How to Secure Your Payment Processing?

Payment Processing: Nowadays, there are a lot of e-commerce and m-commerce transactions; opening doors for cybercriminals. As a merchant, you need to confirm that you provide the best payment security and that your customers don’t have to worry about their data. Customers usually cannot select their own payment gateway, so it’s up to you to make the best and perfect choice for them.

Credit card payments are still the most ordinary type of payments, but woefully with the growing number of online payments, scammers are also growing. Data thieves have a huge amount of command on how new technologies work, so they are always looking for the unprotected points of payment processing.

There are a lot of ways to secure your data and prevent it from being stolen. Given below are some of the ways:

SSL PROTOCOL

Each and every transaction should be secured with SSL protocol. SSL helps to encrypt the information so that the card details and all other sensitive and important data is secured. It, of course, improves payment security but also makes customers more eager to for the purchase.

A padlock icon in the URL bar symbolizes the SSL, and the web address starts with https.

ADDRESS VERIFICATION SERVICE

You can also use an Address Verification Service, which requires customers to give the billing address connected with their credit card. If the address on the card matches with the one in bank’s documents, the transaction will go through. Many companies have a problem of controlling the location and storage of their payment data, but almost 42% of the companies claim that payment data is at serious risk when it is stored. A Global Study on the State of Payment Data Security shows that over 50% of organizations had a breach involving payment data within the past three years.

3D SECURE

3D Secure gives extra security to transactions and comes with so many benefits. 3D Secure creates a secure password for the merchant’s credit card. Each and every transaction is then verified with a password, which adds an additional layer of the security. It can decrease the number of fraudulent transactions and boost your earnings.

We, at Merchant Stronghold, will help you secure your payment processing in order for you to provide the best payment security for your customers.

What is PCI Compliance & How does work?

Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance refers to the technical and optional standards that businesses must follow to ensure that credit card data provided by the cardholders is secure.

The compliance is enforced by the PCI Standards that set the guidelines. Furthermore, it needs to be enforced by all the merchants and businesses irrespective of their turnover or growth and the number of credit card/debit card transactions they are dealing with. They have to follow the guidelines of PCI compliance to secure the sensitive information of their customers. This reduces the likelihood of theft of financial and personal data.

HOW DOES PCI COMPLIANCE WORK?

PCI DSS keeps itself updated with new norms to keep new threats at bay. Its guidelines are implemented in both, the administration and technological part of the merchant business. Hence, you will have to keep your website updated regularly and make sure the payment deals are in accordance with PCI compliance. This will prevent data theft and ensure the smooth running of your business. This is the major importance of PCI Compliance.

The companies or merchants are divided on the basis of a number of credit/debit card transactions, which they have to deal with periodically. On this basis, merchants are divided into 4 different levels. Level 1 is for the merchants who process the highest number of transactions every year. Whereas, Level 4 is for the merchants with the least number of credit/debit or bank transactions.

The eCommerce merchants who are accepting, processing, storing or transmitting credit card information have to be PCI compliant. This is for the safety and security of their customers and theirs’ too. Also, by becoming PCI compliant they undergo PCI audit procedures to meet the requirements of the latest PCI guidelines.

While conducting the business, it’s the duty of a merchant to keep the data safe of both the customer and the business itself. With PCI Compliance they get this service. However, there is always some risk for which you would need an expert to guide you.

High Risk Payment Gateway for Collections Account

High-risk Merchant/business

You might think that why your business is categorized as high-risk even while you are following the right track. The reason is the target audience and the niche of your business. Some of the high-risk industries are:

• A website dealing with digital content and steaming
• E-commerce stores
• Travel and transport companies
• Adult and dating websites
• Companies dealing with multi-level marketing and direct sales
• Loan and financial businesses
• Crypto-currency
• Companies providing supplements
• Fast-growing companies
• Companies selling custom-made products

Other reasons for being a high-risk business can be an excessive number of chargebacks. Also, bad credit record, selling goods with high value, products open to the risk of fraud or a subscription-based business. These are the factors that make it difficult for you to get a merchant account and especially to be able to accept online payments from debit or credit card, with a merchant service provider. So, without a merchant account, you will stand nowhere and will lose to the competitors.

Setup a Collection Account

Setting up a merchant account to handle high-risk has become easier with time and is a straightforward procedure. Therefore, It can be free of cost if you are using a good company. To open the account, you must file an application form and submit the paperwork. If you are new in the industry and have a strong business model and well capitalized, as a result, you don’t have to struggle a lot to find the right merchant account provider for your business.

Things that Work Against Collection Account

Quantity of chargebacks

Crossing out installment or not paying them on time.

Here at Merchant Stronghold, we provide a quality payment gateway for your high-risk business to reduce the expenses of processing credit card payment and in return maximizing the profit.

Fatal Payment Mistakes That Are Killing Your Conversion Rates

Online Payment Mistakes

NOT ASSURING THE SAFETY OF THE CUSTOMER’S INFORMATION

While making the online purchase, a customer has to enter a great number of personal information to your website. Not to forget the debit/credit card or internet banking details to make an online payment. If you are not providing proper security then there is a high possibility that the customers will not make the purchase.

So, it is always advised to all the merchants to offer proper security and privacy information to the website for the security of the product as well as the customer.

FORCING THE CUSTOMER TO CREATE AN ACCOUNT BEFORE MAKING PAYMENT

Every merchant needs a customer database for business but forcing the customer to create an account every time he/she visits your website can be bad for business.

Furthermore, asking too much data while signing up can also force the customer to abandon the website.

But we also understand that account creation is important, and therefore to avoid such issues, you can try these tips:

Instead of asking to create an account, offer services like Sign In with Google or Facebook or any other social media account.

Furthermore, you can ask for address details and other personal information at the time of payment. Do not ask unimportant details.

Also, ask the customer to save his personal information to avoid entering them again and again. Make sure you assure the safety of this information.

Other than that, you can also provide FAQ’s and customer service option to answer the query of the customer.

NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT SERVICE

Offering customer support has become as important as providing a privacy policy.

Providing customer support gives customers a trust factor that makes them feel appreciated hence making them a loyal customer. Along with that, the customer also believes you are a genuine service provider.

Now if you are a small firm and unable to offer 24/7 support then you can try adding FAQ section. Other than that, you can also offer email support or chat support service to the customer.

REDIRECTING TO A DIFFERENT WEBSITE TO MAKE THE PAYMENT

CHECKOUT PROCESS IS CONFUSING AND DISTRACTING

LACK OF PAYMENT OPTIONS

If you are still confused and do not know how to resolve the Online Payment Mistakes that kill Conversion, just get in touch with Merchant Stronghold by placing a call at the toll-free number i.e. +1 (888) 622 – 6875. You can also reach us by visiting www.merchantstronghold.com or try our email support service.

Open A Tech Support Merchant Account In USA

Why do you need a payment gateway and merchant account?

If you want to have a high class, compliant tech support company you need to do all you can in order to streamline your financials. Not all support companies out there tend to deliver the utmost value which is why it can be nothing short of frustrating when a merchant problem appears and your business can’t get paid. Plus, many companies use only specific payment processors which make it even harder to get paid.

Thankfully, Merchant Stronghold will help you deal with all of that in a very professional manner. No matter if you deal with companies from another state or high-risk businesses in your own country, we are here to assist and we will offer you the best financial solutions on the market.

On top of that, the payment gateway and merchant account offered by us is designed to be very reliable, professional and suitable for any company out there. We understand how hard it is for you to obtain a very good approach and with our help, you can reach those results very fast. Merchant Stronghold can also provide APIs to integrate your Tech Support Gateway with your website to accept payments online, we also pre-integrated website with a payment gateway to run your business online and accept payments only anytime & anywhere.

We also work very hard to ensure that you can easily get a merchant account in the US. Even if you are from a foreign country you will have no problem accessing the outcome you want. Plus, Merchant Stronghold is free to offer you the best electronic payment solutions, payroll and business accounting as well as stellar financial processing for your tech support business. We can handle the challenging stuff for you so you never have to do that on your own. That’s where you get the utmost value and the outcome will be very well worth it in the end.

Downtime in a Payment Gateway and Backup Options

Payment Gateway Outages: The customer becomes very insecure when it comes to the payment and methods of payment he uses. Whenever there is an error message or delay in payment, the chances of the customer staying on the website becomes little.

The various merchants use different types of backups for downtime errors whenever the customer is trying to make a payment. Nowadays, technology has advanced and made payment system much easier and convenient, however, it is still important to avoid errors.

What an outage can do?

• An outage can lose your payment.
• An outage can lose your rating and productivity.
• An outage can lose your customer.
• An outage can reduce your company’s credibility.

The usage of the Internet and electronic payment, net-banking, etc. is very much trusted nowadays. Naturally, the payment gateway, which you have provided to the customer for processing the payment, may experience a technical glitch. But when there is a problem there is a way.

SOME SOLUTIONS ARE:

Increase reconciliation: Increase accounting and reconciliation so that when the outage occurs, you can provide your customers with the correct status.

Infrastructure: you can enhance the infrastructure and hardware resources of the tool.

Safe fallback option: Provide different types of payment method options such as Credit cards, ACH EFT, etc. to your customers so that they do not doubt you.

Yet speaking for all these issues and their respective solutions, we still face unintended problems somewhere or the other. Even if all would be good there could still be an issue from the customer’s end. The problems are unending but it is just a matter of customer handling and acquisition. One can just be the best in the business with ethical practices and by adopting a healthy way to handle the business.

Domestic US based Credit Card Processing for Cannabis Oil Companies

How To Get A CBD Merchant Account

You don’t have to deal with the frustration that most CBD merchants experience during the process of endlessly searching for a payment processor. No more turning away customers who want to purchase CBD products with debit and credit cards. Because, the simple fact of the matter is, CBD and hemp based businesses deserve as fair of a chance to have access to the same merchant services as other industries.

We recognize the need for people in the industry to have CBD payment processing solutions that work for both them and their customers. With a merchant account, previously only available to traditional, low-risk businesses, your CBD business can get the credit card processing options you really need.

Obtaining a legitimate, fully featured CBD merchant account has the potential to greatly boost your business, and help you see the full potential that CBD payment processing can offer you. Many processors will turn you down and chances are, you may have tried with other merchant service providers before finding us.

We have helped countless businesses like yours with getting merchant accounts and providing their customers with a solution to pay via debit or credit cards for cannabis products. Yes, the industry has a higher processing risk, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have access to merchant services that have been available to other merchants for years and make sales to customers who wish to pay with something other than cash.

Merchant Stronghold will work with you on opening a CBD high-risk merchant account and keeping your account alive.