While the use of credit cards has exploded over the last years and many people carry plastic, many people still also use checks. If your business does not accept checks, both online and off, you could be losing money to your competitors who do. When shopping online, people will abandon their shopping cart if they reach the checkout and cannot use their preferred payment method. When shopping offline, people expect to be able to write a check so they can use the money in their bank account. If you cannot accommodate them, they may walk away.
Year: 2019
A Handy AVPS Guide to Point-of-Sale Security, Pt. II: Mitigation & Protection
Last week, we mentioned card issuer alerts calling for more vigilance on the part of merchants to “shore up” their Point-of-Sale systems, in an age of increased hacking, breaches, and network intrusion. This lack of security has resulted in some unfortunately spectacular “virtual break-ins,” like the Target breach and the ones that followed, resulting in the information for millions of customers being pilfered, compromised, and sold not only to the “highest bidder,” but to whoever meets the price of those vending the data.
A Handy AVPS Guide to Point-of-Sale Security. Pt. I: Remote Access
In our current climate of “hackery” and security breaches, the number of alerts and advisories going to out to companies like ours is on the increase. Many of these have valuable information that we feel should be passed along to our customers, so they can use these ideas, deploy them, to keep their own transactions — and their customers — as safe as possible.
Summer is for “fishing” — not “phishing!” Some protection tips from AVPS!
“Phishing” is exactly what sounds like — a “fishing” expedition by the bad guys, usually via “legitimate” seeming emails, or other means, to try and “snag” or “catch” as much sensitive information about you, and your customers, as they can.
4th of July Snapshot: Gas Prices, Economic Indicators Heat Up Like Roman Candles
As we approach the July 4th 2014, the economy news at summer’s midpoint celebration is increasingly rose-colored like one of those ground bloom flower fireworks.
On the one hand, as Bloomberg reports, “jobs growth adds more sunshine” to the U.S. Economy. Specifically, job growth, in payroll specialist ADP’s report ahead of the official Federal figures, was much higher than expected. ““The labor market appears to be firing on all cylinders and is finally self-sustaining,” the Bloomberg said, citing two two PNC Financial Services economists.
Travel Season: Pack Bags, Swim Trunks, and EMV Chips
If you’re traveling abroad this summer, you might want to make sure you have at least one EMV-ready credit (or debit) card at your disposal. (The same might apply if you’re traveling a couple years into the future, after they become more widespread here in the U.S.!)
Visa Raising Standards on Prepaid Debit Cards
According to a recent NY Times article, Visa is responding to consumer concerns that prepaid cards are often trickier to use — or to give — than they should be, since fees and terms often differ, leaving users confused, or simply with less of a balance than they imagined they had.
Your Website Merchant Account Works While You Sleep
One of the great things about selling products or services via a website is that you can make money while you sleep. Customers can place orders anytime of the day or night, any day of the week, whether you are awake and working or not. Of course, there’s always work to be done when you rise but you don’t have to worry about missing a sale just because you aren’t right there at your computer every moment of the day.
One Solution for All of Your Business Merchant Service Needs
As a business, you need to be able to do a number of things when it comes to financial transactions. From accepting credit card payments to accepting and depositing checks, being able to accept payments on your website or by phone, and even being able to now accept credit cards using a mobile phone, you need every angle covered to ensure you don’t miss a beat, or a sale.
