Take Advantage of Auto-Recurring Billing

Auto-recurring billing is a system by which you receive payments from your customers on a regular basis. It not only greatly reduces the amount of time and money spent on billing and collections, it also provides your customers a convenient  way to pay you on time, every time.

The process is easy, and all you need is an internet gateway. Once you have written permission from your customer to begin an auto billing program, you simply upload their information into your gateway. (You only do this once, reducing the opportunity for data entry errors). You set your customers up to pay you an agreed upon amount at regular intervals, and after that their payments flow in with no effort on your part.
Most gateways are can be customized with different billing periods, and flexible if your customer needs to change her payment date or amount.

Once set up, you get your money on time, every time. Cash flow variances are reduced, and you have a determined amount of money coming in on a regular basis. The time and money associated with printing and mailing invoices is eliminated, and past due accounts and their accompanying collection calls are a thing of the past.

Your customers will appreciate that auto billing makes doing business with you simple. They will be able to pay you automatically without the hassle of receiving an invoice, writing out a check, and finding time to get it out in the mail.

Although anyone can use auto-recurring billing, it works best for two types of businesses. The first type is service providers who charge the same amount every month such as daycare providers, contractors who pro-rate their billing out over time, attorneys, fitness centers, storage facilities, etc. The other type are businesses who generally carry accounts for their customers- doctors, dentists, bars, hospitals, etc.

As we hurtle onward toward a cashless society the businesses that succeed are going to the ones that offer flexible payment options- auto-recurring billing is a great way to do just that.

Visa Warns Merchants of Email Phishing Scams

Visa USA has detected an increase in email "phishing" scams directed at merchants. These scams use fake emails that appear to originate from legitimate financial institutions, processors or other businesses that often conduct business with merchants.

Through these fake emails criminals attempt to convince merchants to  provide sensitive information such as account information, passwords, logins, or other payment information, which then can be used fraudulently.

In most of these phishing emails the merchant is asked to click on an internet hyperlink embedded in the fake email. This link connects to a fraudulent website or server and may lead to the installation of  'malicious software' (malware) on the merchant's computer.

Visa has posted several examples of phishing emails as well as a list of signs that the email you are looking at may be fraudulent at Visa.com.

They ask that you remember that neither Visa nor it's personnel will ever ask you for  personally identifiable information by email or by telephone. Any merchant the receives a suspected or actual phishing message should contact their financial institution and Visa. To notify Visa send an email to phishing@visa.com with the phishing email attached.

Heaven

So there you are, laying on a bed in a mostly dark room with your ten month old granddaughter. You're on your side, and she's on her back, snuggled in against you. You're propping your head up with one hand, and the other is on her belly. she has your index finger clutched in her tiny hand, and every few seconds she strokes the back of of your hand with her two littlest fingers. She's looking up at you with an expression that tells you that not only does she believe you are responsible for the very oxygen she is breathing, but she is also firmly convinced you are going to keep her safe and happy for all her days.

There will come a day that you let her down; it's impossible not to. No one can stay atop a pedestal the size she has placed you on forever. But that day hasn't come yet, and unlike you, she doesn't know it will.

So as she snuggles in even tighter and shuts her eyes, drifting into dreamland you thank God for giving us the gift of little girls.

'Spend Graphs' are Here

The next stage of shopping evolution has begun, courtesy of American Express' new spend graph program.

Spend graphing is the combination of GPS technology and high speed data mining capabilities. Your credit card issuers have been tracking your spending habits since the day you made your very first pulled out a piece of plastic rather than cash. Very complicated algorithms give the card company the power to predict to the penny how much you will spend, for what items, at what store, with amazing (or frightening) accuracy. These models predicting your spending habits have existed in a vacuum until recently- the missing variable was the 'when' you would make the purchase, and without a when, the what, where, and how many couldn't be acted upon. Enter global positioning satellites.

The card companies figured out there was no need to guess when you would make a purchase if  GPS technology could tell them when you were walking into a store.

Based on that, American Express now offers their cardholders the ability to receive to their mobile form or tablet real time offers.

Once a cardholder opts into the system it works as follows- GPS telemetry pick up that a member has just walked into Macy's. Amex has stored on it's servers that you spend $400 a month at Macy's, at an average of $200 per visit, and that 50 percent of your purchases are women's clothing, and that 75 percent of that is spend on Calvin Klein dresses and active wear.

Almost immediately upon entering the store, you are alerted to a new text, and therein is an offer for 30 percent off of all Calvin Klein women's wear- good for the next hour only.

Privacy advocates are howling about the program, but American Express calls in a win for consumers and businesses alike.

"In an increasingly crowded marketplace, where consumers are bombarded with daily deals, we saw an opportunity to help our Cardmembers save time as well as money by curating meaningful offers for them," said Josh Silverman, president of the U.S. Consumer Services Group at American Express. "At the same time we can help our merchant partners build their business by helping them reach the right Cardmembers with the right offer at the right time. We developed our mobile offer engine with three key points of differentiation in mind; relevance, convenience and value."

MasterCard Issues Security Alert

MasterCard has issued an alert that some merchants have received fraudulent 'MasterCard Security Alert' email messages. The messages refer to a fictitious recent hacking attempt, and ask the merchant to run a 'test transaction' to determine if they were affected by the hack.

MasterCard said this is an attempt by an outside party to gain transaction information. Once the outside party has the stolen information they can use it to try to make purchases and get refunds.

The company said if any merchant receives an unsolicited email, phone call, text message or social media request from an individual or organization purporting to be a MasterCard security representative do not respond. Instead report the attempt at the following address: datasecurity@mastercard.com.

Ten Reasons Why a Payment Gateway is Better for Your Business

1. Card on file. Merchants have a secure way to store credit/debit card and checking account details so they can charge their regular customers without requiring them to present a card or check.
2. Email receipts.  With a gateway merchants can send receipts their customers can easily store electronically.
3. No extra hardware to maintain. Why have multiple devices to manage and pay for when most businesses have personal computers on site already?
4. Unlimited users who can log on from anywhere.  With the merchant's express permission, their bookkeeper can log in from their office to get transaction reports, clerks can log on from the front desk to process payments and merchants can log in from any Internet connection to check on the business from anywhere in the world. 
5. PCI Compliance. Most payment gateways are continually updated to remain fully PCI compliant while most existing POS terminals simply aren’t PCI DSS compliant.  After the massive recent data breaches with Global Payments, Sony et al., this issue will become increasingly important as the card associations start cracking down on non-compliance.
6. Customer Data at your fingertips. Gateways  generally support loading customer information which gives the merchant a great way to communicate with their customers for promotions and loyalty.
7. Re-Occurring Payments . With a gateway re-occurring payments need only to be entered one time, and told how often to occur. 
8. Doesn’t tie up a phone line.  Standard POS terminals use phone lines to communicate with the processor which requires merchants to either lose their line while the transactions process or get a second phone line which is often times more expensive than the monthly fee for a gateway.
9. Rental/lease fees.  Merchants often pay $30-$80/month to rent or lease their POS terminals which is more expensive than simply using a payment gateway.
10. Marketing.  With a gateway, receipts can be printed on preprinted sheets that market the Merchant’s business. They are larger than normal receipts so a consumer will be more inclined to keep them and respond to a marketing message than if it’s printed on a small POS terminal receipt.   What a great way to incent your customers to save your marketing message.  With a VPOS, you can actually turn your credit card processing into a great new way to make grow your business! 

Every Processing Company's Niightmare

Global Payments announced Friday that 1.5 million credit card numbers from its systems may have been exposed after detecting “unauthorized access” into its processing system. Global is a processing company that moves the money around for the parties involved in a credit card transaction.  The company said that 1.5 million records may have been exposed, from Visa and MasterCard. Global said that while credit card numbers may have been exposed, personal information such as names, addresses and Social Security numbers were “not obtained by the criminals.”


Global detected the breach in “early March,” but has not specified when exactly the attack took place or how it happened. According to the latest statement released by Global, the breach has been “contained.” The company said it is working with “industry third parties, regulators and law enforcement to assist in the efforts to minimize potential cardholder impact.” It is also working with security and forensics firms to get to the bottom of the access.

Visa Inc. has dropped the card processor involved in a massive data breach from its registry of providers that meet data security standards.

Global Payments CEO Paul Garcia noted that the company continues to process Visa transactions, but that being dropped from the registry “could give our partners some pause that they’re doing business with someone who experienced a breach.”

The company said it will set up a website later Monday to help consumers who might be affected by the breach. Visa and Mastercard's systems were not compromised.

The company said it continues to work with regulators, industry third parties and law enforcement to help in the effort to minimize the potential impact on credit cardholders.