The Merchant Services & Business Insider

On April 10, 2012, Encore Payment Systems released a news release stating that they now have credit card security for small business.  When reading this at first I was wondering why that had not offered this sooner.  This is merchant services processing 101.

Yet, upon reading further in the press release I began to understand where they were really coming from.  What they are actually offering is the ability to audit your company’s credit card processing setup to make sure that you are PCI complaint.  This is a good and worthy service.

Choice Merchant Services offers this as part of all North AmericanBanard merchant service deals for free.  Yet Encore Payment Systems takes it a step further by offering a $10,000 fine reinbursement guarantee:

The press release states:

Unfortunately, small business owners don’t always receive the vital facts when it comes to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance. PCI DSS is an organization established to ensure that all companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. PCI Compliance is a multifaceted issue affecting great amounts of people in large and small businesses alike which is why Encore Payment Systems is now offering their merchants to become PCI DSS compliant.

Encore’s compliance team helps merchants to become compliant, scans computers for any data vulnerabilities and will cover small businesses who have completed the compliance process with up to $10,000 in fine reimbursements from a security breach event.

As you may be aware, Global Payments has acknowledged that they have incurred an unauthorized access into their system.

North American Bancard wants you to know Global Payments confirmed with us that no merchant or ISO data were compromised as a result of the breach. Global Payments believes that less than 1,500,000 card numbers may have been affected.  Their investigation to date has revealed only Track 2 card data may have been stolen, but cardholder names, addresses and social security numbers were not obtained by the criminals. The company believes that this incident is contained.

“It is reassuring that our security processes detected an intrusion.  It is crucial to understand that this incident does not involve our merchants or their relationships with their customers,” said Chairman and CEO Paul R. Garcia of Global Payments Inc.

The mobile payment start up has shaken things up again with Pay with Square.

Here’s how Pay with Square works:

1. Consumers will download the Square app and register.  This will link their payment card to it.

2. They then search Square’s directory of merchants and find a store or restaurant they are interested in.

3. The customer them selects the merchant plan to shop at, they take picture of themselves and load it into the App.  They can then open  “tab” that that will enable them to pay with their name.

4.  Once at the merchant store location the consumer will, without having to show the GPS enabled smart phone is is carrying can direct the merchant to put the purchase on their Square tab.

5. The customer’s name and photo then automatically appear on the merchant’s register.

6. Next the merchant confirms the consumer’s identity and the product purchased and it is charged to the accont tied to the customer’s Square mobile wallet.

This is going to shake up the mobile merchant services industry for sure!

Wireless Merchant Services is continuing to evolve at the fastest pace of any period in merchant services history.

On March 26th, ABC News broke a news story about how PayPal is breaking into the mobile merchant services industry with PayPal Here. PayPal Here empowers small merchants and independent businesses to accept credit cards on their phones – anywhere they can get a wireless signal.

“The mobile phone has revolutionized the way we shop,” PayPal’s director of communications Anuj Nayar told ABC News. “If you are making a purchase from your mobile phone in store, what sort of purchase is that? Is it an online purchase? The reality is it is all about multichannel retail.”

The solution is built around a small triangle-shaped piece of hardware, that plugs right into the iPhone’s headphone jack. The seller can swipe a credit card right along the top of the hardware, and then process the transaction in a wireless manner – fully encrypted – through PayPal.

The cost of this is pretty high compared to traditional mobile merchant services solutions.  The merchant is required to pay PayPal a flat rate of 2.7% of every transaction.  This is quite high compared to rates averaging abouut 2.25% elsewhere.

PAYware Connect from VeriFone announced on March 19, 2012 that its processing volume has now exceed $10 billion dollars.  That makes VeriFone’s PAYware Connect the largest payment processor for mobile payments – even exceeding the much lauded Square.

The system is easy to use and promises simple PCI compliance which is a necessity in today’s merchant services world.  Some may be surprised by the success of VeriFone’s PAYware connect – yet in reality this success is no surprise.  VeriFone has been making industry leading merchant equipment for years such as the top selling Verifone VX670 and the Verifone VX570.