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How Problematic Are Chargebacks for Business Owners?

Chargebacks for Business

Chargebacks are a reality of accepting credit card payments. While many chargebacks are requested for valid reasons, there are plenty of cases in which disputes are initiated despite the merchant holding up every aspect of their end of the bargain. Unfortunately, many merchants don’t really understand the dispute process, how to handle a chargeback, or the consequences that chargebacks represent to the health of their businesses. Those consequences can include unexpected drains on revenue, penalties levied by the card companies, and across-the-board rate increases. 

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What Visa and MC Updated Dispute and Fraud Monitoring Programs Mean For You

Merchant Services

For obvious reasons, the major credit card companies take fraud and excessive chargebacks very seriously, and companies like Visa and Mastercard have put forward thorough monitoring and tracking systems to try to prevent the losses associated with them. In October 2019, both companies made changes to their chargeback and fraud defense programs, and it’s important that merchants keep up on the details of those changes, as getting tied up in any of these programs can result in costly fines and burdensome assessments.

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What Square’s New Pricing Means to You

PayPal, Square, or Stripe

Square is one of the world’s most popular payment processors, offering simple payment solutions and equally simple hardware to businesses looking to take electronic payments both online and in-store. One of Square’s most notable features has long been its pricing structure; a straight 2.75% with no additional flat fee tacked on to each transaction. But a recent announcement from Square has revealed that the company’s popular pricing model is about to change, with major consequences for a large portion of their merchants.  Continue reading “What Square’s New Pricing Means to You”

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Are You Doing the Right PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire?

PCI

Part of establishing PCI compliance and maintaining it year in and year out is filling out an annual PCI self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ). These questionnaires are designed to accomplish two goals: to help businesses identify weaknesses that need to be dealt with and to help prove to institutions that a company is compliant. But not all companies handle credit cards in the same way, so PCI has put together nine different versions of the SAQ. The difference in length and complexity between the shortest and longest versions is extreme – 22 questions versus 329. As a result, it’s important that companies select the proper SAQ for self-assessments because choosing poorly could result in under-analysis, or alternately, a lot of unnecessary work. Below is a quick review of each SAQ version to help with proper selection. 

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Why You Should Offer Gift Cards to Your Customers and How They Impact Your Company’s Revenue

Gift Cards

Sometimes you just don’t have the time or personal knowledge necessary to purchase someone a truly personal gift, and in those instances, nothing beats a gift card. They’re kind of like cash, but not nearly as impersonal, and the convenience they provide for the giver and recipient makes them incredibly popular. But gift cards aren’t just good for your customers, they’re also good for your business, and they can impact everything from customer satisfaction to the health of your bottom line. Below are three undeniable reasons your business can’t afford to ignore these little plastic revenue drivers. 

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4 Best Touch Screen POS for 2019

POS

From retail stores to restaurants and beyond, hardwired cash registers are giving way to flexible, mobile point of sale (POS) systems designed to make it as easy as possible for customers to pay and for employees and management to go about daily tasks like inventory management, stock ordering, reporting, and more. LightSpeed Retail, ShopKeep, TouchBistro, and Vend represent four of the best mobile touch screen POS solutions available in 2019, and below we’ll take a look at what makes each special and how much merchants can expect to pay to put each to work. 

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Clover GO vs. Square – Which is Better for You?

Merchant Services

Square is almost synonymous with phone-based mobile payment processing, but Clover – a company owned by processing giant First Data – has been carving out their own chunk of the market and making a name for themselves with availability in retail settings like Sam’s Club. Each company offers a small card reader designed to integrate with all iOS and Android smartphones, and while the hardware is incredibly similar, there are enough differences in the software and fee structures to make doing a little research well worthwhile before choosing one over the other. Below we provide a quick analysis of where each option shines, where the two companies fall short, and which option wins out in the end. 

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4 Ways BAMS Can Improve Your Cash Flow

BAMS Can Improve Your Cash Flow

Strong positive cash flow is one of the single most important factors in maintaining a healthy business, and anything you can do to boost and protect it is worthwhile. BAMS has designed a number of solutions to help ensure our merchants always have the positive cash flow they need to keep operations running smoothly and growth increasing steadily. Those include financial solutions aimed at directly impacting cash flow, as well as technological solutions provided by the free access our merchants get to IRIS CRM – the leading customer resource management tool in the payments industry. The following are four of the top features BAMS offers to help you ensure healthy cash flow, representing just a few of the unmatched benefits of partnering with us.

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