Are PIN debits coming soon to e-commerce transactions?

by Neil Moncrief on July 28, 2009

Every so often, I’ll have an e-commerce client ask me “Will I ever be able to accept PIN-based debits online?” Although many companies have tried to devise a solution, I never seriously believed it would happen. After all, how could a consumer enter a 4-digit PIN from a personal computer and still meet the high encryption standards required for Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance? Nevertheless, the topic is resurfacing again, and online PIN debits may finally be just around the bend. [click to continue…]

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Succeeding, part II

by Neil Moncrief on July 24, 2009

I don’t normally blog here about things of a personal nature, but I want to update you on a post I wrote this past December. In that post, entitled “What will it take to succeed in this economy?“, I told you about my 14-year old son’s new-found desire to become a competitive swimmer. (Despite the title, no, I’m not going to talk about the economy. I’m sick of hearing about that!) [click to continue…]

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Rates locked until April, 2011 for all new merchant accounts

July 15, 2009

Would it be easier to manage your business if you knew your fixed costs were just that, fixed, for the next 12 months? How about 24 months?

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Six things to learn from Authorize.net’s holiday disaster

July 6, 2009

If you’re involved with e-commerce (and you don’t live under a rock), then you’re probably aware that Authorize.net, the biggest, and arguably the best, payment processor around, experienced a failure of Biblical proportions this past Friday morning.  A fire in their Seattle, WA data center brought them (and the 238,000 Internet businesses that depend on [...]

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A fast fix for most AVS problems

June 30, 2009

For years, I’ve been a supporter of the Address Verification Service (AVS), especially when it comes to e-commerce. I’ve seen it protect merchants from thousands of dollars in loses. As a former e-commerce business owner myself (co-owner of 2BigFeet.com), I used it to identify and prevent countless fraudulent orders that would have otherwise resulted in [...]

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Three signs you have a bad processor

June 23, 2009

Let’s face it. Every processor is going to do things to make you unhappy from time to time. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should leave them. For instance, all processors have to earn a profit, so don’t expect to find one with no fees whatsoever. (As an e-commerce owner myself, I had a goal [...]

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EIRF: A nasty four-letter word for merchants

June 16, 2009

In this economy, nobody wants to pay more than necessary for credit card processing. But don’t waste time yet looking for a new processor (unless you plan to try me) just to save a few basis points. Stay put for now, and keep reading. I’m going to tell you about a simple policy change you [...]

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The purpose of various terminal prompts (and why you shouldn’t skip them)

June 9, 2009

If you use a credit card terminal, and you’ve had it reprogrammed in the past year or two, you may have noticed some new steps were added to the checkout process. In these steps, the terminal may prompt you to enter additional information about the card or transaction. Unless you understand the purpose of these [...]

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Guard your business against reloaded credit cards

June 2, 2009

With the abundance of stolen credit card data, it had to happen sooner or later… The thugs who purchase these numbers grew tired of only being able to use them online. They perfected a trick that allows them to use stolen CC numbers in respectable brick-and-mortar retail businesses. They only needed a source [...]

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Notify customers about possible delays, and keep them happy.

May 26, 2009

I have a client who sells boats online- lots and lots of boats. He has drop-shipping arrangements with all his suppliers, so he maintains almost no inventory. Typically, his customers must wait at least 6 weeks for their boat AFTER they’ve paid for it. In fact, most of the boats he sells haven’t [...]

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