Chargeback Prevention Archives - Merchant Account & E Commerce Payment Processing Insights

February 12, 2020February 4, 2020

Merchants Beware: A Chargeback Defense Guide to Help You Avoid the Scourge of Ecommerce

As a merchant, you take pride in providing the best service possible to each and every one of your customers. That’s why it can come as such a shock – even an insult – whenever a chargeback request comes in claiming that you failed to deliver on a transaction. While chargebacks are a reality of doing business, especially in card-not-present situations like eCommerce, there are steps you can take to avoid them outright and to fight back when they do pop up. The following represent six of the most effective strategies, and adhering to them will put you at a significant advantage when it comes to handling pesky dispute requests.

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December 18, 2019December 10, 2019

Part Two: Is an Ounce of Chargeback Prevention Worth A Pound of Cure?

In part one of this two-part series, we looked at some of the technology-based solutions merchants have available to them to catch fraud early on and stop it before it can result in chargebacks and lost revenues. In part two, we’ll look at the other side of the coin – legitimate chargebacks filed by customers who feel like they’ve been wronged. These chargebacks can’t always be avoided, and sometimes all a merchant can hope for is a fast and easy resolution. But there are steps that merchants can take to minimize the number of legitimate chargeback requests they face, and they all revolve around understanding the customer-side of the equation and elevating the quality of service provided.

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December 11, 2019December 9, 2019

Part One: Is an Ounce of Chargeback Prevention Worth A Pound of Cure?

A seller receives an order and delivers on their end of the bargain flawlessly, only to later find that the money they earned has been clawed back due to a chargeback. This is an all too common scenario, especially in commerce online where purchases are made without any physical, real-world interaction between customer and merchant. It’s also a scenario that can be incredibly costly for merchants in more ways than just lost revenues. Large retailers can afford to dedicate staff to dispute resolutions, but for smaller merchants, chargebacks are often poorly understood, let alone effectively handled. But, with a little bit of knowledge and some careful planning, merchants both large and small can significantly reduce their need to handle them at all by taking the necessary steps to ensure they don’t happen in the first place. In this two-part series, we’ll examine the most effective ways merchants can do just that, using both the fraud prevention tools available to them and some customer service best practices.

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December 4, 2019December 11, 2019

What Are the True Costs of Data Breaches?

BAMS offers everything new and experienced merchants alike need to ensure that their customers’ sensitive payment data is always as safe as possible. We provide every one of our merchants with expert guidance through the sometimes complex process of becoming fully PCI compliant.
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November 26, 2019November 22, 2019

What Is Risk Scoring and How Can It Help You?

Minimizing risk is a task of great importance to everyone involved in online commerce and electronic payments, from the merchants right through to the credit card issuers. High fraud rates and chargeback rates can have a significant impact on merchants, even resulting in enrollment in chargeback and fraud monitoring programs that can carry hefty fees. Risk scoring is a tool to help merchants avoid those negative consequences by catching and stopping fraud as it happens, and more and more merchants are enlisting them in the never-ending fight against credit card fraud.

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November 12, 2019November 2, 2019

How Problematic Are Chargebacks for Business Owners?

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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November 8, 2019November 2, 2019

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

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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October 16, 2019October 31, 2019

6 Ways to Keep Your eCommerce Transactions Safe

E-commerce transactions are all about trust. Customers need to feel 100% confident that their personal information and payment details are stored and transmitted with total security, or they simply won’t make a purchase. When breaches do happen, the damage – both financially and psychologically – can be immense, and as a result, businesses simply can’t afford to ignore the seriousness of transaction security. Thankfully, there are some straightforward steps companies can take to keep the bad guys at bay, and the following six practices represent some of the most effective ones.

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September 26, 2019October 30, 2019

5 Effective Tips to Win More Chargebacks

Chargebacks are a reality of accepting card payments, and no merchant doing any significant volume can avoid them altogether. Sometimes a chargeback is outright fraudulent, and many are the result of poor customer service or misunderstandings between merchants and customers. But whatever the reason may be, merchants need to be ready to fight back when disputes arise. Knowing how to respond is the key to success, and the following five tips represent effective ways to improve dispute responses to ensure more victories and less lost revenues.

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September 17, 2019October 31, 2019

How PayPal’s New Refund Policy Impacts Your Business and What You Can Do About It

On May 7th, 2019, PayPal updated its user agreement and made a big change that impacts every single one of their sellers in an inarguably negative way. Prior to the change, any time a refund was provided to a customer, the slice of the pie that PayPal had taken on the transaction was returned to the seller. That’s no longer the case, and PayPal will now be keeping that fee regardless of whether a transaction is refunded or not. The decision represents a big problem for high-volume and B2B sellers, as well as sellers who sell high-ticket items that carry hefty transaction fees. A large number of sellers are balking at the change, and with good reasons, considering it doesn’t just nullify revenue, but actually takes money out of a seller’s pocket based on something that, in many ways, they can’t control.

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