VMS-Washington May 2012 Business Newsletter

To read more go to: Business Newsletter May 2012

VMS-Washington May 2012 Business Newsletter

 

Valued Merchant Services offers a free cost analysis to compare your current provider to us. In addition, anyone that sends us business our way will get $50.00 when sign the client signs. We also challenge you to beat our rates, if we can’t we will pay you $250.00 Cash. Has your current processor told you about the Durbin Amendment and how it can save you money on your processing rates and fees?

Due to the overwhelming replies and inquiries VMS-Washington wants to help your business out by giving you rock bottom rates for your processing.  We also can help your business by giving you great rates for unsecured business loans with an 90% approval rate for start-ups and existing businesses.  Call or email us if you want to know more.

Michael Roberts

VMS-Washignton
www.vms-washington.com
washignton@valuedmerchants.com
(800) 531.8575 ext. 697

Check out our previous Business Newsletters:

VMS-Washington April 2012 Business Newsletter

VMS-Washington March Newsletter has launched

Check out our February 2012 Newsletter

VMS-Washington – Do You Know You Can Accept Mobile Payments Through Your Phone?

VMS-Washington – Washington’s Merchant Service Provider

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attach ROAMpay to your phone and  be able to accept payments. This is the most secure device in the market which works on 400+ phones, capture excellent rates and is so small it can go into your pocket. For more information contact us at: 1-800-531-8575 ext 697

Valued Merchant Services offers a free cost analysis to compare your current provider to us. In addition, anyone that sends us business our way will get $50.00 when sign the client signs. We also challenge you to beat our rates, if we can’t we will pay you $250.00 Cash. Has your current processor told you about the Durbin Amendment and how it can save you money on your processing rates and fees?

Due to the overwhelming replies and inquiries VMS-Washington wants to help your business out by giving you rock bottom rates for your processing.  We also can help your business by giving you great rates for unsecured business loans with an 90% approval rate for start-ups and existing businesses.  Call or email us if you want to know more.

Michael Roberts

VMS-Washignton
www.vms-washington.com
washignton@valuedmerchants.com
(800) 531.8575 ext. 697

Read about our past reviews on:

Square vs. ROAMpay

Valued Merchant Services vs. Costco (Elavon)

Valued Merchant Services vs. PayPal

VMS-Washington: Savings of 30.90%

VMS-Washington – Washington’s Merchant Service Provider

VMS-Washington saved Kayzoe 30.90%. We can beat anyone out there 20-60% off their current provider with average savings of 46.12%. Valued Merchant Services offers a free cost analysis to compare your current provider to us. In addition, anyone that sends us business our way will get $50.00 when sign the client signs. We also challenge you to beat our rates, if we can’t we will pay you $250.00 Cash. Has your current processor told you about the Durbin Amendment and how it can save you money on your processing rates and fees?

Due to the overwhelming replies and inquiries VMS-Washington wants to help your business out by giving you rock bottom rates for your processing.  We also can help your business by giving you great rates for unsecured business loans with an 90% approval rate for start-ups and existing businesses.  Call or email us if you want to know more.

Michael Roberts

VMS-Washignton
www.vms-washington.com
washignton@valuedmerchants.com
(800) 531.8575 ext. 697

VMS-Washington Travel Tips – Nine Planning Tips For An Amazing Trip

VMS-Washington – Nine Planning Tips For An Amazing Trip

Heading off on a big adventure, but not sure what’s involved. These trip planning tips will help you get a handle on the things you need to consider.

1. Organise your documents

Make sure you have an up to date passport, that will be up to date for the duration of your trip. Check visa requirements for the country you are travelling to. Some countries require that you arrange a visa before you leave home, while others will grant a tourist visa when you land! Make sure you have a suitable travel insurance organised.

2. Book flights and accommodations

One of the fun parts about travelling is the booking of your flights and/or accomodation (have you checked out Travelers point’s budget accommodation section yet?!). Make sure you shop around at different travel agents, because prices can vary widely. Check that the prices quoted include all taxes and surcharges.

3. Get any vaccinations you might need

Make an appointment with your doctor to check what vaccinations you need or any medicine you should take with you. Common ones to look out for are Typhoid, Malaria and Hepatitis.. not the kind of things you want as souvenirs!

4. Look after the home front

Unfortunately, while you’re away, there are often still things that need to be looked after back home. Make sure you have arrangements in place for someone to look after your bills, plants and mail. If you are going to be leaving a house empty, consider finding someone to house-sit for you while you’re away.

5. Organise things to do

Make a list of things that you plan to do while away. Do some research on the internet about your holiday destination. There may be special events on that you can only attend if you book in advance. Planning what you’re going to see will make it a lot easier to relax when you’re on holidays!

6. Make a packing list

Start making a packing list a few weeks in advance or use our packing list. As the weeks go by, you will undoubtedly think of many more things to add. Write them down as you go, then pack everything on your list in the last day or two.

7. Look after your finances

Find out what currency you will need and figure out the best way for you to deal with it. Credit cards can be convenient, but also unsafe in a lot of areas. Travellers cheques are a good safe alternative.

8. Stay in touch

Take an address book with you, with all the important contacts in it. Check on any foreign phone codes and write them in your address book. Before you start your trip, make sure you let people know that you will be away and how they can contact you while you’re away. If you don’t have an email address that you can check on the road, you can set up one through Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or become a Travellerspoint member to keep an online diary or blog of your travels and have your friends and family send you messages through our internal messaging system.

9. Ask for help

If you have any more questions about country specific issues, you can contact one of our Travel Helpers, who are always happy to answer any questions. This feature is available to all Travellerspoint members and is completely free.

We hope you have a great trip, and here’s some travel tips to help you on your way!

That’s our brief list of things to consider. If you think there is something else which should be added to our trip planning guide, contact us with your suggestions and we will gladly review them.

VMS-Washington – Savings of 30.76%

VMS-Washington – Washington’s Merchant Service Provider

VMS-Washington saved Cake Envy 30.76%. We can beat anyone out there 20-60% off their current provider with average savings of 46.62%. Valued Merchant Services offers a free cost analysis to compare your current provider to us. In addition, anyone that sends us business our way will get $50.00 when sign the client signs. We also challenge you to beat our rates, if we can’t we will give you $250.00 Cash. Has your current processor told you about the Durbin Amendment and how it can save you money on your processing rates and fees?

Due to the overwhelming replies and inquiries VMS-Washington wants to help your business out by giving you rock bottom rates for your processing.  We also can help your business by giving you great rates for unsecured business loans with an 90% approval rate for start-ups and existing businesses.  Call or email us if you want to know more.

Michael Roberts

VMS-Washignton
www.vms-washington.com
washignton@valuedmerchants.com
(800) 531.8575 ext. 697

VMS-Washington – Credit Card Issuers Do Poorly at Detecting, Well at Resolving Fraud…..

VMS-Washington – Washington’s Merchant Service Provider

That is the conclusion of a study of 23 U.S.credit card issuers conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research, a consulting firm specializing in the financial services and payments industries. Criminals are getting better at stealing card account information, while banks and consumers are simply not doing enough to protect their data, the researchers tell us.
The result is that account fraud costs issuers about $37 billion annually, the report says.

New Card Account Fraud Costlier and More Difficult to Resolve

It turns out that, while existing credit card accounts generate a higher total of fraudulent transactions than new accounts – $17 billion vs. $6 billion last year, new account fraud is much costlier on a per-incident basis – $1,267 vs. $565, according to the study.
On top of that, new account fraud takes much longer to detect – 49 hours on average, compared to the 26 hours it takes to discover fraud on existing cards. “The difficulty in detection of this fraud type is a large contributor to the high costs,” the report concludes.
To make matters worse, in addition to the direct cost of dealing with fraud, banks suffer from a couple of fraud-related side effect. Some fraud victims quit online banking, which is costly for issuers, while 20 percent switch to a competitor, which is an even worse outcome from a bank’s perspective.

VMS-Washington – Washington’s Merchant Service Provider

Here is the top 7 list in the study:

• Bank of America – 87.
• Discover Financial Services – 74.
• U.S. Bank – 73.
• USAA – 71.
• Capital One – 68.
• JPMorgan Chase – 67.
• American Express – 66.

The average score for the 23 issuers was 59.

How to Protect Account Data

The researchers have some suggestions on what issuers should do to make it harder for hackers to steal account information. Here are some of them:

• Send SMS alerts to cardholders when large purchases are made or for card-not-present transactions (I am not so sure about that one).
• Stop asking for SSN, a prime target for fraudsters, for authentication purposes.
• Limiting online access for customers who have not updated their anti-virus software.

While issuers may or may not decide to adopt any of these measures, there are things consumers can do themselves to protect themselves, including:

• Keep your anti-virus software updated.
• Look for issuers who support tokenization, which is a technology that replaces the card account number with a random string of characters, which, if intercepted, is useless to the criminal.
• Look for issuers who will let you set transaction limits and ask you for validation when you exceed them.
• Get a chip-and-PIN card when they become available in the U.S. In these cards the account information is embedded in a chip and studies have proven them to be less vulnerable to fraud than traditional magnetic stripe cards.

VMS-Washington – Washington’s Merchant Service Provider

The Takeaway

Challenging as it is, the situation is certain to become even trickier with the rapid evolution of the numerous nascent mobile payments technologies, which present a whole different set of problems and I am sure we will be hearing a lot about that in the coming months.
Technologies will evolve and change, but common sense will never go out of fashion. It is your best protection. Keep an eye out for anything that looks out of the ordinary. If you find it, stop what you are doing and contact your issuer.
The good thing about credit card fraud, from a cardholder’s stand point, is that ultimately the issuer is liable for fraudulent transaction amounts. Still, the investigative process can take a while and you will be wholly involved in it. Moreover, there are a number of things that can go wrong and your credit historymay suffer as a result. So just because someone else is paying for it, does not mean that you will necessarily get off scot-free.

Hope this brief article helps you understand what tokenization is and how it helps your business.

Thank you,

Michael Roberts

VMS-Washington
National Sales Director
(800) 531-8575 ext. 697
washington@valuedmerchants.com
www.vms-washington.com

VMS-Washington – What is Credit Card Tokenization?

What is the biggest problem with Credit Card Data?

A tongue in cheek reply would be: “The Credit Card Data dummy!” While it is a tongue in check reply, there is some truth to it.

Having been involved with many implementations, I have seen this over and over. It is always an issue securing and protecting this data and only displaying it to those that need to know. Here are some classic issues I have seen.

Most SAP infrastructures include a Quality Assurance client for testing changes before moving these to the Production environment. And it is very often a copy of Production at some point in time. And what comes over with that copy? All the customers Payment Card data. So you need to do 1 of 2 things:

1. Purge the Credit Card Data (have to write a custom program)
2. Encrypt that data – very often not activated in the QA environment. And quite a process to turn on.

The Result of Encryption

When a credit card is encrypted in the database, it is displayed as ************4141 for example.

The problem is that it needs to be displayed everywhere like that. I have seen instances where someone will run a report and the unencrypted credit card will show up. Or someone enters a transaction from a different direction, or accesses a rarely used screen, and suddenly the unblemished, unencrypted credit card data show up.

And in reality, the Payment Card is still saved in our database. And we are responsible for securing and protecting that data.

What is a Token

VMS-Washington – Washington’s Merchant Service Provider

What if we could move the Credit Card data from our database and give it to another server (called a Token Server)? The Token server then gives us back a Token that is representative of the Credit Card data. So the actual Credit Card data in our databases, is now replaced by a Token data.

For example: It gives us back ************4141 to store in out database. The only link from the token to the Credit Card data is now held on the Token Server.

Advantages of Tokenization

1. Now we do not have the credit card data in our database. If someone hacked into our database or a user accessed the customer Payment Card data, they could not do anything with the ************4141.
2. Obviously the Token Server needs to be secured and PCI compliant. But this means that we only have one system to secure, instead of potentially many systems.
3. And if we contract with a 3rd party to supply this Token Server, we have now moved the responsibility off site to another company whose core business is to secure such data and remain PCI compliant.
4. This reducing our costs.
5. If the Credit Card data is ever needed, a query goes out to the Token Server which returns the Credit Card Data. This makes PCI compliance much easier as we do not store Credit Card data on site anymore.

Who offers these Tokenization Services for SAP

Probably the best known of the Service Providers is Paymetric, with their XiSecure Service (they use a 25 Character Token).

They have 2 versions of it:

1. XiSecure – Onsite local Installation
2. XiSecure – SAAS Hosted Offsite Service.

Whilst I have not implemented a Token system yet, it makes sense and would be a useful compliment to a Credit Card Payment System.

Hope this brief article helps you understand what tokenization is and how it helps your business.

Hope this brief article helps you understand what tokenization is  and how it helps your business.  Valued Merchant Services is in all 50 states and Canada, provide excellent customer service, process over 100+ million a day and we are an A rated company that can take care of all your financial needs and services.  Due to overwhelming replies, questions and needs for our services please contact us and we will gladly help you.

Thank you,

Michael Roberts

VMS-Washington
National Sales Director
(800) 531-8575 ext. 697
washington@valuedmerchants.com
www.vms-washington.com

Read about PCI Compliance:

Is PCI Compliance a Toothless Tiger?

PCI Compliance Frequently Asked Questions

What Is PCI Compliance?

VMS-Washington – Savings of 41.10%

VMS-Washington – Washington’s Merchant Services Provider

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VMS-Washington saved Kevin tarvin 41.10%. We can beat anyone out there 20-60% off their current provider with average savings of 46.85%. Valued Merchant Services offers a free cost analysis to compare your current provider to us. In addition, anyone that sends us business our way will get $50.00 when sign the client signs. We also challenge you to beat our rates, if we can’t we will give you $250.00 Cash. Has your current processor told you about the Durbin Amendment and how it can save you money on your processing rates and fees?

Due to the overwhelming replies and inquiries VMS-Washington wants to help your business out by giving you rock bottom rates for your processing.  We also can help your business by giving you great rates for unsecured business loans with an 90% approval rate for start-ups and existing businesses.  Call or email us if you want to know more.

Michael Roberts

VMS-Washignton
www.vms-washington.com
washignton@valuedmerchants.com
(800) 531.8575 ext. 697

Pirq

Check out this great app for the person who wants to have discounts to their favorite restaurant.

 

VMS-Washington – Prepaid Cards Are not Debit Cards and Other………….

Prepaid Cards Are not Debit Cards and Other………….

We’ve written quite a bit about prepaid cards over the past few months and not always because we had planned for it. At first, we just wanted to give you the  basic facts about the fastest growing type of payment card in the U.S. and then Suze Orman came along. But what keeps surprising me is that people just don’t get prepaid cards. It is true that there are plenty of misconceptions about credit and debit cards floating around, but prepaid seems to beat both of them by a quite wide margin.
The most widely committed error is the categorization of prepaid cards as a subset of debit. You will often see this payment product referred to as “prepaid debit cards.” That is wrong and can easily lead to other errors. I’ve offered a prepaid vs. credit and debit comparison before, but will take another swipe at it, as I thought I could do better.

What Is a Prepaid Card?

A prepaid card is a stand-alone payment product that has a zero value until it is activated and “loaded” with an amount of money. Then, whenever a purchase is made, the sales amount is subtracted from the card’s available balance. When the remaining balance becomes zero, the card is no longer usable, unless it is “reloaded” with an amount of money, which is a feature not all prepaid cards support. If “reloading” is not supported, once the balance reaches zero, the card is useless.
“Non-reloadable” prepaid cards are typically the ones sold by, and usable only at, a given merchant or a merchant chain (for example, a Best Buy prepaid card) and are not issued to a specific consumer. As these cards cannot be used outside of the merchant’s locations, they are also called “closed-loop” or “closed-system” cards. Closed-loop cards bear only the logo of the merchant they can be used at and are the type of prepaid that is the easiest to distinguish from other card types.
However, in addition to a merchant’s logo or indeed in place of it, a prepaid card may display the logo of a credit card network (e.g. Visa or MasterCard) or company (e.g. American Express or Discover). Such cards are usable everywhere the payment brand whose logo they bear is accepted and are therefore called “open-loop” or “open-system.” Open-loop prepaid cards are also typically reloadable and are issued in the name of a specific consumer. This type of prepaid is the one that is typically confused with debit, but it’s still very different.

How Is Prepaid Different from Debit and Credit?

What makes credit cards unique is the fact that they come with a line of credit, so that the cardholder spends the issuer’s money, not her own. The exact opposite is the case with debit and prepaid. So what’s the difference between these two?
Here are the main differences between debit and prepaid, from a consumer point of view:

• Account set-up. Opening up a debit card account involves setting up a checking account with the issuer and a check of the applicant’s credit history. If the credit risk is deemed to be too high, the application may be rejected. Prepaid cards, on the other hand, require no credit check and are therefore available to everyone, which is why they are still referred to as the card for the “unbanked.”
• Residence requirements. Debit cards require that applicants provide full information about themselves, including their social security number, which immediately renders non-residents non-qualifiable. Prepaid, on the other hand, requires only basic information, if any.
• Over-the-limit spending. Prepaid cards limit spending to the available balance on the card, with no exception. Debit cardholders, on the other hand, can opt in for overdraft protection, which enables them to complete purchases, for a fee, even when the available balance is not sufficient to cover the sales amount.
• Consumer protection. Prepaid card issuers are not required by law to provide refunds for lost or stolen cards, although some of them do so voluntarily. All debit card issuers must provide this protection.

There are other differences between prepaid and debit, as far as consumers are concerned, but these are the most prominent ones and apply to both open- and closed-loop prepaid.

Prepaid Cards Are not Debit Cards and Other………….

The Takeaway

So prepaid is different from debit, although the reloadable, open-loop prepaid model comes very close to the debit one. It seems very clear to me that, if a consumer’s credit history allows her to open up a checking account and get the linked debit card, she should do that, rather than use a prepaid card. I haven’t talked about prepaid-related fees and that was a deliberate choice, because they vary in wide range. The only prepaid card I know of that comes with no monthly fee is American Express’ and it charges a $2 ATM withdrawal fee, in addition to whatever the ATM owner charges. At the same time, there are still many free checking accounts available out there and one of them should be your first choice.

Due to the overwhelming replies and inquiries VMS-Washington wants to help your business out by giving you rock bottom rates for your processing.  We also can help your business by giving you great rates for unsecured business loans with an 90% approval rate for start-ups and existing businesses.  Call or email us if you want to know more.

Michael Roberts

VMS-Washignton
www.vms-washington.com
washignton@valuedmerchants.com