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A merchant account is a relationship with a credit card processing bank, that allows a merchant to accept and process credit cards. The merchant account will allow the merchant to swipe their customer’s credit or debit cards through a credit card terminal, or will allow the merchant to manually key in transactions. Merchant accounts can be set up in the name of an individual or by a corporation. Each location of a business with a single ownership must have its own merchant account. And, each website set up by a merchant that either has a different name or sells different products needs to have its own merchant account. When setting up a merchant account, the merchant will specify what method they plan to use for obtaining information from their customers credit or debit cards. This determined method will also determine the cost that the merchant must pay to process their customers credit cards. The lowest cost for processing would be swiping customer’s cards through a credit card terminal. Keying in transactions or processing over the internet has a higher cost than swiping through a credit card terminal due to the higher risk associated with this method.
Accepting credit cards, debit cards, and mobile wallet payments provides a variety of options for your customers and can help improve their checkout experiences. By accepting these forms of payment, you may attract customers who prefer the convenience of credit or debit cards, want to collect credit card rewards (such as airline miles), or appreciate other credit card benefits such as purchase protection. Essentially, you’re letting people pay the way they want to pay, which can enhance the shopping experience.
In short, the merchant account is simply the bank account that provisions credit card transactions, and the payment gateway is the technology to relay credit card information from your business to the bank in a safe and secure manner. Because of this encryption aspect, you do indeed need a payment gateway in order to safeguard credit card numbers and other sensitive information.
Merchant accounts are not widely thought of a loans or lines of credit but that is technically what they are. For this reason, the processing company takes on risk of collecting funds that they pay out.
When a transaction takes place, the cardholder is charged and the merchant account provider pays you for the sale. The cardholder has up to 90 days to dispute the transaction for any reason and when this happens the chargeback process starts. If the chargeback is found in favor of the customer, the funds are automatically debited from your bank account and paid back to the cardholder. The merchant account provider wants to make sure that each business they approve is financially sound and credit is a part of that equation.
Usually we can fully setup an account within 2 business days after receiving your signed application and documents.
80% of the fees were paid to Card-issuing Bank. 9% of fees were paid back to Card-association fees, 8% of the fees were paid to processor and 3% were paid to Empire Paytech. As you can see, the Vast majority of the fees are going back to the Card-Issuing banks, and a significant portion goes to the card association and Processor. With Interchange plus rates, Empire Paytech role in providing customer service, risk management, integration assistance and more will often represent less than 3% of your total fees paid.
Yes! Our 24/7 U.S.-based customer support team is always available. You will have live, toll-free merchant assistance by calling 1(800) 542-1894
Yes. Every month, by mail and/or email, you will receive a statement that details all your payment information for the month, including deposits into your account, your total sales volume, and the charges for the month. You can also access this information online for real-time, up-to-date information.
EMV(Europay, MasterCard and Visa) is a Fraud reducing technology that Helps protect issuers, merchants and consumers against losses from the use of counterfeit and lost or stolen payment cards at the point of sale. EMV credit cards or smart cards, are embedded with a microprocessor, or smart chip, which interacts with the merchant’s point-of-sale device to ensure the payment card, combined with a PIN number or signature, is valid and belongs to the person using the card. This kind of Chip technology add layers of security against fraud and is virtually impossible to duplicate.
The address verification system or AVS is an electronic system that verifies the address of the card holder during a credit card transaction. This system is commonly used in internet based and keyed in transactions where the card is not being swiped through a credit card machine. This system can verify the billing zip code of the card holder and if setup properly can verify the street address and sometimes even the telephone number. The merchant gets a response that the AVS is approved or declined and can then chose to run the transaction or not.
AVS should always be used for every internet and keyed transaction to avoid downgrade charges and fraud. Even if you can verify who your customer is, if you are setup as a keyed or internet account, you should use AVS for every transaction.
CVV is a card verification system that verifies that a cardholder is in possession of a credit card by verifying a set of numbers that is embossed on the credit card and not encoded in the magnetic strip. This way even if the card number is stolen, a transaction cannot be processed if the purchaser cannot verify the CVV number on the card.
Requiring CVV in addition to AVS can help to eliminate most fraudulent orders for internet and keyed entry businesses.
Each card issuer has a different name for the CVV system, but all are essentially the same thing. Visa refers to it as CVV2, Mastercard is called CVC2, Amex is CID.
The CVV number is located on the back of the card except for most Amex cards where it is on the front. Amex also uses a 4 digit verification code whereas all other card makers use a 3 digit number.
A chargeback is where a customer is disputing a charge listed on their credit card statement. A chargeback may get the customer their money refunded, but it is not a refund. Avoid chargebacks at all costs because they can ultimately end up in a merchant loosing the ability to process credit cards completely.
A chargeback can be initiated 6 months after the completion of the sale. This means that if you provide a service that lasts 1 year the customer can chargeback the transaction 6 months after the service is completed, one and a half years after the sale itself is made. This is why chargebacks are more common with long term or custom services.
Common Chargeback Reasons:
Not recognizing merchant’s name on credit card statement.
Customer charged more than once for the same purchase.
Merchant did not deliver the agreed upon service.
Customer unsatisfaction with product or service.
Not recognizing merchant’s name on credit card statement.
Customer charged more than once for the same purchase.
Merchant did not deliver the agreed upon service.
Customer unsatisfaction with product or service.
Fraudulent orders (mainly internet businesses).
We offer several options that will allow you to process credit cards through your website. These services will integrate with your website to allow real time transaction processing, and also include a virtual terminal that will allow you to manually process transactions through a secure website.
Payment Gateway and Virtual Terminal Options:
Authorize.net
Payeezy Gateway
Void or refund a PIN debit transaction
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