As digital technology continues to advance in amazing leaps and bounds, our financial lives become more streamlined and functional every day. Unfortunately, every new technology invites criminals to devise schemes to exploit developing systems. Businesses who accept and process payments through credit and debit cards are prime targets from modern-day fraudsters. Credit card companies will look to hold vendors responsible for illegal transactions that they accept when possible, and every company that accepts card payments should be on constant alert against scams and fraudulent transactions. The best defense against fraud and liab...

Cash only businesses were very common historically for most small retailers. The delay and expense in card processing and lower security than cash transactions long made the cost-benefit analysis cut against accepting cards for many vendors. The advances in card, smartphone, and card processing technology have changed the market considerably in recent years. In order to be competitive, many retailers find that they have to be responsive to their customers’ payment preferences. Many customers today carry little or no cash and expect to be able to present a card for virtually every purchase, no matter how large or small.

The traditi...

We are all familiar with our personal New Year’s resolutions and how beneficial they can be when we can stick to them. Your business can always use some inspiration to improve and you should consider some simple and effective resolutions that are great for a fresh start as the new year begins or at any time. Here are some ideas for things that can provide real improvements for your business.

Streamline Your Overhead and Watch Your Cash Flow Improve

Habits usually form more from routine than from conscious effort. Take the time to carefully analyze your monthly expenses and be sure that your business is not suffering from unnecessar...

The major merchant services company Square recently announced new pricing that is applicable to all customers as of November 1, 2019.

The most important update for companies that have small-ticket transactions on average is the change from a flat 2.75% fee for on-site tapped, dipped, or swiped card transactions to a 2.6% fee plus 10 cents per payment. 

Square has been a very popular merchant service company with many retail businesses because of its flat-rate processing charge. However, businesses with smaller average tickets will see a significant impact on their overall payment processing costs as a result of the pricing change....

Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance is important whether your business consists of a single retail location accepting card payments or maintains multiple storefronts and eCommerce sites.  Any location or web presence where you have a credit card merchant account requires your careful attention to ensure PCI compliance. Every business that accepts credit card payments is expected to be PCI compliant.  Businesses that are not compliant can incur liabilities to card providers or face card company audits. PCI compliance is critical to your company’s reputation and ability to smoothly accept card payments.

What is PCI complianc...

Gift cards have recently become among the most requested and popular gifts for all occasions.  In addition to the traditional rush of gift-giving associated with the holiday season, gift cards have become go-to presents for birthdays, graduations, baby showers, and even weddings.  In addition to providing convenience and enjoyment to gift-givers and recipients, gift cards can also provide outstanding benefits to your business as well.

Gift Cards Build Brand Value and Awareness

Gift cards are an effective way to turn your existing customer base into active recruiters and marketers for your company.  Most of your happy customers...

Online shopping continues to grow in relation to brick and mortar sales, and customers today demand easy to use and safe payment methods when shopping online.  Your eCommerce store is only as strong as its ability to satisfy customer needs regarding easy payment options.  

Your eCommerce Store Must Have a Payment Gateway

Payment gateways are the different methods available for collecting payments from customers who make direct purchases from your eCommerce store website.  Payments are generally collected and managed on your site’s shopping cart page, and your payment gateway refers to the methods of payment that you accep...

Our clients have told us many stories over the years about some of the sales pitches they have been given about credit card processing fees.  Some companies promise rates of 1% and even less. Here’s why those promises are not real and how they can wind up costing you much more than an honest and transparent rate soon after the overblown promises evaporate.  We also want to show you what you can expect in return for a fair and transparent rate that you can depend on.  

Credit Card Processing Fees are Often Presented in Deceptive Ways

If you have shopped for credit card processing services for your brick and mortar ret...

Growth - every businesses goal. Small, Medium or Amazon-sized businesses all strive for continuous (quick) growth.  But, let's face it, it's not so simple. It takes hard work, creative thinking and action. This is a very exciting generation of business - there are hundreds of inspiring and motivating business success stories.  With new technology, endless marketing techniques, innovative scaling strategies, easier ways to diversify your client base - the list goes on.  We've put together 3 ways that could help grow your business fast - some of these options may require some business funding - but don't worry we have that covered...

So many of your have expressed interested in learning more about contactless payments (🎉 - yes, this would be a reason we would use this emoji internally!)

We created a simple guide to give you more information on contactless payments - how they work, how to accept them and critical in-store to-do's.

If you do not have a machine that accepts contactless payments - the first step would be to upgrade to a machine that accepts this payment type. If you have done this already that's a big ☑️off the to-do list already!

See our guide below or download it here.

There are more ways to accept a credit card now more than ever. For such a simple act - take payment, provide goods/services, receive payment in your bank account - there is actually a few layers of complexity to this routine task.

First, we need to consider, do you accept cards in person and/or not in person?

If you are actually seeing the credit card with your own two eyes at the point of sale - you are accepting cards in-person.  Part B to this equation - does the credit card have an EMV chip (or not) and/or does your customer prefer to pay with their phone - where they store their credit card information and/or ApplePay or...

Familiar with Cryptocurrency? This has been buzzing since the great Bitcoin spike (and fall) of 2017. Not familiar - Cryptocurrency is a digital currency built with cryptographic protocols that make transactions extremely secure.  It is a currency that is not controlled by any central authority, in fact, the decentralized way that cryptocurrency works allow everyone in the network to play a critical role in the transition of funds.

As a new(ish), tech-forward form of payment, we have taken a look to see how this currency will transition into the payment processing world.  Simply put - will all businesses eventually acc...

We're grateful we live in a country where we are we have all the freedoms and rights that we do, each and every day. Today we're ESPECIALLY grateful for those courageous men and women who gave their lives to ensure these freedoms—what unimaginable sacrifice! A most heartfelt THANK YOU to those who gave it all, and those who continue to serve. 

When a consumer can purchase a product or a service from a company - they are seeing the final visible end of a much longer road.  There is a process, steps & stages that a product or service must go through in order to be launched out into the world!

It starts with an idea. We generate lots of ideas every day, but finding the RIGHT idea - the most strategic and/or coveted idea is what we are looking to do in the idea generation stage.  Businesses come up with ideas based on a number of different factors: customers, competitors, industry trends, general needs in the market - and many more. The more ideas the better.  Not ever...

We've been talking about EMV for what feels like an eternity now. With a massive year-long effort to get all of our clients' set-up with EMV compliant equipment, we were very successful. Backing it up a bit - in 2015 consumers began receiving their chip cards and these cards set the groundwork for many industry related changes and benefits. Businesses needed to gain the capability to accept these new cards and without a very clear picture and/or a proven track record, the thought of updating their equipment and changing the way they have done business forever wasn't exactly met with a smile. However, we are pleased to be here tod...