by Trisha Echols
So you are starting up a business. And you decided to accept card payments.. This is laudable move and a step in the right direction. After all, almost all business establishments nowadays rely heavily on credit card purchases. It will significantly increase your customer base and at the same time boost up sales. You can’t possibly go wrong with these craze on plastic money.
However, you can’t just accept credit cards because you want to. Let’s illustrate this point. Suppose a new customer walks into your newly opened store, makes a purchase and pays with a credit card. What would you do with it? You have no credit card processing service to begin with, much less a card reader machine for swiping purposes ! In other words, there are crucial steps that you need to complete before you can accept credit cards.
5Here are some of them.
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OPEN UP A MERCHANT ACCOUNT
This is the first step of the many series of things you have to accomplish before you can accept credit cards payments. You can get a merchant account from your local bank. Or, in some cases, from your business federations. In this way, funds from your customers’ credit cards will be deposited to your merchant account.
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GET A CREDIT CARD PROCESSING SERVICE
For those who are new to ecommerce, a credit card processing service allows you to accept credit cards payments. You get this service from credit card processing companies. Sometimes, these companies are known as “ processors.” They act as a third party in the credit card transaction process between you‰ and the card holder. They make sure the customer has enough funds to pay for the credit card transactions, withdraw the amount from the customer’s bank and deposit the money into your account.
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INSTALL CARD READER EQUIPMENT IN YOUR ESTABLISHMENT
When a customer hands you his/ her credit card, you need to swipe it into a machine called card reader or scanner. This device “reads” the information, encrypts it, and then send the data to a processing center. This machine also captures additional card information about the customer.
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LEARN THE NECESSARY PROCEDURE PERTAINING TO CARD PROCESSING
Upon signing a contract with your preferred processor, they will immediately train you or your staff regard the use mechanics of credit card processing. This involves learning how to properly swipe the cards into the machine to get card information, storing card data in your computers, and securing such sensitive records.
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LEARN TO SPOT FRAUDULENT CREDIT CARDS
Don’t be naive and assume that your customers will always present you genuine credit cards. A few of them will try to sneak in fake credit cards. While your credit card processing service protects you, to a certain extent, against fraudulent credit cards, it remains your sole responsibility to spot and detect these fakes. You stand to lose money if you cannot distinguish a genuine credit card from a fraudulent one.
Now, that’s about it. Accomplish these things and you are ready to accept ½ card payments in your online store.
(Trisha Echols currently is a long-time financial consultant with established consultancy offices in Amsterdam, Halifax, Malaysia and other key cities. Her clients belong to the top 500 companies in England and in the United States. Miss Echols serves as business consultant for several credit card processing companies, including www.acceptcardsnow.biz. She does lectures on strategic business practices and also writes for various magazines on business matters.)
