| Volume 10, Issue 1 | Payment Processing News from Shift4 Corporation | March 2006 |
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 CREDIT CARD 101Tips on reducing your interchange feesWhen reviewing your monthly merchant statement do you often see additional fees? They usually show up as “mid” or “non” qualified, or “tier 1, 2, or 3”. Sometimes your processor will just pass the verbiage that comes from Visa or MasterCard through to you, i.e. card not present or EIRF and so on (there are 151 categories). No matter what the scenario, you are paying an added fee for these “downgrades”. Here are some basic tips that will help reduce your cost in these areas. 1. Enter all additional information your point-of-sale (POS) device prompts you for, i.e. address, invoice number, room number, sales tax amount, etc. The more information you enter the better qualification you can expect. If you incorporate these practices, and had not before, you will see your extra transaction fees go down. It may also help you to contact the Merchant Services Provider (MSP) who you signed your merchant agreement with and ask for a rate review. A lot of times you can reduce your rates just by asking. |
AMERICAN EXPRESS CAPN Many of our merchants who accept American Express transactions have received a letter from American Express about their new Card Acceptance and Processing Network (CAPN) specifications. Basically, what the letter addresses is that American Express is in the process of altering their authorization and settlement specifications. The letter states that if a system is not compliant with the CAPN specifications by October 31 st of 2006 than there will be an out-of-compliance fee of 25 cents added per transaction. Several of you have contacted us about the letter to see what it is you need to do to comply. The answer is simple, nothing. There are no merchant changes, no re-certification and no changes to your POS/PMS required. Shift4 has already engaged American Express regarding the required improvements and is currently testing the system for verification. The entire process should be completed by the end of March. SETTLE DOWNJust like credit cards, gift cards must be settled before funds can be moved. Gift cards should be included in your settlement automatically, unless you've set up a separate Merchant ID (MID) for gift cards. If the gift cards are under a different MID, you will want to be sure to settle the transactions for this MID on a daily basis. Remember, your gift card authorizations can expire after 3-10 days. If you don't settle the transactions within that timeframe the funds will be released and your gift card holder will be able to use them again. ENSURING YOUR SECURITYAs some of you may know, your legacy MICROS systems are not fully compliant with the card associations' regulations. Instead of investing a vast amount of time, money and resources to replace these systems, Shift4 has released secure versions of the MICROS 3700 and 8700 point-of-sale payment drivers that are compliant with the Payment Applications Best Practices (PABP). You not only receive the most secure MICROS system, but one that comes with additional functionality, including integrated gift card, PIN debit, signature capture, customer initiated tip and dynamic currency conversion capabilities. There is no new hardware required, except perhaps a network card, and there is no need to retrain staff, recreate menus or back-end reports. Shift4 is proud to deliver new, innovative solutions for our customers in this ever-changing payment processing industry. For more information on these new certified MICROS drivers, please contact Installations at (702) 597-2480, Option 4. |
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reduce the number of transactions you have to hand key and in turn reduce your surcharges. This can be done by simply wrapping a dollar bill around a credit card and running it through your card swipe machine.
5. Audit your transactions before settlement to minimize month-end reconciliations and avoid costly credits and downgrades. $ $ $ ON THE NET's audit before settlement feature prompts merchants to validate transaction amounts so errors are detected before payment processing fees are charged.