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Merchant Statements

AVS Downgrades Increase Your Fees

Address Verification System (AVS) is a common fraud-prevention measure for card-not-present transactions. AVS checks that the purchaser is in fact the cardholder by requesting the address and ZIP code for the card and comparing it to the bank’s records. Presumably, a fraudster would not know this information and would be prevented from making an e-commerce or over-the-phone purchase.
Christina Lavingia 4/4/2017 READ MORE
Amex OptBlue vs. Amex Direct

Why don’t businesses accept American Express as commonly as Visa and MasterCard? Traditionally, a huge profit driver for Amex was its high Flat-rate processing, making it more expensive and less appealing to businesses. True to form, Amex also operated a bit differently than Visa and MasterCard when it came to the configuration of its merchant accounts until now.
Christina Lavingia 3/28/2017 READ MORE
MasterCard Announces New Merchant Location Fee

MasterCard announced a new assessment fee that will be billed per business location that accepts its cards.
Ursula Librizzi 3/28/2017 READ MORE
Trump Repealing the Durbin Amendment Will Hit Payment Facilitators Hardest

Sen. Richard J. Durbin’s (D-Ill.) introduction of Regulation II as a last-minute addition to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was well-intentioned and logical from a payments perspective. Interchange — the wholesale cost to run a credit or debit card transaction — is set by the card brands (Visa, MasterCard, Discover and Amex). Interchange should be proportional to the risk of a given transaction, however, businesses were paying upwards of a 1% to 3% Interchange for swiped debit card transactions — one of the least risky transaction types — before the Durbin Amendment was passed. With a card-present debit transaction, the cardholder can be verified and sufficient funds confirmed before the transaction is processed. Credit isn’t even involved.
Christina Lavingia 3/2/2017 READ MORE
Tiered Pricing vs. Flat

There’s a lot to consider when you’re starting a new business or even just updating your payment processing; and your rate plan can greatly impact your bottom line. We’re going to review two common rate plans side by side: Flat vs. Tiered pricing.
Christina Lavingia 1/19/2017 READ MORE
Are You Sure You’re Paying True Interchange?

If your business is on Interchange pricing, you may think you have the most transparent rate plan. This is a fair assumption, so long as you’re being charged true Interchange.
Christina Lavingia 1/19/2017 READ MORE