Every time you accept your customers’ payments, there is a cost. These costs are more obvious when it comes to paper payments. Traditional checks and bills require shipping, equipment and other equipment – expenses ranging from $ 4 to $ 20 per check posted.

Yet even when you scan your payment solutions, there are always hidden costs – and most merchants are blind to these expenses. They are so happy to receive money, which they do not think about what they are spending when they manually:

• Enter transactions from one platform to another
• Reconcile their bank account
• Search out errors and double entries
• Update their accounting software, CRM or ERP

However, with integrated payments, it is possible to automate these steps so that payment processing, accounting, and CRM all work together seamlessly.

What are the advantages of this approach?

Here are just five of the most important benefits that you will enjoy if you use integrated payments within your company.

Save money

The most important benefit is savings. You do not have to spend so many hours monitoring, tracking, and reporting transactions in your payment environment. Everything happens automatically – without having to intervene directly.

Higher accuracy

The built-in payments allow you to completely remove the human error from the equation:

• No more redundant entries.

• More calculation errors.

• No more lost bills.

This benefit reinforces the first. Fewer errors mean fewer losses (ie greater savings).

Better forecast

When your payment system is not integrated, processing, accounting and marketing are all separated into separate silos. What’s more, it takes a lot of energy to know where your money is going.

Yet, when you integrate these separate sections, you gain greater visibility on your finances.

Simplified tax preparation

With built-in payments, there is less need to chase old bills or store faded receipts in shoe boxes:

• All reports are centralized.

• All accounting becomes automatic.

Come tax time, you have a handy record of every dollar that went in and out of your business. Some built-in payment solutions even allow you to export this information directly into your preferred tax preparation software.

Best customer service

In addition to the convenience of increased security, an integrated payment solution supports your staff’s ability to assist your customers and helps you increase the level of customer satisfaction with their shopping experience. An integrated CRM solution is a detailed customer database for your business. It can track past customer sales, capture prospects and contacts, maintain customer interactions, and improve your marketing for more focused engagement and targeted promotions. Similar to accounting and ERP software, CRM automatically updates customer data and metrics for quick and easy reporting.

While monitoring the status of your customers’ purchases and behaviors, payment integration can also help you keep a close watch on your company’s inventory, sales, and deliveries. Allowing you to learn about stock, in-transit or on-order items can satisfy your customers – and your potential customers – with excellent service and, ultimately, foster the kind of customer service that will create more business for your business.

The post What Are Integrated Payment Solutions? appeared first on Enterprise Funding Solutions.

While this evolution in the way we pay for things has reduced transaction processing costs around the world, as well as increased bank profits, unfortunately, e-shopping has also increased our vulnerability to potential fraud.

It is much easier to clone a credit card than to create a paper note. Despite a barrage of information security services and procedures to counter this type of crime, it is estimated that credit card fraud cost the UK about £ 440 million in 2009 (2009). Although this number represents a decrease of 28% compared to the previous year.

EMV, which stands for Europay, Mastercard & Visa, is a joint venture between these three companies to make credit card fraud more difficult to achieve. Although technology has many benefits that go far beyond fraud prevention.

The positive elements of the EMV standard can be categorized into three particular aspects that demonstrate the benefits of system adoption. These are:

• The exchange rate

• Transfer of responsibility to a non-EMV party

• Financial motivations

First, the interchange rates payable by the acquirer to the issuer are reduced by 10 basis points of the value of the transaction when the card is acquired at an EMV terminal. The second aspect of the transfer of liability comes into play in the event of a disputed transaction. In such a case, the cost of the transaction would be payable by the party that did not implement EMV. Finally, each EMV region has a fund that exists to financially assist banks with the costs of migration to EMV.

Additional benefits of EMV technology include the ability to reconfigure cards after they are issued. Previously, to make changes to the customer’s offline limits, a new card had to be issued. Now, however, a script is sent to the terminal that will update the configuration of the card without the need for a new card to be distributed.

Since the introduction of the EMV initiative in the early 21st century, there has been a rapid implementation of ATM software that is compliant with the new EMV technology. These ATM EMV solutions are now the norm in the whole world.

Here are some questions and answers about EMV

Is it true that, as a business owner, if I accept a lost, stolen or fraudulently reproduced credit card for payment, I could be financially responsible for the losses?

Well, in a nutshell, yes, you could be potentially responsible. To limit and possibly eliminate your risks, you must absolutely use a terminal equipped with EMV. Many merchants still use the old credit card terminals, now obsolete, equipped with magnetic card readers, which exposes them to unnecessary risks.

Where and how can I get one of these new terminals?

Your current merchant service provider should be able to upgrade to a new terminal, probably at a cost. More than likely, there were also many types of sales that knocked on your door, scared you of this risk shift and tried to sell you a new terminal, or worse yet, put you in a long-term lease. Unfortunately, there have been many in this industry who have used this massive shift in the payments landscape as an opportunity for personal financial gain. Be informed, free terminals are also available for merchants.

How are these new EMV terminals different from the terminals we have been using for years?

Although at first glance, these new terminals look a lot like your existing terminal because they still have the magnetic card reader (we’ll see why in a future question). The difference is that the new terminals have a location in which a smart integrated credit card is inserted into the machine rather than just being scanned.

For more information about EMV payment processing hardware, contact us at Answers@enterprisefundingsolutionstx.com

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Having visibility into credit card fess is an important part of maintaining bottom line profit. Most times the rate you will have to pay to process a credit card transaction is combination of the basic cost and the markup cost which is called the merchant discount.

Consider the merchant discount as the retail price of credit card processing, the basic costs as raw material expenses and the markup as production costs.

Base costs should account for most of the expenditure (around 75% – 80%) followed by the increase (around 20% – 25%). That said,

Basic credit card processing fee

Basic credit card processing fees consist of exchanges and valuations, and are the same for all processors. There are no credit card processor company that can give a rate lower than the basic cost. An example is First Data which is the biggest credit card processor, but they pay the same interchange and assessments fees as a small local bank.

InterExchange

The Interexchange represents the largest part of the credit card processing fee and is paid to the card issuing banks. Believe it or not, your processor and card brands (Visa, MasterCard and Discover) do not see any revenue from the exchange.

All Stakeholders from credit card Company’s like Visa, MasterCard and Discover do meet to decide how much they want to pay when you accept their credit cards.

Banks consider things like the method of processing (swiped, keyed, e-commerce), the type of card (rewards, business, consumer), your type of business (merchant category code) and a host of other variables. Interchange fees.

Interchange fees are measured net of refunds and debit, and most are comprised of a percentage and transaction fees. For example the current visa interchange fee that is charge for a swiped consumer credit card is 1.51% plus $ 0.10.

It is important to note that even if interchange rates do not vary between processors, it is possible to optimize interchange fees to reduce costs. See our information on interchange fees for more details on trade optimization.

Rates

Visa, MasterCard and Discover earn money by charging assessments on every transaction involving one of their credit cards. Like the exchange, the ratings are exactly the same for all credit card processors and no processor can give you a lower rate or better agreement on the ratings.

Most times assessments, may be billed differently were you have a group pricing model. And this is mainly because your processor has more control over manipulating prices based on a bundling system.

Rate for each brand of card are listed below along with details on when they apply. Rates are periodically changed by card brands, and this list is updated as changes are announced.

Visa

Debit Assessment: Also Called Visa US Acquirer Service Charge – Debit This rating applies to all Visa debit transactions.

0.13%

Credit Rates: Which is also Called US Visa Acquirer Service Charge – This credit rates applies to all Visa credit transactions.

0.13%

Purchaser Processing Fee (APF):- Debit Also referred to as Visa Processing Fees – Variable Debit This charge applies to all non-PIN Visa debit authorizations acquired in the United States.

$ 0.0155

Master Card

Volume of the acquirer’s brand

This estimate applies to Master card transactions less than or equal to $ 1,000.

0.13%

Purchaser Brand Volume : Credit Transactions Over $ 1,000

This valuation applies to Master card credit sales transactions greater than $ 1,000.

0.14%

Discover

Evaluation Valuation applies to the gross volume of Discover card transactions. Note: In April 2016, the valuation of Discover went from 0.11% to 0.13%. Note: In April 2015, the valuation of Discover went from 0.105% to 0.11%.

0.13%

Data Usage Charges: Data Usage Charges apply to all US-based authorization transactions.

$ 0.0195

International Processing Fees: International Service Fees apply to transactions acquired in the United States and paid for with a card issued outside the United States.

55%

The above credit card summary will get you started on getting to know credit cards rates.

For more information on how to reduce your credit card fees, contact us at Answers@enterprisefundingsolutionstx.com

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In order to accept payment processing online there are three basic types of payment processors which are:

• Merchant account and payment gateway

• All-in-one solutions

• Simplified credit card processors

Below are quick overviews of each.

Merchant account and payment gateway

The conventional method of accepting payments online has always been a combination of a Merchant account accomplished with a payment gateway. Payment gateways like SecureNet (United States), Authorize.Net(United States) and also eWay(Australia and united kingdom) fall under this category.

Merchant accounts are a type of corporate bank account which gives you the opportunity to accept credit card payment.

Merchant payment gateways connect your online store and merchant account which will help to facilitate the payment transaction between the two parties that are involved.

Think of it as the digital version of a POS card swipe machine used in brick-and-mortar stores.

There are fees associated with the merchant account and the payment gateway, but there are many options, and some have more competitive transaction fees or do not charge a setup fee.

Most online payment gateways also provide great control over the security rules and customization; they can be suited based on the scale of business, if it needs a more personalized solution.

There is one thing you need to know about using a payment gateway / merchant account -you will have to apply for both, by filling out forms and providing financial information.

Processing your requests may take a few days, so you will not be able to accept payments. Once both are approved, you must connect your account to the gateway and then to your gateway to your store. Usually this involves setting up your store with API keys, shared secrets and tokens.

The benefits of using a payment gateway are that you usually have more communication and personalized customer service along the way.  This is because the providers are larger companies with large support structures within the organization. More often than not, you will be able to get a person on the phone to answer your questions.

Credit card payment processing, simplified

Constant updates in technology have eliminated much of the complexity of online payments.

From a merchant’s point of view, these are very similar to all-in-one solutions, but they usually fit nicely into your store’s cash register, which means the buyer never leaves your site. And they can be much faster to set up – you can start taking different payment methods in minutes.

With these simplified payment processors, you do not need a merchant service account or a payment gateway, which translates into lower fees.

Rates are competitive with all-in-one solutions, and most of these new processors do not charge installation fees or monthly fees. The experience is simple: the customer’s credit card is entered and the payment is processed, as simple as that.

Before you consider using a simplified processor there is one thing you need put in mind and it is that you do not get the same level of support you get from a traditional payment gateway.

They tend to be very easy to use, so you may not need it. But if you are having a problem with your credit card processing company, most of the support is done by self-service via articles or email – many of these providers do not even have a call center. However, be advised that quite often, there are also merchant solutions that combine the benefits of simplified processing with more robust customer service benefits.

For more information on easily accepting credit cards, contact us at Answers@enterprisefundingsolutionstx.com

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