication gear, and Internet-sourced card data that can be entered into the payments system without strong account holder authentication. The result has been an outbreak of card skimming that has cost the payments industry and merchants millions of dollars.

The fact that merchants in both Canada and Mexico are mostly compliant with EMV standards makes merchants in the U.S. very vulnerable to fraud. As the rest of the world moves toward EMV, merchants in the United States will be at greater risk of fraud until they install EMV-compliant POS terminals and banks issue EMV cards.

If you have any question about this, please feel free to contact us at info@tampabaymerchantservices.com or call 727-916-7294

The Info Behind Our Terminal Label

Look at two terminal labels below.  One is from a competitor and the other is from our firm.  What is the story behind these two.  Our terminal label state we stand behind what we sell.   As you can see we give our number and the national toll free number.  You get the best of both world.  No need to call a toll free number all the time with our service.  We know our merchants and they know us.  If you like that type of business relationship, then give us a call or email!

info@tampabaymerchantservices.com or call 727-916-7294