My Merchant Account Blog

First Data Named as Global Cards Processor of the Year

Friday, May 26, 2006

London, May 24 2006  First Data has been named Cards Processor of the Year in Cards International's 2006 Global Awards. The prestigious industry award was presented to First Data, a global leader in electronic commerce and payment services, at the Cards International Awards Dinner in Milan last night.

First Data won the Global Cards Processor Award following shortlisting with eFunds Prepaid Solutions and TSYS. First Data was also shortlisted for the Best Merger & Acquisition Award, in recognition of a number of significant acquisitions made by the company in Europe and South East Asia over the past 12 months.

The award was accepted on behalf of First Data by David Yates, President, Europe, Middle East and Africa, First Data International. Addressing judges and dinner guests, he commented: "I am delighted to accept this award and, in doing so, to thank our clients for the trust they place in us and our staff for their efforts in delivering service excellence to our clients. I believe our success tonight reflects First Data‘s single-minded focus on client delivery. We know that we can only serve our clients effectively if we combine robust global capabilities with breadth of service and a real understanding of the markets in which we operate."

Pam Patsley, President of First Data International, adds: "This award provides powerful endorsement for our focus on executing a global strategy with local impact. In this way, we can ensure that our scale and solutions translate into real benefits for our clients in terms of increased competitiveness and operational efficiency."

Cards International award winners were selected by a panel of judges which included Gerard Lysaght, Editor, Cards International; Joanne Robinson, Director, Cards & Payments and Consumer Finance, VRL Publishing; Ken Howes, Director Edgar, Dunn & Company; Jayne Barber, Advisor to the Board, Experian International; and Francesco Burelli, Principal Consultant at CAPCO.

About First Data

First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC) is a leading provider of electronic commerce and payment solutions for businesses and consumers worldwide. Serving 4.6 million merchant locations, 1,600 card issuers and millions of consumers, First Data powers the global economy by making it easy, fast and secure for people and businesses around the world to buy goods and services using virtually any form of payment.

First Data serves a diverse range of markets, leveraging global scale through a local presence and maintaining focus on individual client needs. The company operates across the USA, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Latin America, Canada, Australia and Asia Pacific.

First Data's portfolio of services and solutions includes credit, debit, private-label, gift and other prepaid card issuing and merchant transaction processing services; money transfer services; money orders; fraud protection and authentication solutions; check guarantee and verification services through TeleCheck; as well as Internet commerce and mobile solutions. Western Union, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta together make up one of the world's largest money transfer networks with approximately 274,000 Agent locations in more than 200 countries and territories. The company's STAR Network offers PIN-secured debit acceptance at 1.9 million ATM and retail locations. For more information, visit www.firstdata.com.

Source

Do I Do It Myself

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Usually when you want to start selling products - you have a few different options. Download a shopping cart and set it up. Or locate an ecommerce company that only does shopping carts. Or maybe hire someone to do it.

Some downloaded shopping carts are very easy and you just have an admin section to add your products and then you choose what electronic payment gateway that you want to use. Very simple, but what about your design? Can you incorporate that into the cart?

If you are using a WYSIWYG editor, like Frontpage or Dreamweaver, chances are that you might not even know HTML. If this is the case, you will spend your valuable time trying to learn the basics and then you have to learn the server side language. This might take you weeks or most likely months. It would be cheaper if you hired someone to do the development work.

You can also use a company that hosts the cart themselves. The problem with this, you are usually tied to them for life. Moving to another hosting company or provider can prove to be very difficult. And if any changes are needed, you might have to shell out hundreds of dollars, maybe thousands of dollars, for those changes. Plus some of them take a percentage of your sale as well - so on top of paying the merchant account fees and the electronic payment gateway fees, you will be paying something to the shopping cart host.

For example, the LinkPoint Gateway (aka First Data Global Gateway) is very limiting to what is supported by a merchant account providers.  For some merchants, a hosted solution can be invaluable.  And for others, it can be very limiting - almost to the point of causing your business to lose money every month. 

So what do we recommend?  We recommend a shopping cart that you purchase (includes the source code), a hosting provider (like Techevolution) a merchant account through Mile High Merchant Account and the Quantum Gateway.  This way, as your business grows, Techevolution will be there to help you on the hosting side, a partner of CDGCommerce will be there on the processing side and the Quantum Gateway will protect you against fraudulent transactions.  No one else in the industry will be able to help you grow at a fast, secure, and stable rate.

It is My Merchandise and Services Its My Money or Is It

Friday, May 19, 2006

Chargebacks hit merchants on a daily basis. Consumers either did not receive their products or they were not happy with the services or products they did get or one that is coming up even more so now, regret. Or maybe it was fraud - from someone using a stolen credit card to Johnny using his mother's credit card to purchase that new fishing pole.

When applying for a merchant account, the acquirer must consider the credit standing of the merchant. Merchant acquirers will perform a credit analysis but this analysis entirely different from asking a bank for a loan.

For example, for the bank loan, the bank delivers the funds to the borrower. A merchant acquirer advances no funds. It actually indemnifies a third party - the card issuing bank who actually indemnifies the cardholder, in the event that a merchant cannot cover a chargeback. Thus, the acquirer is responsible if a merchant skips out on a merchant account.

If you sign up with a third party processor, you are adding another party to the scenario. Is it worth it? Most third party processors will not do a credit check, so if you are on the TMF list and you think you cannot get a merchant account, this might be an option. Most third party processors charge a bit higher transaction rate and most will hold your money for a certain amount of time or rely on you to request your money. Your account is usually monitored a bit more closely than a merchant account because they realize this.

A perfect example of an acquirer taking the brunt of responsibility is Global Payments. During four months (October 2005 - January 2006), the acquirer processed $86 million for this merchant. They did actually hold back $47.6 million in cash reserves because they suspected the merchant was not legitimate.

Visa and MasterCard Defined

Monday, May 15, 2006

You probably accept Visa and MasterCard in your business or over the Internet. And you get charged to accept these cards. Not once, but every time.  If you take a look at your merchant account statement, you will see Merchant Account Fees:

• Discount Rate
• Transaction Fee
• Address Service Verification Fee (AVS Fee)
• Batch Fee
• ACH Fee

Most of these fees vary per Merchant Account Providers.  Some providers (like First Data) will charge the merchant extra fees on top of what Visa and MasterCard charge.  Of course, some of these fees help keep the company in business.  However, a lot of the fees (like the batch fee and ACH fee are not usually charged by other merchant account providers.  These fees alone can usually cost a business around $10.00 to $15.00 extra a month.  Most small United States businesses think they are "stuck" with these high fees, when in fact, they are not. 

But Visa and MasterCard are not banks - they are registered and trademarked brands and vast processing networks for credit and debit card transactions. Advertising plays a very big role in promoting the brands so in turn, they promote the use of the cards.

Visa

"Don't leave home without it."  With Visa being what is known as a card association, it is also a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, banks and governments in more than 200 countries and territories, enabling them to use digital currency instead of cash and checks. 

Visa does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers; rather, Visa provides financial institutions with Visa-branded payment products that they then use to offer credit, debit, prepaid and cash-access programs to their customers.

It is one of the world's most advanced processing networks, capable of handling over 20,000 transactions per second.  To read more about Visa, Visa net, Visa Inc, please check out Visa International Operating Regulations.

MasterCard

"Priceless" - this ad debuted approximately 30 years after a group of banks came together to form this brand.  MasterCard World is a multinational corporation, based in Purchase, New York in the United States.  It is scheduled to become a public company in about 10 days.

MasterCard's customers include approximately 22,000 financial institutions and other entities in more than 210 countries and territories.  Powered by the MasterCard Worldwide Network, MasterCard processes more than 23 billion transactions per second.  The network has a 99.9% reliability rate and an average network response time of 130 milliseconds per transaction.

If you accepts these credit card brands on your website, you will want to read our post Credit Card Logos.  Here, you can download the images needed for these brands, as well as Discover, American Express, and JCB.