News & Information
Merchant IDs for High-Risk Verticals
Our handy-dandy glossary of payments terms defines a merchant account as: "A bank account which the merchant holds with an acquiring bank to process credit card transactions." A "merchant ID" or "MID" is the number that identifies one or more merchant accounts that belong to an entity. You need a [...]
Chargeback vs Refund: What’s the Difference?
To a cardholder, the difference between a chargeback and a refund is merely semantics; to them, the end result for them is the same. But if you're a high-risk merchant, it's a matter of life and death for your processing. This quick read is dedicated to showing you the key [...]
Getting Paid: The Wild Ride of Authorizations
Compared to cash purchases, the authorization of credit card transactions is almost comically complicated. To really understand it, you have to read this in the voice of a sports announcer... "Cardholder takes out their card to make a purchase. Merchant gateway records transaction then sends it to an acquirer. Acquirer [...]
How to Win at Returns
Who knows what leads a customer to return a purchase? Honestly, if you did, you'd probably be reading this from your yacht, anchored off the Seychelles. Sounds nice, right? Start thinking about how to manage returns and you could be on your way! Let's approach the problem of returns like [...]
Customer Disputes: What happens?
Let's pull back the curtain on what happens when a cardholder disputes a purchase. For many merchants, their understanding of this process begins and ends with receiving a chargeback. That's the most expensive perspective you can have. However, a deeper look will show you where the opportunity lies to significantly [...]
How to Win at the New VISA Rules
It's been just over six months since VISA mandated it's latest rule changes for chargebacks — pardon, "disputes". If you haven't yet, read our no-nonsense primer on the “Visa Claims Resolution Initiative”. Though the dust has yet to settle on these changes, some clear winning strategies for merchants are emerging. [...]
Developing Artificial Intelligence to Terminate Fraud
Vladimir Putin recently endorsed artificial intelligence as the key to world domination, and hence it's his new BFF. Elon Musk just admitted that SpaceX was really an escape pod to other planets for when AI goes full-Terminator. But in the meantime, AI may significantly reduce, if not completely terminate, credit [...]
How to Win at Transaction Descriptors
Descriptors are the line items you see on your bank statement that describe each transaction. Merchants must navigate several factors to deliver concise descriptors that their customers will easily recognize. Unclear, complicated descriptors are a leading cause of chargebacks and headaches for merchants and cardholders alike. So it is super-important [...]
The Chargeback Process Explained
The chargeback is a complex dispute process that is mostly hidden to the merchant. This process is in dire need of an update to improve communication and deter friendly fraud. Some improvements are being made, more are in the works, and more still are needed. That said, these are the [...]
