235 systems total
Here you can find news gathered from systems presented in our directory
View all news of Safecharge
Posted on August 13, 2012
The One-Click-Payment Solution Protects Users’ Payment Details On New Casino Platform
Gala Interactive (Gibraltar) Ltd, a new division of the Gala Coral Group, one of Europe’s preeminent betting and gaming businesses, has improved its users’ online payment experience and user-data security by integrating One Click Payment technology from SafeCharge on its newly released websites, GalaCasino.com and GalaBingo.com.
The improved user experience is achieved by allowing repeat customers to re-deposit online payments with a single click, while their credit card information remains safely stored in the SafeCharge secured repository.
Yuval Ziv, SVP Payments of SafeCharge International comments: “We are honored that our technology has been selected by Gala Coral. This is a stamp of approval for the superiority of our technology in this competitive market. Our company is committed to deliver innovative solutions to the payments processing industry and maintain our market leadership”
Gala Coral’s decision to partner with SafeCharge relieves them of the burden and cost of the significant regulatory requirements for storing credit card data themselves. SafeCharge’s level 1 PCI-DSS certified technology enables the proven and well-respected credit card storage solution for the purpose of one click payments.
Says Alex Czajkowski, CMO of Gala Interactive: “The goal of launching all new GalaCasino.com and GalaBingo.com was to improve every aspect of the online player’s experience, from game play to deposits and payments. By partnering with SafeCharge we have received a comprehensive payments solution and a sleek, secure solution for credit card storage for payments in a click. We are absolutely satisfied. The technology and services have met all of our expectations and have successfully passed our inspections and testing. Our players can rest assured that their personal information is safe with SafeCharge”
About Gala Interactive (Gibraltar) Ltd
Gala Interactive (Gibraltar) Ltd is a new division of the Gala Coral Group, the only gambling company in the UK with significant businesses in the bookmaking, bingo and casino markets, both on the high street and online. Gala Interactive has recently launched the GalaCasino.com and GalaBingo.com, with a state-of-the-art online casino on the PlayTech platform, featuring hundreds of games, live dealer options, millions of pounds in jackpots and the largest independent poker network in the world. See GalaCasino.com or GalaBingo.com for more details.
View all news of Liberty Reserve
Posted on August 10, 2012
View all news of Failsafe Payments
Posted on July 26, 2012
What is a chargeback?
Chargeback is a procedure of bank card payment cancellation initiated by the cardholder through his or her bank.
To submit a chargeback the cardholder turns to his or her issuing bank and fills out a special application indicating the reason to consider the cardholder’s demand of money return valid. On receiving the application the issuing bank conducts investigation, and if the cardholder’s demand is recognized as fair, the transaction money is returned to the card.
Why is chargeback dangerous?
All expenses related to the money return on the chargeback are borne by online merchant. The merchant’s account is charged not only for the amount of the transaction charged back but also for the penalty at the rate of USD 20 or EUR 20. The percentage of the processed transaction initially charged by the acquirer is not refunded to the merchant.
If, for example, the transaction amount had been USD 100, and later on a chargeback was submitted for the amount, online merchant’s loss would be at least USD 129. This amount comprises the amount of the cancelled payment (USD 100), chargeback penalty (USD 25), percentage of the transaction amount paid to the acquirer for processing service (let us assume it was USD 4).
But the financial loss is not the only danger of chargeback. The problem is that Visa and MasterCard card companies have severe limitations for the maximum number of chargebacks a merchant can have per 1 calendar month. Exceeding of these limitations by an online merchant puts him or her in a special monitoring program of the card company and the acquiring bank. Such “special” treatment leads to the raise of chargeback penalties (up to USD or EUR 100 for a chargeback) and may end up with a termination of the merchant account.
To get under Visa monitoring it is enough for an online merchant to meet the following conditions preserved for 3 months in a row:
- to have 200 and more chargebacks;
- to have chargeback amount of 2% and more of the sales amount.
To get under MasterCard monitoring it is enough for an online merchant to meet the following conditions preserved for 2 months in a row:
- to have 50 and more chargebacks;
- to have chargeback amount 1% and more of the sales amount.
If after getting under the supervision an online merchant doesn’t take measures to decrease the number of chargebacks, he or she will be disconnected from processing, and all the funds available at the merchant account may be frozen for the period of 7-8 and sometimes up to 12 months.
It is important to understand that acquirers also have limitations established by card companies for the maximum number of chargebacks. And they also pay high penalties for their excess. Therefore, the limitations set by acquirers for online merchants are, as a rule, even more severe.
Most acquirers do not look at the number of chargebacks, considering only chargeback amount ratio to the amount of sales for 1 calendar month. The probability is high that the acquirer will ask for an explanation from a merchant when the chargeback amount exceeds only 1.5% for Visa and 0.5% for MasterCard.
Reaching 2% for Visa and 1% for MasterCard an online merchant will lose any possibility to accept card payments.
Reasons for chargebacks
When chargeback is initiated it is assigned a code representing the reason for its submission. The codes list is regulated by Visa and MasterCard. I will not enumerate all possible options but will only dwell on the most typical cases online merchants face. Besides, I will give some recommendations committing to which will help avoid getting a chargeback or dispute it if it actually was submitted.
So, chargebacks in e-commerce are most often initiated for the following reasons:
1. The service to the buyer was not rendered or the product was not delivered
How to avoid
In good time (well before payment) you should provide your buyer with as much information as possible on the delivery time for the good or the service and take all necessary measures for the time to be observed. If for some reason in the process of order fulfillment a delay takes place, online merchant should immediately inform the buyer about it and should agree on the new delivery time. Alternatively, if possible, the deal should be cancelled and the money returned.
How to dispute
By providing the acquirer with a document confirming the fact of the service or the product being received by the buyer, or the fact of the funds return.
2. The service rendered or the product delivered do not conform to the specifications stated (such as quality, quantity, size or other specifications stated before payment)
How to avoid
In good time (well before payment) you should provide your buyer with as much information as possible on the qualitative and quantitative specifications of the service or the product. Any changes should be confirmed with the buyer. It is better though not to make any changes. Or, if possible, the deal should be cancelled and the money returned.
How to dispute
By providing the acquirer with documents confirming in detail the fact of the service or the product being received by the buyer in full conformity with specifications stated.
3. Transaction is not recognized by the cardholder
How to avoid
Firstly, the billing descriptor must identify online merchant as accurately as possible. So accurately that the buyer could immediately recall what was paid by the transaction by just looking at it.
Secondly, it is important to inform the buyer in each case of the way the transaction will be identified in the buyer’s card statement. The information should be provided before the buyer makes payment. And this information must be present in the electronic receipt shown to the buyer after a successful sale, and also sent to him of her to the email address.
Thirdly, a merchant should use transaction verification procedure by 3-D Secure technology. Implementation of the procedure will protect online merchant from chargeback in 99.9% of cases if the cardholder cannot recognize the transaction or claims that the transaction was performed without his or her permission (please read more on this matter below).
How to dispute
By providing the acquirer with the bill paid by the buyer, the buyer’s residence address verification results (if such took place), CVV2 verification results and confirmation of delivery of the product or the service signed by the buyer.
4. Transaction was processed without the cardholder permission. Fraud transaction
How to avoid
Firstly, you should use all anti-fraud tools available. Each transaction should be carefully checked for fraud. Measures ensuring that the transaction was submitted by actual cardholder should be taken.
Secondly, transaction verification procedure by means of 3-D Secure technology should be implemented.
How to dispute
By providing the acquirer with the bill paid by the buyer identifying the billing and shipping address, residence address verification results (if such took place), CVV2 verification results and confirmation of delivery of the product or the service signed by the buyer.
5. Funds return was not provided
Chargeback with such a reason is initiated if the deal was cancelled but the money was not returned to the buyer.
How to avoid
The buyer’s money must always be returned upon a deal cancellation if the relevant agreement was reached.
How to dispute
By providing the acquirer with the documents confirming the return of funds on the cancelled transaction.
6. Cancellation of recurrent payment
Chargeback with such a reason is initiated if the transaction is a recurring payment (such as monthly subscription) not authorized by the cardholder.
How to avoid
Firstly, in good time (before payment) the buyer must be informed of the terms and periodicity of recurring payments as well as of the terms of their cancellation.
Secondly, well in advance (several days) before each upcoming recurring payment the buyer must be informed that the buyer’s card will be debited for the next recurring payment. At the same time the buyer must be offered a possibility to cancel the upcoming and all subsequent recurring payments if he or she is no more interested in receiving the services rendered.
How to dispute
By providing the acquirer with the documents disproving the cardholder’s claim (e.g., the contract describing the terms of recurring payments cancellation).
In conclusion
It is important to understand that disputing a submitted chargeback does not always end successfully. Some acquirers do not want to bother with disputing procedures preferring to deduct the chargeback costs from the merchant account of online merchant. Thus, it is better to trouble about your own business security using various anti-fraud means, sometimes combining several of them, and, of course, to run the business honestly and responsibly with regard to the buyers.
Various systems of transactions verification and anti-fraud tools will be described in one of my following articles.
May yours be a successful business!
Yours sincerely,
Alexander Mihailovski
Managing Director, Failsafe Payments East Europe
View all news of Failsafe Payments
Posted on July 16, 2012
We are glad to let you know that we added another shopping cart to our processing platform CertoPay – OpenCart!
View all news of Failsafe Payments
Posted on July 11, 2012
It has been almost five years now since our company – Failsafe Payments – started working in e-commerce. Our job is to provide a customer with a possibility to accept payments online. It doesn’t matter whether our customer is selling goods or services. If someone needs to accept payments for something on the Internet, he or she approaches us.
When first applying with us 90% of our customers to the question “Which of our services specifically would you like to get?” would answer “a merchant account” or “a payment gateway”. At the same time in our further conversations we would find out that the majority of them didn’t understand well enough what these things were and for what these things were needed. They just decided to start accepting bank cards on their sites, and someone told them that to do this they needed a merchant account or a payment gateway, or both. They would enter the corresponding word in Google search and would find us. Practice shows that people using search engines to find the information using the key word ‘merchant account’ do not always realize why they need it, if at all. A much more efficient way would be to make a request asking “How to set up online payment processing?” This is the most accurately formulated question anyone desiring to sell something online should ask himself or herself. So, how can you set up online payment processing?
How does it work?
There exists a great variety of payment means. But the first thing that normally comes to mind when we speak of Internet payments is, for sure, bank cards. Whether cards are credit cards or debit cards, whether they are from such international payment systems as Visa, MasterCard or less popular but still widely used Amex, JCB, Diners – it doesn’t matter. They are all united by the common notion of the bank card. And we want to accept them as a payment on our site. What do we need for this?
First of all, let us consider those who participate in the deal the payment for which is performed online by the bank card, what information is entered where, where it is further transmitted, what is received in response and, of course, how money settlements are made.
The first participant we should discuss is, of course, the customer who is also the cardholder. In reality it appears that the customer is not always the cardholder. Fairly often wives or husbands use their spouses’ cards, without the spouses’ knowledge. Sometimes children use their parents’ cards. And at times it can cause problems for the merchant. But we will talk about it a bit later. For now let us imagine the desired type of the customer that is a real cardholder of the card accepted as a payment means by the merchant on his or her site.
So, the customer has entered the merchant’s website, selected some items and decided to pay for the purchase by the bank card. To do this the customer enters the card details on a special website page called the checkout page. Later we will discuss what exactly he or she enters on the checkout page and what is required to make this page compliant.
The data entered by the customer on the checkout page, also known as transaction data, are transmitted to the acquirer via a special secure communication channel. Acquirer is a bank or a company (in most cases it is a bank) responsible for reimbursement of money to the merchant for the card transactions processed on the merchant’s website.
Afterwards the data are transmitted to the closed network of the card company (such as Visa or MasterCard) and are forwarded further to the issuing bank.
Issuing bank, or issuer, is a bank or a company (in most cases it is a bank) issuing a card and servicing monetary funds stored on it. The merchant should understand that it is the issuer that permits or declines transmission of money from the card. Issuer’s response returns in real time mode to the acquirer through the card company network, and the acquirer passes the response to the merchant.
For the merchant the acquirer’s response to the submitted transaction data is considered the transaction result. The merchant informs the customer of the result and, depending on whether it is successful or not, the merchant either proceeds to the fulfillment of obligations or provides a regretful reply that the payment hasn’t been made.
Thus, we have examined the general scheme of bank card payment transmission and processing online. The next question that arises is how it can be implemented in practice on the merchant’s site.
From theory to practice
Merchant account
First of all, the merchant needs a merchant account about which he or she has already definitely heard from someone.
Merchant account is the merchant’s identifier in the acquirer’s system (merchant identifier also called MID). It is a kind of account number accumulating money received by the acquirer from the issuer for the card transactions of the merchant. Signing a contract with the merchant for opening and servicing a merchant account the acquirer commits to reimburse to the merchant the funds for the successful card transactions processed on the merchant’s website. The merchant in return commits to pay a fee for the acquirer’s services. The merchant also undertakes a whole lot of other obligations the essence of which can be reduced to the strict observance of the rules set by the acquirer.
Besides being a merchant’s identifier in the acquirer’s system a merchant account is also the merchant’s identifier in the card company payment system and, most importantly, it serves as identifier for the cardholder. Billing descriptor is an obligatory attribute of the merchant account. It is a text line containing information of the merchant – his or her name, geographic location, contact phone number – and reflected in the card statement as information about the transaction. The information is designed to help cardholder recognize the transaction and recollect where and what was paid with it. The contents of this line are extremely valuable since approximately 50% of all transaction disputes take place because cardholders cannot recall whom they paid and for what; they think that the transaction was made by someone else without their knowledge and permission.
Checkout page
When the merchant receives a merchant account he or she needs certain facilities to accept card data from the customer and to pass them to the acquirer. As mentioned above, checkout page is used to accept card data from the customer. It is a page connection to which is set by means of a special cryptographic protocol SSL (Secure Socket Layer). In other words, data exchange for this page is carried out in encrypted form. It gives a high degree of assurance that the data entered on the checkout page will not be intercepted by any stranger.
The use of protected communication channel is a mandatory requirement for the transmission of card data set by a special security standard for bank card operation called Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Any organization involved in accepting and processing of card transactions is obliged to fulfill the requirement of the standard. We’ll talk about the standard itself and the requirements to the merchant later; now let’s get back to the checkout page.
The page offers a customer to enter information necessary to form a request for the money to be debited from the card. It is usually enough to enter the card number, its expiration date and a special code known as CSC (card security code), or CVV (card verification value), or CVC (card verification code), or CCV (card code verification). The code has other names but they all actually stand for just 3 digits (4 digits for Amex) indicated in most cases on the back side of the card after the main number.
As a rule, these data are sufficient for the acquirer to send a request to the issuing bank and get a response. Still in order to enhance the merchant’s security and protect him or her from fraudulent activity of a dishonest customer it is recommended that additional customer information be requested. Specifically cardholder’s first and last name, cardholder’s address, his or her phone number and email address. Any additional data can be later used by different security systems and for different protection measures aimed at revealing cases of fraud with the use of other persons’ cards without their (actual cardholders') knowledge.
Suppose the customer has entered all the requested data on the merchant’s website checkout page. Now the details must be forwarded to the acquirer for further processing. To do this the merchant needs to set a communication channel linking the site with the acquirer’s server. The acquirer’s server engaged in accepting transactions from merchants and providing responses of the issuers is called a payment gateway. To set a communication channel between the merchant’s website and the gateway is to perform the merchant’s website integration with the acquirer’s payment gateway. The communication channel, as in all other cases of transaction data transmission, must be secure.
As a matter of fact, after getting a merchant account from an acquirer, developing a checkout page and integrating it with the acquirer’s payment gateway the merchant can accept bank card payments on his or her website.
The described 'merchant - acquirer' scheme of bank cards processing online is only one of the possible options of card payment implementation. But very often this scheme in this or that way includes one more link, electronic payments processor.
Electronic payments processor
A payment processor (processing company) is an organization mediating between the merchant and the acquirer.
Oftentimes acquirers for various reasons do not wish to work directly with merchants. Some do not want to employ sizeable staff necessary for servicing a big number of merchants. Others want to reduce costs of developing technical processing facilities and so on. In that case a processing company comes to the aid. It takes upon itself virtually all the matters connected with ensuring card payments processing for the merchant leaving to the acquirer only the question of reimbursement of monetary funds for the processed transactions to the merchant.
First and foremost, processor undertakes to solve the problems of card payments soft/hardware support. As we may also say, processor provides a merchant with a payment gateway.
As a rule, besides payment gateway processor can provide a merchant with other additional related services (sometimes for extra fee, sometimes free of charge) such as a possibility of transactions verifications with respect to fraud committed by the customer, sets of transactions analysis statistic tools, transactions filtration tools depending on the risk level and so on.
Moreover, at the merchant’s request processor can provide a ready-made personalized payment checkout, fully PCI DSS compliant. This dramatically simplifies the procedure of the merchant’s website connecting to bank cards processing and makes further work much easier because the merchant does not have to personally deal with PCI DSS security standard requirements, does not have to develop own checkout page complying with these requirements, doesn’t need to follow possible changes of the standard, etc. Processor does all this for the merchant.
Apart from solving purely technical problems the processor also engages in implementing various organizational procedures crucial for opening a merchant account. These include preliminary assessment of the merchant’s business with respect to acquirer’s requirements compliance, assistance in preparing the documents necessary for opening a merchant account and consulting the merchant in this relation, checking the prepared documents completeness, subsequent support to the merchant.
To emphasize the importance of processor’s work I can only say that a lot of acquirers at the merchants’ direct applications transfer them to the processor they cooperate with.
It is now high time to touch upon one of the most important questions that worry every merchant. What does online bank cards processing cost?
How much does it cost?
The merchant’s expenses for processing of bank cards online comprise the costs for the acquirer and the processor services. Each of these parties charges a fee for its services. And the fee calculation principle for each of them is essentially different.
Processors in most cases charge a fixed fee for each transaction received from the merchant for further processing. The fee level on the average ranges from $0.05 to $0.50 depending on the merchant’s business type, number of transactions sent by the merchant per month and the processor’s greed. Additional services, such as transactions verifications with respect to fraud committed by the customer, provision of transactions analysis statistic tools, etc., from processor to processor may be provided free of charge or for an extra fee. Some processors besides the above mentioned fees can also charge a monthly maintenance fee that does not depend on the number of transactions, if any, sent by the merchant. Such a fee is usually charged once a month or once a year and ranges from $25 to $200.
Acquirers generally charge for their services in the form of percentage of transaction amount. The rate can be either fixed or floating relevant to the merchant’s sales volume for a certain period (commonly per month). In the latter case “the more you sell, the lower your rate” principle is at work. Acquirer’s rate charged for its services usually ranges from 3% to 10% and depends largely on the merchants’ business type, sales volume and even on the place of the merchant’s company registration and the place of the acquirer’s registration (the best locations to register a company and get better terms we will discuss next time).
Besides percentage of each transaction an acquirer charges a fixed fee for each return of funds back to the card. The returns are subdivided into voluntary and forced ones.
A voluntary return is called a refund. It corresponds to the full or partial return of the transaction amount to the card used to make a payment. A refund can be initiated by the merchant, the processor or the acquirer. Refund is used when the deal between the merchant and the customer is cancelled by mutual consent. It happens, for example, when the merchant for some reason cannot fulfill his or her obligations to the customer in part or in full. Or when the customer is not satisfied with the quality of the purchased goods or services and demands the money return. Or when the merchant has reasons to assume that the payment has been carried out not by the cardholder, and the probability of chargeback is high.
Chargeback is a procedure of the forced return of transaction money. For the merchant it differs from a refund in that it is initiated by the customer through the issuer.
Every chargeback is a case of emergency for both the acquirer and the merchant. The thing is that the card companies’ rules have strict limits for the number of chargebacks that may be issued to the merchant per 1 calendar month. If chargeback number reaches permissible level, acquirer can shut down the merchant account disabling the merchant to accept bank card payments. To minimize the number of chargebacks certain procedures, simple but important, exist. Each merchant is recommended to follow them. But we will touch upon this question in one of the upcoming articles.
Despite the fact that each refund is a loss of money, a voluntary return of funds to the customer is still economically more efficient than a chargeback since for each refund acquirer would charge from $0.50 to $1 while for every chargeback the fee would be from $20 to $50. Moreover, in case the number of chargebacks exceeds the limits, the fee will be considerably raised, sometimes up to $75.
To create a security fund for covering potential acquirer’s expenses related to refunds and chargebacks in cases when the merchant doesn’t have sufficient resources acquirer charges 5% to 10% of each transaction amount to make the so-called rolling reserve. The acquirer keeps the money for a certain period of time (usually from 4 to 6 months) after which it is released to the merchant.
It is important to understand that rolling reserve charge and its pay-back is an ongoing process taking place throughout the time of merchant’s work with acquirer. Some merchants make a mistake assuming that after the set period of time all the funds accumulated as a rolling reserve will be returned in a single payment. This is wrong. More simply, 5%-10% of each transaction is constantly held by acquirer for 4-6 months, and only afterwards the amount is paid back to the merchant. In this way, if a merchant for certain reasons stops using acquirer’s services, final settlement will be performed only after 4-6 months after processing of the last successful transaction.
Similar to processor acquirer can set a fixed monthly maintenance fee. In most cases it is not high (up to $200) being the minimum amount acquirer wishes to earn with a single merchant. As a rule it is charged on condition that the merchant does not reach sales volume stated at the time of opening a merchant account.
And, finally, in some cases depending on the business type some card companies establish additional annual registration fees to register merchant accounts. For example, in order to allow processing MasterCard for the business type that MasterCard considers high risk, acquirer asks the merchants to pay from $950 to $1100 a year.
On the whole, the case with fees described above is an introduction aiming at giving beginner a general overview of what merchant’s costs comprise for online bank cards processing. The final price as well as the terms of card payments processing depend significantly on a lot of factors and are usually discussed with each merchant individually.
In our upcoming articles we will look for the answers to the following questions:
- How to protect oneself from chargebacks?
- How to choose the right location of company registration to get the best terms for bank cards processing?
- How to start processing bank cards with minimum time and financial expenditures (IPSP)?
View all news of E-Gold
Posted on July 5, 2012
Contact information for the government nominated, court approved Claims Administrator follows below.
Claims Administrator Name:
Rust Consulting, Inc.
Contact Information:
E-Gold Claims Process Administrator
PO Box 2565
Faribault, MN 55021-9565
Toll Free: 1-888-764-7519
e-gold Claims Process Information Website:
https://www.egoldclaimsprocess.com/
View all news of Failsafe Payments
Posted on July 3, 2012
The most popular payment system in China is now in CertoConnect!
View all news of Safecharge
Posted on June 15, 2012
View all news of Safecharge
Posted on June 6, 2012
See for yourself the SafeCharge presentation on how to safely accept payments in difficult regions such as China and South America, presented to forex brokers last week.
View all news of Safecharge
Posted on June 5, 2012
Have you seen the SafeCharge mobile payments solution? Here is a video introduction that was shown at the forex brokers conference last week…