Which Credit Card Processing Solution is Right for Your Business?

When you have decided to accept credit cards at your business you will need to know what type of merchant account you are going to need. Which credit card processing solution is right for your business? The following will help you determine the right merchant account to enable you to accept credit cards.

Retail (Swipe) Terminal
A retail merchant account is ideal for retail storefront merchants that see their customers face to face and can swipe the credit cards right there. This type of account has the lowest processing fees since you can swipe the customer’s card and obtain a signature.

Mail Order Telephone Order (MOTO) Account
A mail order or telephone merchant account solution is for merchants who are not face to face with their customers but have customers that call in for the merchants goods or service and manually enter the transactions into a credit card machine or a virtual terminal.

Real Time Processing Account
An Internet merchant account is for merchants who conduct business through the Internet. The real time processing processes the transaction automatically and the merchant is notified via email that an order has been placed from their website.

Virtual Terminal Account
Utilized by merchants that are MOTO or Internet based merchants; the virtual terminal lets a merchant login and enter in card and customer information and run a transaction from their computer. Most real time processing software has the virtual terminal option.

If you need help determining the right credit card processing solution for your business, call Eagle Merchant Services at 800-255-0898. Our merchant account specialist will be happy to help.

Merchants Protect Yourselves When the Card Is Not Present

Card not present merchants need extra precaution against fraud exposure and associated losses. Merchants should follow these steps to protect themselves against fraud.

1. Obtain an authorization for the transaction
2. Verify that the card is legitimate:
1. Ask the customer for the card’s expiration date and include this when doing the transaction and obtaining the authorization. If the customer doesn’t have the address chances are they do not have the card on them.
2. Use fraud prevention tools such Address Verification System (AVS) and Card Verification 2 (CVV2).
3. Look for these warning signs of fraud:
1. First time shoppers
2. Orders that include several of the same items
3. Orders that include your most expensive items
4. Orders that want the merchandise next day
5. International orders, AVS does not validate non-US addresses
6. Shipping to a different address that is not the billing address of the card.
4. If you receive an order and an authorization but you’re still hesitant of the transaction always ask for more information or contact the cardholder to obtain information like the billing address or the name of the card issuing bank.

At Eagle Merchant Services we offer all or our merchant’s that latest tools to prevent fraud with our POS equipment and processing software.