Credit cards play a vital role in our daily lives. Having a credit card is an important step that everyone can make to use for emergencies, to build credit, for fraud protection and many more benefits.

However, there are essential things you need to keep in mind if you’re dealing with credit cards. First, you need to understand the pros that you’ll realize when handling your finances since your finance occupies a significant portion of your life, meaning you need to get most out of it.

But why do you need to accept credit cards in your business? Worry no more! I have the right for you.

In this article, I will cover the top ten reasons to accept credit cards as discussed below:

1.   To legitimize your business

Accepting credit cards give the cardholders a sense of trust in your business. This is because every time you display the logos of the accepted credit cards at your website, POS or register, you grab the attention of the cardholders.

Every cardholder trusts these credit cards enough up to the extent of carrying them in their wallets. Other than this, the trust gets transferred to the merchants, hence building up their confidence to accept them.

2.   To boost your sales

Significant broadening of the potential customer base is a common effect whenever a business stops cash on delivery services and accepts credit and debit cards instead.

Also, it goes that there are high chances of making additional sales if you increase the rate of grabbing your potential customer’s attention.

3.   To remain on the competitive level

In every business you start, your main aim is to remain competitive and generate more returns. To realize this, you need to offer the same services as your competitors.

Therefore, if the competitors accept credit cards, you also need to offer the same services to remain competitive and profitable.

4.   To enhance impulse buying

Quick and easy completion of the transactions without having to run to the ATM or writing a check is one of the aims of the potential customers. This is essential since it limits the expenditures they make to their available funds.

As per the latest research, customers spend more when they’re making payments with credit cards, hence another main reason to accept credit cards.

5.   To improve cash flow

The transactions for credit cards are carried out electronically and settled within the shortest time possible. Other than this, the proceeds are primarily deposited into bank account efficiently and quickly.

Therefore, with the credit cards, there is less handling of cash, no more collecting from the customers, no more billing, and waiting for check clearance.

6.   It is essential for online business

Nowadays, most of the payments for online transactions are made with credit cards. Therefore, accepting a credit card is not an option if you’re an e-commerce merchant.

7.   To eliminate the risk of accepting a bad check

Another main reason to accept credit cards is that they are always screened while processing them to reduce fraud risk.  

Other than this, you can protect yourself, and your customers from identity theft and data breach by relying on the reputable merchant service provides such as TSYS for the delivery of secure credit card processing.

8.   They are the most convenient and beneficial for customers

Every customer desires to go for the most convenient and beneficial method of payment.

Other than being easy for use in a variety in the wide range of capacities, credit cards also offer rewards, points or mileage that play an essential role in encouraging the cardholder to use the credit cards whenever buying something.

9.   They are a relatively cheap business expense

Processing of the credit card is one of the most competitive industries. The rates for this processing do not cost high, meaning that every business can accept credit cards.

As per the discoveries made by many merchants, an increase in sales because of accepting credit cards usually offsets the associated costs, which in turn, makes the account of the merchant to be the best return on investment.

10.                  It is quick and easy to process the credit card

You can process your merchant account application instantly and get ready for processing the credit card sales in less than 48 hours.

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A secured credit card is very much like a regular credit card, but the major difference is that you’re required to make a deposit against the card’s credit limit. Your credit limit will usually be a percentage of your security deposit or it may be the same as your deposit.Typically an applicant for a secured credit card must deposit between 10% to 200% of the total amount of credit they want. For example if they want a card with a $1000 credit limit they may need to put down a deposit of $1500. In many cases however the deposit may be significantly less than the requested credit limit. Credit card issuers began offering this option for customers as a means of rebuilding credit or simply building credit. Credit card issuers noticed that when the customer thinks they might lose something they are far more likely to pay back the monies owing on time.

In many cases the deposit is around 10% of the credit limit offered. The cardholder is still required to make regular payments on the balance held on the card but the deposit is held as a security measure in case of default. There are a great deal of advantages to the individual who applies for this type of card. The use of the card and regular payments allows the cardholder to develop a credit history that will be useful for bigger purchasers in the future such as a car or even a mortgage.

These types of credit cards do come with conditions that are described in the cardholder agreement. The deposit held by the card issuer will not be debited simply for missing a couple of payments. The deposit is only used as an offset when an account is closed. Accounts are only closed at the request of the customer or when the account is greatly overdue (150-180 days). This does mean though that an account that is say 150 days overdue will continue to gather interest and fees and could end up with a balance that is far higher than the actual initial credit limit. As such the cardholder may be left with a total debt that far exceeds the original deposit and is still required to pay it all back.

Secured credit cards are a great option for building a credit rating or re-establishing credit after a poor credit history. The fees and interest levels charged on these types of cards can be much higher than a standard credit card and for certain people with a very bad credit history these cards can prove to be quite expensive compared to standard card.

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As a Business owner, In some industries having to deal with chargebacks is something that happens more often in comparison to other types of businesses. Business Owners such as supermarket merchants/retail merchants and business owners that sell food. Often time face a good deal of fraudulent cards in customer-facing environments. There are various ways a chargeback can occur when accepting a card, such as

Common reasons for credit card charge-backs include:

1.Fraudulent Transaction

The cardholder has disputed the charge and stated it is a fraudulent charge. Provide a copy of any signed receipts and include proof the card was present at the time of purchase to dispute back. Always obtain a copy of the card and signature for disputes.

2. No Authorization

The issuer did not authorize the transaction. Show the denial to the customer and never process a transaction without authorization

3. Duplicate Processing

The transaction has already been submitted once. Enter payment transactions once and avoid entering them again.

4. Cardholder Doesn’t Recognize the Transaction

The cardholder doesn’t recognize your company name on his or her bank statement. Avoid this by using a recognizable name. Present proof of purchase and the customer signature to avoid a credit card chargeback.

Now let’s talk about how to prevent a charge-back with your payments. Some Merchants using 3rd Party Processing companies run into problems because the company name that appears on cardholder’s monthly statements is usually the name of the processing company and not the name of the business where they made their purchase.So, using these tips you can prevent charge-back with your payments:

Ways to prevent chargebacks at your business:

1.Have Policies

Your business should have policies regarding merchandise returns, refunds, or service cancellation; these policies must be disclosed to the cardholder at the time of the transaction. Your policies should be on your sales receipts, order confirmation, thank you letters, getting the idea of everything. The customer might wonder why you add all this stuff to the emails, but when it comes time for questions they can find the info they need to get in touch with you.

2. Do not Accept Expired Card’s

Do not accept a card after its “Good Thru” or “Valid Thru” date has passed, unless you obtain an authorization approval for the transaction.

3. Do Communication

You the merchant need to communicate to the customer in such a way that they need to talk to you first! That you want to make sure they are satisfied. You need to gain their trust and confidence. Remember they are not the enemy. They just gave you money for something and they want equal value.

4. Keep Records

If your business delivers products use a carrier that offers delivery notification. Retain these for your records. In fact, you want to make sure that you keep records for all transactions so you can present these to your merchant provider and the card company if need be. The more documentation you have the better.

5. Work directly with companies

Us at virtuous payments are an agency of First Data which therefore means we are not a 3^rd party vendor reselling services. In turn, this can help your business as should there be a chargeback you would be dealing directly with first data which can help in chargeback dispute processes.

A Good Merchant Provider will work alongside you rather than against the business owner/merchant when it comes to chargeback situations. It doesn’t mean that you are always wrong and the customer is always right. Facts speak for themselves and a good merchant provider will check their options before making a financial decision. Give us a call today to discuss with other in personal ways to protect your business on chargebacks.

The post How to prevent Credit Card chargebacks at your business! appeared first on Merchant Services Vancouver, Canada - Best Online Credit Card & Payment Processing Canada.

Now more then ever, we can simply shop almost every product and service that would aid in making our lives better and process a quick online payment in seconds. Online transaction is undeniably speedy and convenient. Now no wonder several businesses have hoped the boat of technology and rowing smoothly.

As for the concept around online credit card processing.

What is Online Credit Card Processing?

Online credit card processing is the easiest method to allow your customers to make online payments using their credit/debit cards like Visa, American Express, Master Card and Discover.

There are multiple tools available such as Virtual Terminal or an Online Payment Gateway.

To accept electronic payment card transactions on the web, a business needs a merchant account. Which acts as an intermediate to transfer funds between customers’ and businesses’ bank accounts. When a customer buys a product, the merchant account processes the transaction using a payment gateway & payment processor to authenticate and deposit funds in the merchant’s account.

Many new business owners think that when setting up online credit card processing, you just need to go with an online provider like paypal/stripe and square. Only to learn they didint pick the best option 2-3 months down the line with inflated payment fees.

What are my options for online credit card processing?

• Accepting online credit card processing can help you engage your tech-savvy buyers and serve them even better. For example, many of our customers like utilizing the Clover Only account for invoicing and virtual terminal transactions.
• We also provide integrations with all major shopping carts and gateways such as Woo-commerce, Magento Etc. This is done by connecting the best gateway that connects to your website based on the type of business you operate.

How to avoid Money holds from big companies.

Alot of the times the big companies do not understand your business inside out, which leads to consistent money holds. This is why we help business owners be properly set-up right from the start by telling the online credit card processing companies in advance everything there is to know about how you recieve payment and how fast you provide service. This can also help business owners alot when it comes to avoiding chargebacks since it keeps the merchant payment provider on your side.

We at Virtuous Payments aim to help businesses thrive in our digital era. By providing secure integrations at the lowest rates for merchant services/payment processing solutions for business owners,  which means you get to keep more of your money towards other aspects of your business.

To learn more, Contact Us here to get started!

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