In addition to more obvious fraud-monitoring tools such as the customer account, validation services, and purchase tracking, a certified Level 1 PCC DSS payment processor’s risk management staff can sniff out fraud before it occurs.
Chargebacks, in addition to being costly, can damage business reputations; an excessive number of chargebacks can lead to closed merchant accounts, effectively killing the business. While chargebacks do sometimes happen for legitimate reasons, use of customer service practices based on know-your-customer principles, and merchant accessibility, can substantially reduce or eliminate chargebacks.
Cross-border payments can be slow, inefficient, and expensive, but they play an important role in global trade. Typically, national banking infrastructures can’t handle cross-border payments, resulting in independent and non-uniform development in technologies and software platforms that complicate or stall cross-border transactions.
Build and maintain a secure network and systems
Protect cardholder data
Maintain a vulnerability management program
Implement strong access control measures
Regularly monitor and test networks
Maintain an information security policy
Recent retail, government, and healthcare security breaches underscore what every merchant knows: customer and card data security is top priority. Either acquiring PCI DSS Level 1 certification or using a PSP-hosted payment page is a must for anyone doing business online.
Global ecommerce means accepting a variety of payment methods and currencies. E-wallets, mobile payments, and credit/debit cards help online merchants compete in international markets by allowing their customers to pay in their native currencies. For merchants, multi-currency, cross-border transactions can require new bank accounts, new business entities, and new regulatory hurdles in each national market.
Selecting a payment service provider with the necessary infrastructure already in place can provide effective, and immediate, solutions to those problems. A merchant can easily collect payment in one currency and credit the merchant account in its home currency.
Added to the expense is the lack of interface between processing systems—it may be difficult or impossible for a PSP to link with other systems, resulting in processing and payment delays, lost transactions, and expensive fees.
In true real-time processing, a combination of features, including integrated systems and gateways, addresses liquidity issues and minimizes delays, while preserving online transaction integrity. A payment processor that provides for immediate and individually processed transactions can open client accounts in more than one acquiring bank, thus avoiding the delays often inherent in automated clearinghouse processes.