The Anatomy of Transaction Fees
There are core concepts in every cost structure that if understood, can simplify your efforts to get a handle on your processing costs.
VISA’s VCR might already be Betamax
In an attempt to improve how chargebacks are resolved, VISA has introduced the "Visa Claims Resolution Initiative," otherwise known by the cutting-edge acronym "VCR". Anyone who has dealt with VISA to resolve chargebacks knows an update has been sorely needed.
Payments Panacea In the Works
What if we told you there is a concerted, industry-wide solution in the works that will reduce fraud, friction, and abandonment in one fell swoop? Hard to believe, right? What if we added that this panacea would also standardize processing [...]
Hacking the Hype: The Equifax Breach
Now that all the click-bait panic buttons have been exhausted from the Equifax breach, we take a calm, collected look at it... from the perspective of black-hat experts. To them, the breach and its fallout are just business as usual. [...]
5 Steps to Reduce Checkout Friction
Checkout friction consists of all the different hoops a customer must jump through to buy your product. Some friction is necessary, some isn’t, but it all adds up to the leading cause of transaction abandonment for online merchants. So every [...]
5 mistakes you’re making in fraud prevention
1. You're not capturing transactional data. We say it all the time, and we will continue to until it sinks in. Merchants need to capture key data on each transaction, including customer identity, order details, and user login logs. Not [...]
Red flags your gateway should be catching
We’ve put together a checklist of some key red flags that your gateway should be automated to catch in your transactions. It’s important for merchants’ gateways to check for all of these because one item alone won’t accurately qualify a [...]
The Future of Authentication
They say the password is dead, but that might seem ironic as you click “Forgot your password?” for the fifth time today. That said, the password is no longer as safe and reliable a security measure as it once was. [...]
A Strategy for Using Call Centers
When a cardholder sees a transaction on their bill that they don't recognize, or that they were unsatisfied with, they don't call the merchant. More often then not, they call their bank to dispute the charge. It is a real [...]
Self Assessment: Are you a soft target for fraud?
The Great American EMV card transition is finally complete, which is great news for EMV-compliant storefront retailers; card-present fraud is in decline thanks to the shift. However, online merchants are getting hit by a new wave of fraud as crooks [...]
Representment Explained
Representment is a real word, despite what spellcheck might think. You may not recognize the term, but if you're a merchant, representment can help you out big time. Representment is the process by which merchants can dispute a chargeback and [...]
The Fraud Ecosystem: From hack to chargeback
In 2014, top retailers Target, Home Depot, and CVS were all hacked, exposing over 100 million credit card records. In 2015, it was Walmart, Anthem, and AshleyMadison. In 2016, FriendFinder announced nearly half a billion accounts were hacked. And Yahoo [...]