DO's & DON'TS Of Processing

The Do's & Don'ts Of Processing

1. Get them in the habit of comparing and checking the signature
2. Verify the card number on the card with the number that shows up on the receipt
3. Ask for a driver’s license to make sure the name on the card matches the name on the person’s license and checking the expiration date on the card.
4. Examine the card! There have been many cases of an expired card being presented for payment that gets a valid authorization from the processor. However, in the end the transaction is not paid to the Merchant. The Merchant is responsible for examining the card and verifying the information present on the card.
5. Always verify the signature on the back of the Customers credit card and compare it to the signature on the receipt, if they don’t match or resemble each other, don’t accept the charge. Ultimately you the merchant are responsible for these transactions if you allow them to slide through
6. Do not run your own personal credit card through your own Merchant Account.
7. Do not process transactions through your Merchant Account to provide cash to yourself or a friend.
8. When accepting “Online” or “Card not Present” transactions be sure to verify the fraud code on the signature line of the credit card. By only allowing a confirmed match you are stopping 75% of fraudulent transactions from happening.
9. Never let another Merchant use your Merchant Account. Processing transactions that do not belong to you is called “factoring” and can cause you to lose your Merchant Account, as well as make you liable for any criminal activity that was being done or handled in those transactions. Also, if for any reason there was a dispute or chargeback filed, it would be against your account.
10. You are absolutely not allowed to only process transactions above a certain minimum or below a certain maximum value. Per regulations, if you are going to accept credit cards, you must accept them for any transaction.
11. You must truncate account numbers on your receipts. Each state has its own laws governing what can and can not be on the receipt. For both the Merchant’s and cardholder’s protection, the general rule of thumb is to print no more than the last four digits of the card number on the receipt.
12. Always get an authorization for every credit card transaction you are going to settle. Not doing so will only create headaches and lost revenue for you.
13. Take every measure possible to prevent duplicate transactions. Duplicate transactions will result in a credit, dispute or chargeback and all of these can add up to losing your Merchant Account.
14. Make resolving customer issues a priority. If you won’t take the time to help a credit card customer that has a question or issue regarding a charge from your business, they will take the problem to their Issuing Bank and again excessive disputes can ruin your ability to continue processing credit cards. 15. There are a variety of fraud screening products and services available to Merchants. Take advantage of them. If you don’t think you need them, remember it will be too late to do anything about it after something happens. Today’s thieves can break a business in no time.
15. Ensure that old Merchant Accounts are properly closed and terminated. When getting rid of terminals and other credit card related equipment, ensure that proper steps have been taken to close the equipment out of all transactions to ensure that you get funded for your sales. Contact your processor’s support center to find out how to clear the memory of the equipment. If the equipment were to wind up with a criminal, they could take all of your Merchant information from that terminal and use it to steal money with your account settings.
16. As your business changes and grows, you need to keep your Merchant Services Provider aware of those changes and growth. If you have a retail Merchant Account and decide to branch out to the Internet, you need an additional Merchant Account to handle your Internet payment transactions. Trying to process Internet transactions with your retail Merchant Account can lead to serious fines and even the loss of your Merchant Account.

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