Eliminate the need for a standalone cash register and credit card terminal by obtaining an all in one device by integrating the credit card terminal right into an electronic cash register.  By simplifying the acceptance of your cash and electronic payments not only will you free up counter space but you will be able to track your cash, check, credit card payments as wells as taxes received.

What you get with the Free Cash Register Program:

 *  72 Flat Keys

*  Multi-application support

*  Drop and load thermal printer

*  Free Programming

*  PCI PED Compliant

*  Large LCD Display

*  Large memory capacity

*  Free replacement along with a lifetime warranty

*  Nationwide technical support

*  Dial Up or Ethernet Connection

*  State of the art Casio heavy duty cash register

For as long as you continue processing your credit card transactions through United Bank Card you will be provided with a replacement Casio cash register if yours breaks or malfunctions, for free of charge! 

To sign up now or for more information please visit the merchant enrollment page at http://www.stradafee.com/application.htm

Have you ever heard of 3D Secure Processing?  What about SSL Credit Card Processing?

3D Secure Processing stands for Three Domain Model processing.  This refers to payments being split up into three different domains:

*  The Issuer Domain – this domain deals with the mechanisms of the card issuer and the cardholder

*  The Acquirer Domain – this domain deals with the merchants.

*  The Interoperability Domain – deals with the functions of the Issuer and Acquirer Domains.

This model is used for secure payment processing systems.  This credit card processing method also helps to better the performance of transactions online.  When using this processing method, customers begin to trust you more, and your business starts to increase.  During this process, when customers make a purchase, the system will be able to tell whether or not the transaction is legitimate or fraudulent. 

The performance of transactions should be impacted in a positive way as to benefit the merchants as well as the customers.  Both VISA and MasterCard have used the 3D Secure Payment Processing Program for branding purposes.  With VISA, it is called “Verified by VISA,” the brand for MasterCard is, “SecureCode”.

For both. the branding of VISA and MasterCard brands, merchants can participate if they wish.  However, if the merchant has a lot of chargeback’s on their account, then their participation is limited. 

This credit card processing program was created to keep credit card transactions flowing and reduce or eliminate the number of fraudulent accounts.

Any merchant website should be branded with an SSL certificate.  When a customer sees this on a merchant’s website, they’ll know that the website is legitimate and their data is secure.  SSL is an acronym for Secure Socket Layer.  SSL lets users on the internet get involved with websites that are deemed secure.  One example of such a website is a bank.  It is imperative that they have this certificate on their website because there is so much sensitive information regarding customer bank accounts. 

The SSL certificate lets people know that the data that goes between the web server and a merchant’s browser is safe and cannot be leaked out or hacked.  Having an SSL certificate on a merchant’s website can:

*  Get customers from all over the world.

*  Influence customer’s confidence in the merchant’s website.

*  Customers will feel a sense of security knowing that their sensitive information is safe.

*  Customers will have that sense of trust that merchants are looking out for them.

On the other hand, if a website does not have an SSL certificate, there may be some question marks.  Their sensitive credit card information might not be as secure as customers thought.  Hackers may take advantage of the oversight and invade the website.  Customers may decide to go somewhere else because of the breach of security.

It’s very important that merchants keep their customers happy and their credit card processing secure by providing having a SSL certificate.  There’s nothing worse than having a website and the customer’s information has been compromised.  When you go that extra mile to put those measures in place, your customers will thank you for it. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jennifer Loganathan is the President of Sales at Stradafee Limited.  Stradafee is a retail and ecommerce payment processing provider specializing in online merchant account solutions.  Stradafee also offers echeck processing, ATM processing and merchant cash advance options.  Stradafee can help businesses of most industries and sizes. For more information on credit card processing and check processing please visit www.stradafee.com.

Like any business, online commerce has its own obstacles. Though they may present themselves differently than a brick and mortar establishment, many of these challenges are rooted in the same fundamental issues of trust, communication, and convenience. Creating a profitable eCommerce business with a positive reputation depends on your ability to navigate these challenges and provide customers with the best online shopping experience available.

The first thing to realize as an online business owner is that the vast majority of visitors to your site will not trust what they see. Customers are unimpressed with stylish layouts and amazing graphics when it comes down actually spending money. Most people want to see legitimacy. This can be displayed in many ways. Start by including a physical address and phone number, along with several contact emails and company bios. These things can go a long way in establishing legitimacy, but don’t stop there. Partnering up with other valued websites and becoming a member of organizations such as the Better Business Bureau are other proven ways to build trust. Beyond that, you must be good at answering the phones and responding quickly to customer inquiries. Some customers will even call just to see how quickly you respond, looking for comfort in the fact that your business is active and on top of things.

Product presentation is the second most important obstacle to overcome in online business. Unlike in a real world store, customers cannot touch and feel the product under consideration, and for this reason, the level of product showcasing must be very high. Provide several image views, elaborate descriptions, customer reviews, as well as links for other information. Most successful ecommerce sites provide at least five pictures of each product. Descriptions should be unique to your business and as clear as possible. If you or your team is not comfortable writing attractive product descriptions, hiring a writer is well worth the expense.

The last major issue in online business is security. The security of your website determines a customer’s willingness to enter their personal payment information. Part of establishing trust in your security is in having an online merchant account. A credit card merchant account will allow you to accept card payments while keeping shoppers within your website. Moving from your site to a third party processor’s site can be quite unsettling for potential buyers and can also cause a host of other problems. Once a merchant account is in place, making sure your site has adequate encryption will also reassure your customers in the level of informational security employed by your business.

The challenges of online sales are easily overcome with the investment of some time and thought. Without tackling these obstacles, the probability of sales will be very low. Of course, it doesn’t stop there. There are an infinite number of improvements you should continue to make as your business grows and develops. These major obstacles are merely the roadblocks that have a tendency to shut businesses down before they even get started.

About the Author: Jennifer Loganathan is the President and CEO of Stradafee Limited. Stradafee is an electronic payments company as well as an eCommerce and Internet merchant account provider. Merchant accounts make it possible for businesses to provide online credit card processing. For more information on credit card processing visit www.stradafee.com.

With all of the preparation, problem solving, and management involved in having an eCommerce store, there is one precaution that is grossly overlooked which has the potential of creating huge problems. Credit card chargebacks were created to protect cardholders from unauthorized transactions, and they make it possible for customers to refuse payment for goods or services based on the claim that the services were not received or goods were never delivered. Credit card institutions may also approve chargebacks based on damaged items and items that are not what they were claimed to be, even if the items were never returned to the vendor. As a result, a few customers regularly abuse the system in hopes of receiving products for free. Naturally, this greatly impacts those in the business of online sales by suddenly removing funds that are already collected, thus these entities must take care to utilize certain protocol to prevent as many chargebacks as possible.

It is extremely important for an eCommerce website to exercise extreme clarity in regards to shipping information, products, and checkout. It is imperative that the customer is aware of how the charge will appear on their card statement. Some customers mistakenly submit a fraudulent charge claim because they did not recognize the charge. Another way to prevent such confusion is to send automatic follow-up emails reminding customers that their card will be charged. These emails are also an appropriate time to reiterate to the customer that they are welcome to call you with any questions concerning this order. The business telephone number should appear clearly on the website as well as on the actual credit card charge. This allows customers to easily call to verify the charge without having to research what the charge might have been.

Pre-ordered items should not be charged to credit cards in advance. The time in which it takes to receive the item in stock may give the customer time to change their mind or simply claim a false charge on the grounds that no items were shipped. Instead, wait until the item is in stock and ready to be shipped before charging a customer’s credit card.

Getting rid of mistaken charges quickly is also a valuable policy for eCommerce. Not only does this avoid confusion and assure the customer that you will not be keeping the money, but it will also build your reputation as a professional and organized establishment. If a mistaken charge is not quickly voided, the customer is likely to take matters into their own hands by simply requesting a chargeback. If a customer reports a mistaken charge, you must never put off responding. It is imperative that you send an immediate response at least to let the customer know you are looking into the matter and will correct it as soon as possible.

The basic idea of preventing chargebacks is to have professional quality control and customer service policies that deal with the problem before a customer has time to consider disputing the charge with their credit card institution. It is much better to deal with these issues with customers directly, both for your future business and for your credit and legal integrity.

About the Author: Jennifer Loganathan is the President and CEO of Stradafee Limited. Stradafee is an electronic payments company as well as an eCommerce and Internet merchant account provider. Merchant accounts make it possible for businesses to provide online credit card processing. For more information on credit card processing visit www.stradafee.com.

Approximately 85% of online shoppers are concerned with their security, as well they should be. Credit card fraud and identity theft is at an all time high following the explosion credit card transactions made through the Internet. This is why it is extremely important for online retailers and businesses to gain the trust of customers, helping them to believe in the security of your eCommerce system. According to recent research by TNS, 65% of purchases are lost when the customer reaches the check-out area. This is largely due to doubt in the security of the credit card form, which can be avoided by making sure your website displays proper security measures.

Many eCommerce savvy shoppers have learned to look for certain signs of security before entering their credit card information. Some of the most typical security signs are “https” and the padlock graphic found in the URL of the website. The padlock graphic is a VeriSign Secured Seal, one of many companies providing secure transaction online. Almost four out of five Americans recognize the VeriSign Secured Seal, making it an extremely effective security mark. Newer browsers make it possible for authenticated certificates to be detected, displaying the address bar in green. However, most people do not have this feature to help them along and are looking for other signs.

Most reputable companies providing online transaction security utilize SSL technology. SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, is a military grade encryption that protects customer credit card information as it is transferred on the Internet. This type of information encryption authenticates identity information in association with the credit card data by an authority, verifying the identity of the owner of that certificate. Thought SSL is not a required element for shopping cart security, it certainly shows your commitment to the level of security customers will experience.

The use of these online security measures not only provides protection, it also helps to demonstrate the authenticity of your business. Some customers may still be wary to enter their credit card information online, but the demonstration of such security measure may help them in deciding to make a transaction over the phone, or perhaps contact you for further information. Online retailers see an increase in sales on an average of ten percent after installing some form of security system on the payment pages of their website. This should be a sign to retailers that customers are really looking for ways to make sure their credit card information is safe. Earn the trust of online shoppers by providing the professional security people want.

About the author

Jennifer Loganathan is the President and CEO of Stradafee Limited an international merchant service provider. Stradafee is a retail and an electronic payments company specializing in global eCommerce and Internet merchant accounts. Merchant accounts make it possible for businesses to provide credit card processing for card present and card-not-present transactions. For more information on credit card processing visit http://www.stradafee.com

Stradafee.com is pleased to service travel companies for their credit card processing needs.

Stradafee.com Travel Merchant Accounts

Stradafee.com expands its travel merchant account portfolio at record growing rates! Whether you are taking travel reservations over the phone, online or in person, stradafee.com can help!

Travel is considered controversial and high risk by most processing banks. Stradafee.com specializes in high risk merchant accounts. At stradafee.com, we understand how important it is for your business to accept credit cards! That is why we have developed multiple payment solutions for the travel industry!

Stradafee.com has banks in the US and offshore that will provide our travel clients with a merchant account for their credit card processing needs.

What to expect with stradafee.com for your new travel merchant account =

• Credit Card & Debit Card Acceptance – Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, JCB, Switch, Solo
• Fraud Protection – Our payment processing gateways have state-of-the-art fraud protection.
• Funding = Daily – Weekly funding schedules
• MOTO, Retail & Online Credit Card Processing – Process credit cards face to face through a card swipe terminal, over the phone via our free virtual terminal or through our payment processing gateway.
• Multi-Currency Processing – Allow your customers to pay in their local currency.
• Real-time Processing /Online Reporting – Our travel merchant accounts have real-time processing. You can view and download reports right from your admin.
• Uncapped Merchant Account (No Sales Volume Restrictions) – Grow your business without worrying about merchant account caps.
• Virtual Terminal & Payment Gateways – Submit phone orders online via the virtual terminal or use the payment gateway for your e-commerce orders.
• 24/7 Technical Support – 24 / 7 technical support.

Stradafee.com is the one-stop solution that aims to provide the travel industry a chance to maintain and grow their business.

Before a merchant or acquirer ponders PCI compliance, it is important to understand which entities PCI compliance applies to. While it is very likely that for each merchant or acquirer, PCI compliance will be mandatory, it is important to remember that it is only required if you are receiving, storing or processing the Primary Account Number (PAN) or the main credit card number of the customer, which is usually no longer than 19 and no less than 16 digits in length. In addition, a merchant or acquirer must remember that if a PAN is being stored or processed, the other information such as CVV/CVC and card holder information must be protected as well.

For a merchant to become PCI compliant, the merchant has to assess the merchant level relevant for the PCI guidelines, as each different merchant level will have different requirements. In addition, both VISA and MasterCard have certain PCI guidelines in addition to the PCI DSS standard, which need to be adhered to. Discover and American Express follow the PCI DSS standard in addition to a ‘good practices’ handbook, while there are no specific additional requirements. However, in general, the process will begin with the merchant or service provider assessing the validation level, as each different level will involve different audit, questionnaire and network scan requirements.

It would seem obvious that Level 1 merchants occupy the bulge bracket of hacker activity, but it’s actually Level 4, since there merchants tend to be smaller and occupy around 99% of the total market share of credit card transactions, as per estimates by VISA. These merchants tend to be more prone to hacker attacks primarily because they are small and usually do not possess the high end technical infrastructure as mandated by the PCI DSS. To that end, VISA requires that all Level 4 merchants submit a PCI compliance plan. In addition, the level 4 merchant must ensure that in case they are using a point of sale terminal, the terminal must be compatible with PABP and PIN requirements.

Validation levels apply to service providers as well. Service provider levels are categorized differently by MasterCard and Visa, though the emphasis in both cases is on the volume of transactions. For instance, for a Level 2 service provider, VISA prescribes the number of transactions transmitted as more than 100,000 annually, PLUS those who are not in Level 1. MasterCard simply prescribes that Service Providers who transmit on behalf of Level 1 merchants are Level 1 service providers.

The merchant or service provider must build an infrastructure in terms of firewalls, access control systems and data encryption that comply with the PCI DSS. The 1.1 standard issues the following directives for merchants to ensure that they are in compliance with the PCI standards[1]:

1. Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect cardholder data.
2. Do not use vendor supplied defaults of system passwords and other security parameters
3. Protect stored cardholder data
4. Encrypt transmission of cardholder data across open, public networks.
5. Use and regularly update anti-virus software or programs
6. Develop and maintain secure systems and applications
7. Restrict access to cardholder data by business need-to-know.
8. Assign a unique ID to each person with computer access
9. Restrict physical access to cardholder data
10. Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data
11. Regularly test security systems and processes
12. Maintain a policy that addresses information security for employees and contractors.

Once the technical infrastructure is in place, the merchant or service provider must locate an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV), who will conduct a network scan to ensure that the safety requirements highlighted above are actually functional and not just placeholders in the self-assessment questionnaire required for Level 2, 3 and 4 merchants and service providers. The purpose of the scan is to locate vulnerabilities in the system that can lead to data breaches and diagnose & recommend measures to fix these problems. The ASV submits a report to the PCI highlighting the potential security holes and the level of vulnerability from 1-5 (but this time, a Level 5 is the highest point of vulnerability). In case of a level 1 merchant, an on site assessment is also mandated by the PCI, to be conducted by a Qualified Security Assessors (QSAs).

Finally, a self-assessment questionnaire on a prescribed format needs to be submitted to the acquiring bank by the processor &/or merchant service provider, which acts as a checklist to ensure that the 12 requirements outlined above have been addressed and met. Some experts believe that PCI compliance has less to do with network and information security, than it has to do with compliance. For one thing, a merchant only needs to be 100% compliant at the time of the review- this loophole can make a merchant lax throughout the year, and only fix up the security holes during the time of the review or audit. That won’t solve any security crises, only make them worse.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jennifer Loganathan is the President and CEO of Stradafee Limited. Stradafee is a leading international payments company based in New York. Stradafee is a retail and ecommerce payment processing provider specializing in international and domestic merchant account solutions. Stradafee also offers check processing, high risk merchant accounts, offshore merchant account, and high volume merchant account options. Stradafee can help businesses of all industries and sizes. For more information on credit card processing and check processing please visit www.stradafee.com.

Choosing the right type of merchant account is very important when you sign up for a merchant account. There are usually different restrictions and requirements based on how much business you plan to do each month. Obviously it’s hard to know for sure how much business you will have each month but making an educated guess and choosing the right kind of account can save you a lot of money in fees later on.

If you know that you will be doing high volumes of sales every month you should look into getting an uncapped merchant account. If you have an uncapped merchant account you are probably pay higher processing fees but you can save on other types of fees. Most merchant accounts are capped at a certain amount because after that amount, the accounts are then considered to have a high risk of chargebacks. If you go over the cap you might pay penalties in addition to higher fees, or you might not be able to process anymore payments that month depending on the restrictions set up by the company that you have an account with.

But if you sign up for an uncapped merchant account then you don’t have to worry because you won’t have to pay any over the cap fees or penalties, and all your transactions will be processed no matter how many there are during the month. Paying a higher processing fee per month or per transaction is a small cost compared to the cost of the business that you could lose sticking with a capped merchant account.

Not all merchant service companies offer uncapped merchant accounts but the ones that do usually provide you with an international merchant account and have a high acceptance rate so even if you don’t have great credit or if you’re in a business that usually has trouble being accepted for a merchant account you shouldn’t find it too difficult to get approved for an uncapped merchant account. Uncapped merchant accounts can also be very useful for ecommerce website that handles mostly transactions from other countries. See if the provider offers multi-currency processing, so you will be able to offer your customers the opportunity to purchase in their local currency.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jennifer Loganathan is the President and CEO of Stradafee Limited. Stradafee is a leading international payments company based in New York. Stradafee is a retail and ecommerce payment processing provider specializing in international and domestic merchant account solutions. Stradafee also offers check processing, high risk merchant accounts, offshore merchant account, and high volume merchant account options. Stradafee can help businesses of all industries and sizes. For more information on credit card processing and check processing please visit www.stradafee.com.

Once you have set up an ecommerce website you will need to market it. Marketing your ecommerce website is critically important to making your site successful. After all, no one can buy your products if they don’t know your website exists. And because there are millions of ecommerce sites it’s easy for websites to get overlooked online. Here are some tips for marketing your new ecommerce website:

Use search engine optimization – Experts agree that the best way to get your website noticed is to get listed as high as possible on the search engine results pages. And the best way to get listed on the search engine results pages is to search engine optimize everything on your website. Even the product descriptions that you use on your product pages need to be search engine optimized so that the search engine spiders will find your site faster and give you a high ranking.

Add useful content to your site as well as sales information – If your site is just one big sales pitch people won’t browse through your site and chances are they won’t come back. Add as much useful information as you can to the site to give the buyers some added value and to keep people coming back to the site. Add articles to the site giving people tips on how to use your product, or information about the product, or other information that is useful but also related to the product. This will also help your search engine ranking.

Form link networks with other sites – Getting links to your site from other sites is a great way to get noticed by the search engine spiders. Each link that you get acts like a personal recommendation to view your site and the search engine spiders will find your site faster when other sites link to you. Forming reciprocal link networks with other websites is a smart way to market your ecommerce site.

Use targeted advertising – If you’re going to pay for advertising to get more traffic to your new ecommerce site it’s important that you use a targeted advertising campaign. Find your niche and aggressively market to your niche instead of just doing blanket advertising. One of the benefits of starting an ecommerce site is that the Internet makes it easier for you to zero in on a particular niche so focus all your marketing efforts on that one niche and you’ll be amazed at the results you get.

Jennifer Loganathan is the President and CEO of Stradafee Limited an international merchant service provider. Stradafee is a retail and an electronic payments company specializing in global eCommerce and Internet merchant accounts. Merchant accounts make it possible for businesses to provide credit card processing for card present and card-not-present transactions. For more information on credit card processing visit http://www.stradafee.com

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Do you want to make some extra money selling items online? Or maybe you want to be able to quit your job and work from home full time selling goods on the Internet? It’s easier than you think to get set up to sell good on the Internet. Here are the items that you need to get started selling online:

1. A product – It doesn’t matter if you are reselling an item that you buy from a manufacturer or selling something that you make yourself you can’t get started selling things online without something to sell. Whatever it is that you decide to sell make sure that you know how to get a steady supply of it so that once your sales start taking off you won’t have to disappoint customers by telling them you can’t get that item anymore.

2. A domain name- The domain name that you choose for your online business should end in .com if at all possible and it should be short and easy to remember. You might have to get creative and brainstorm ideas to find a good domain name if the domain name that you want is already taken.

3. A website – Once you have registered a domain name you will need to build a website. If you’re not experienced at HTML coding it’s a good idea to hire a professional to build your website. Since your entire business will be based on this website in the long run it will be more cost effective to hire a professional to build the site properly than it will be to try and build a makeshift site by yourself.

4. A merchant account or payment processor – When you sell goods online you need to be able to accept credit cards and debit cards. Most people that shop online expect to pay with a credit card or debit card. There are lots of different companies that small business merchant accounts and payment processing so take your time choosing a payment processing company to make sure that you get the best possible deal. Usually you will have to pay a percentage of each sale to the processor and you might have to pay a monthly fee as well.

Once you have all of these things you are all set to start selling goods on the Internet. Marketing your website is crucial if you want to be successful selling goods on the Internet so it’s a good idea to learn as much as you can about Internet marketing or hire a company that specializes in Internet marketing to help you market your website

Jennifer Loganathan is the President and CEO of Stradafee Limited an international merchant service provider. Stradafee is a retail and an electronic payments company specializing in global eCommerce and Internet merchant accounts. Merchant accounts make it possible for businesses to provide credit card processing for card present and card-not-present transactions. For more information on credit card processing visit http://www.stradafee.com