Credit card payments are becoming increasingly common and businesses that incorporate credit card processing (CCP) solutions enjoy considerable increase in sales. The retail industry in particular has taken to accepting credit card payments in a huge way. Most organizations that offer credit card (CC) payment options are not aware of the actions that inadvertently make them pay more than necessary for such transactions. You can take some simple measures to avoid paying more for credit card processing.
Following are some of the guidelines that would help you lower the fees and avoid fraud:
Avoid Manual Entry of Credit Card Number
Credit cards often get damaged by scraping with other card in the customer s purse. If the magnetic strip is demagnetized, the swipe machine cannot read it. To overcome this problem, checkout staff key in the CC number manually.
CCP fee increases with the risk involved in such a transaction. Entering a card number manually increases the processing fee to almost double, as the physical card is not used in the transaction. Such transactions are a risk to the business, the credit card company and the customer. Many such transactions in a month can increase the business payout to CCP vendor by a good margin.
The business should train checkout staff to ask for an alternative CC if the one in hand is not working. More often than not, customers carry more than one. Process manually only if an alternate card is not available.
Frequently Check Credit Card Processing Statements Against Income Statements
Compare the CCP statement against the income statement often to detect transactions where customers have stopped payments to credit card companies. You may be paying for invalid charge backs.
Some customers purchase products and regret it later. Instead of following the correct protocol of returning the product to the store and asking for a refund, these customers call up their CC company and stop the payment by disputing the charge. This is a bad practice and the business bears the charge back to the CCP vendor.
You can keep a tab on such transactions and customers by developing an efficient system to compare income statements and credit card processing statements regularly.
Avoid Fraud by Using the Following Procedures Consistently
Credit card fraud occurs every day. Small time fraudsters can be checked by following simple procedures to verify the identity of the card holder before processing the payment. Simple checks include asking for ID, matching signatures and not accepting cards based on relationships with the cardholder. Businesses must train staff to follow these procedures consistently and conscientiously to protect itself and its customers from fraud.
The key to saving money is avoiding actions that incur extra cost. Follow the simple measures explained above to avoid paying more for credit card transactions. CC payments are a great way of boosting sales and you can minimize the risks associated with it by following credit card processing guidelines consistently. Train your staff to follow these simple measures to avoid fraud, lower your costs and increase your margins.
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