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

July 9, 2018

Two Credit Card Policies Your Business Needs to Set in Stone

Credit cards are a big part of every business. If your store isn’t equipped for credit card transactions, you’ve already put a huge roadblock in the way of your company’s growth. But if you don’t have clear in-store and internal policies, even the best merchant services can’t help your business navigate new regulations. Here are two policies that your business needs to create and regularly review:

What’s your return policy?

Some stores don’t have a lot of returns. But whether you sell retail goods, professional services, or food, you need to have a return policy. It can encompass everything from a poor user experience to product exchanges depending on what you want for your business, but the allowances and limitations need to be clear. It also needs to be posted in your store and easy to find online. Making your return policy clear and visible is the best way to fight invalid chargebacks.

While you’re making any edits, make sure your merchant services can easily accommodate the policy. This includes more than making sure your equipment can handle reversing the transaction. Make sure the fees are low enough that you can afford the goodwill a good return policy brings.

What’s your information storage policy?

The benefit of a merchant services provider is that your company isn’t directly handling credit card information. This is incredibly important if you’re an online vendor. If you handle or store PII or credit card information, your company has to be PCI compliant and secure that information from cyber threats. Find a merchant services provider that acts as a third-party information handler. Also, train your in-store employee on how to treat any credit card information in the store. Ideally, your employees should never write down any details or even handle the cards. Find customer-facing machines to keep the line clear.

For more merchant services tips, browse our blog at BAMS.

June 26, 2018

Does Your Payment Processing Tool Protect You from Chargebacks?

closeup of businessman working on financial spreadsheet on laptop rearview

Whenever a credit card user disputes a charge they find in their credit card history, one of the provider’s first steps is to demand that the retailer returns the value of the charge. They protect consumers from fraudulent charges, but they can also be extremely costly to the merchant.

How can chargebacks hurt your business?

Even when the chargebacks are limited purely to potential credit card fraud, they can hurt your company’s bottom line. The revenue from a sale goes back to the consumer, and each chargeback usually has an associated fee. Having too many chargebacks can get your merchant account frozen, your company blacklisted, and your company fined.

Less straightforward incidents of chargebacks, like friendly fraud, can be even more damaging to your revenue and your company’s reputation.

What tools do you need to reduce the damage of chargebacks?

Get instant alerts so you can respond.

Chargeback alerts often come in the mail. Delays are bad for business. Text messages give you more opportunity to straighten out the dispute. Text messages can also be integrated with other automatic process tools so the alert becomes a case in the appropriate employee’s workflow.

Export your records to Excel.

It’s not just individual accounts of chargebacks that need your attention. Keep a living history of all the chargebacks issued to your company. Even if you don’t use the document to maintain a status report, you can use the report to know when your company is in danger of triggering fines, an audit, or the termination language with your payment processor.

Respond through an online interface.

Responding through faxes and letters is cumbersome. It also increases the risk of delays and the chance you won’t respond within the appropriate window of time. But an online management tool lets you respond immediately, keep track of responses, and organize the dispute.

Go to BAMS to find these and other tools for your company’s payment processing.

November 20, 2017

Tips to Help Prevent Chargeback Fraud

Stealing a credit card through a laptop concept for computer hacker, fraud, network security and electronic banking security

All chargebacks are frustrating, but it’s even worse when they happen because of fraud. Then, you not only lose the transaction but the merchandise as well. This alone is enough reason to make sure you stop fraud before you send out any products. Here are some of the chargeback prevention ways that you can armor your online store against fraudulent purchases:

The Zip Code Check

These checks are basic, but they block a surprising amount of suspicious transactions. One of the most standards is to collect the would-be buyer’s name and address. Then, use a shopping cart that sends that information to Authorize.net along with the credit card number. Set your Authorize.net account to compare the zip code on file with the credit card company against the one you were given. If they don’t match, it automatically declines the transaction.

Have Proof of Shipment

One of the most common ways to commit chargeback fraud is done by the criminal ordering things and then claiming non-receipt. Stop this nonsense by shipping everything using methods that give you tracking numbers and proof of delivery. All of the major shippers have an option that provides these things, and it’s worth it to use those options. Then if someone claims non-delivery, you can give us or a card-issuing bank the number to prove that your package indeed arrived.

Having this information at hand also helps you when the customer legitimately hasn’t gotten an item. You’ll be able to look up the tracking and see exactly where the package is in the shipping system. You can almost always get someone to be more patient if you can provide a detailed answer to the question of “where’s my stuff!?.”

To learn more about how to prevent fraudulent chargebacks and other problems, just contact us. We’ll be glad to help you make your business go more smoothly.

September 14, 2017

Chargeback Prevention Starts with Fraud Prevention

Chargeback prevention is one of the foremost concerns of online merchants. It’s always galling to have to send money in the wrong direction, and it’s even worse when the reason for it is outright fraud. With fraud, you’re not only out a sale but often, you lose your merchandise as well. Fortunately, there are ways to catch most of it before your products hit the shipping stream.

Use a Merchant Account with Fraud Prevention Tools

A merchant account that offers the right settings will, when those settings are properly tuned and activated, do much to increase your chargeback prevention success. Some of the typical options include automatic checking of the delivery zip code against the zip code of the credit card holder’s billing address, checking the card number against a database of stolen numbers, use of the Cardholder Dispute Resolution Network, instant notification of payment disputes, and more. The Cardholder Dispute Resolution Network is a fairly new system that allows chargeback and dispute information to be shared between card issuers and merchants and can let you spot a serial refund-seeker before you complete a transaction.

Manually Check Any Suspicious-Looking Order That Gets Through

Sometimes, even the best automated systems aren’t enough. This is why you should always check strange-looking orders – especially those for unusually-large amounts of merchandise – for fraud. Check Google Street View to see if the destination address is a vacant lot, look up the phone number the customer gave you as well as calling it, and check the origin area of the IP attached to the order.

These are some of the best ways to prevent online ordering fraud and the chargebacks that go with it. If you need a merchant account that will automate much of the work, just contact us. Our Chargeback Defense system is just what you need.