Do you know that VMS-Washington can integrate with DinerWare for your business so you can get the best rates possible? DinerWare can easily change your processors by just calling the customer service and letting them know who your new processor is and its very easy to take care of. VMS-Washington will do all the leg work and from there you’ll have great rates, low fees and excellent customer service from an A-rated company that will take care of all your business needs and promote your business for free. VMS-Washington can save your business 20-60% off your current processor with our office average savings of 46.52%. We cut out the middle man (Banks, Costco, etc) which saves you money and puts money back into your business. If we cannot beat your current processor we will give you $500.00 cash. Due to the overwhelming calls and replies we are offering Interchange plus pricing at rock bottom rates. Contact us now for more information.
Due to the overwhelming calls and emails, VMS-Washington is giving businesses the Spring Deal of the Year. For a limited time we are offering rock bottom rates for new and existing businesses. The questions we always ask business owners are:
Have you checked out your current or potential merchant service company on theBBB?
Does your current provider or potential provider promote your business?
Does your current provider or potential provider send referrals your way?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Durbin Amendment is an addendum to the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed by Congress in 2010. Its namesake, Senator Richard Durbin from Illinois, wrote the plan to expand Federal Reserve powers for setting interchange fees related to debit card transaction processing. In setting the fees, the ultimate goal is spur economic growth with lower fees. Theoretically, retailers could lower prices on consumer goods with the savings on paying high fees to big banks. Lower prices might help to increase consumer spending.
The rules of the Durbin Amendment would cap the interchange fee for debit card transactions. Generally, interchange fees are charged by retailers for each payment accepted with a debit card or credit card.Before the passage of this amendment, the average charge from banks to retailers per transaction was 44 cents. According to the Federal Reserve, banks collected nearly $16 billion annually on these fees to cover fraud prevention and administrative costs. Beginning October 2011 – when the new law goes into effect – the charge will cap at 12 cents.
For retailers, this appears to be an advantage in reducing the amount of bank charges. However, some note that banks will look for alternatives to the revenue loss. Consumers could end up paying the price, literally and figuratively, for the lost revenue.
Additional Provisions in the Durbin Amendment
The Durbin Amendment only affects banks that have less than $10 billion in assets.
Retailers have a choice in selecting a debit network service to process the transactions. Before the new law, retailers could only use the STAR network to process Visa transactions. This was required even if other merchants charged less.
Retailers can give discounts to consumers who pay with a debit card or in cash. Merchant agreements for both Visa and MasterCard currently ban this practice to encourage credit card use.
Problems with the Durbin Amendment
Critics observe the looming problems with the Durbin Amendment, despite its positive provisions.
Because credit cards remain unregulated, banks may choose to increase incentives such as rebates and reward points to entice more spending with credit cards. Consumers may see an advantage to using credit cards versus a debit card to earn the incentives.
VMS-Washington – What is the Durbin Amendment?
Currently there there are restrictions on banks for requiring minimum purchases with debit cards, however fears do exist that with this new legislation that many banks may try and change this. For example, banks could decide to cap debit card purchases at $100, limiting big ticket purchases. Instead, consumers will be forced to use a credit card, prepaid debit card or cash. Purchases are limited for consumers who have bad credit and no credit card.
Smaller banks not directly affected by the Durbin Amendment could suffer revenue losses. Market forces might require small banks to lower rates to remain competitive.
Another problem is banks may transfer the fee to consumers to offset revenue losses. One way this could occur is by changing the terms for free checking accounts. It is possible that banking competition will prevent such changes.
How the Durbin Amendment Impacts Small Businesses
For all of its intentions to improve economic activity, this legislation will impact small businesses in several ways.
Most small businesses pay more to provide discounts than for debit interchange fees. This leaves most at the mercy of a pricing strategy. A tiered system with a merchant service company could cost more.
Small businesses could realize very little in actual savings proposed by the Durbin Amendment. For example, merchant services may have a coded system that equates to other fees such as down-grades and hidden mark-ups.
In essence, small businesses may not see any savings initially because of blended contract agreements. The net effect is that consumers who purchase from these businesses will not see any savings. Small businesses that currently do not accept debit card payments would not see any savings.
If banks raise banking fees, they may include small business checking accounts. Nearly 15 million small businesses have active checking accounts. It is estimated that small businesses could pay as much as $4.8 billion in higher fees during the two years after the Durbin Amendment is implemented.
Many small businesses will need to analyze their debit card transactions. This could help to determine whether savings is possible with their current provider, or if switching to one with lower fees is worthwhile. What works for one small business may not benefit another based on the payment card consumers use.
Conclusion
The Durbin Amendment was passed to increase economic activity among consumers and small businesses. The interchange fees enforced by the Federal Reserve could add more cost than savings to both groups. Market competition may drive banks to shift the lost revenue onto small businesses and consumers.
VMS-Washington – What is the Durbin Amendment?
Larger businesses may benefit more from the reduced interchange fees and have more flexibility to pass those savings onto consumers. However, the law allows small businesses to select its merchant service for transactions. This provides more options in providing a merchant service provider with reasonable fees.
A big key here is that it still falls the each small business to ensure they are saving money with the new legislation. Make sure when you call your current credit card merchant account provider or the one you are thinking about signing with, that they are aware of Durbin and have adjusted their pricing to pass on these savings. If the representative can not quickly speak to how they adjusted their prices, or worse seems confused as to what the Durbin Amendment is, then it likely means you should find a different merchant service provider to work with.
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.
Due to the overwhelming calls and emails, VMS-Washington is giving businesses the Spring Deal of the Year. For a limited time we are offering rock bottom rates for new and existing businesses. The questions we always ask business owners are:
Have you checked out your current or potential merchant service company on theBBB?
Does your current provider or potential provider promote your business?
Does your current provider or potential provider send referrals your way?
Due to the overwhelming calls and emails, VMS-Washington is giving businesses the Spring Cleaning Deal of the Year. For a limited time we are offering rock bottom rates for new and existing businesses. The questions we always ask business owners are:
Have you checked out your current or potential merchant service company on the BBB?
Does your current provider or potential provider promote your business?
Does your current provider or potential provider send referrals your way?
VMS-Washington 