Best Business Practices  

Below are some practices to be aware of in regards to the general acceptance of credit card payments.

q       Swipe cards whenever possible.  The magnetic-stripe of a credit card contains valuable cardholder information that is used at the point of sale to verify that the card is not counterfeit.  When a transaction is manually keyed, rather than swiped through a magnetic-stripe reader, your exposure to fraud and counterfeit cards greatly increases.  Additionally, this can lead to an increase in your merchant interchange discount rate.  If the card does not register through the magnetic-stripe reader, you must obtain an imprint of the card, along with the cardholder’s signature and proper authorization.

q       Avoid merchant fraud.  Any merchant depositing third-party (another merchant’s) MasterCard or Visa sales drafts is in violation of their merchant contract, as well as Visa and MasterCard rules and regulations, and will be held responsible for all financial losses.  Persons involved in this scheme can lose the privilege of accepting bankcard transactions.

q       Make the authorization complete.  You should not return a credit card to a customer until authorization and signature verification is complete.  An approval code on any sale means that the sale amount was available on the card at the time authorization was received.

q       Do not issue cash advances to yourself or any third party.  Inappropriate issuance of cash advances is a direct violation of your bankcard merchant agreement and can lead to possible suspension of card processing privileges.

q       Correctly handle returns.  Any sale or loss with a Visa or MasterCard that results in a refund to the cardholder must be completed by issuing a credit to the customer’s account, not cash.  You should not process a credit without having completed a previous purchase transaction on the same card account.

Card Verification

Examine each credit card closely to make sure it is valid.  The following tips can help you determine if a credit card is valid.

q       Visa and MasterCard credit cards should bear a hologram on the front of the card.

q       The card should not be physically altered in any way.

q       The signature on the card must match the signature on the sales draft.

q       The card’s embossed characters should be the same size, height, style, and alignment.  Watch for cards with numbers or letters that look uneven, colors that are off hue, corners which are unusually rough or square, or logos and graphics which appear fuzzy and uneven.  Verify that the embossing is clear and straight.

q       Check the “valid from” and “good through” dates.  Never accept a card being used before or after these dates.

Voice Authorization Procedures

If the terminal displays CALL VOICE OPER when you are attempting to secure an approval, you must contact the Automated Voice Authorization Center.  The authorization center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  The automated system will prompt you for the following information:

q       Your specific merchant number/id

q       Customer’s credit card account number

q       Credit card expiration date

q       Total amount of the sale.

If an approval is received, the operator will give you an authorization number.  Record this number and enter it in your terminal when performing a force transaction.  If the transaction is manually keyed into the terminal, you must physically imprint the credit card and complete the imprinted sales draft.  This will prove the card was present at the time of the sale, and protect you from a possible chargeback for “missing imprint.”

If an approval is not granted, the card should not be accepted as a form of payment.  Request another form of payment from the customer.

For questions regarding the reason for a DECLINE response, refer the customer to their card-issuing bank.

A PICK UP CARD or HOLD response is issued when a merchant attempts to process a card that has been flagged by the card issuer as lost, stolen, or restricted. In the event that this response is displayed, contact the voice authorization center for further instructions.

Use the following toll-free numbers to obtain voice approvals.

Visa        1-800-321-4009

MasterCard           1-800-321-4009

American Express                1-800-528-2121

Discover                1-800-347-1111

Diners    1-800-321-4009