Receipts reveal too much information

Merchants need to make sure their credit card terminals are not making life easy for card thief's. Take a look at a customers receipt is it showing more then the last 5 digits of the cardholders account number? If it is your in violation of the Fair and Accurate Transactioions Act of 2003 or FACTA. Why with FACTA being assed, which prohibits mechants from printing full card numbers on receipts beginning Jan 1, 2008 still appearing on receipts? If you think that you will require the full card number in the event of a chargeback your mistaken. This is what the merchants needs in the event of a chargeback. A expiration date, a transaction ID, the last four digits of the card number and an authorization code, according to VISA nothing else. So if your receipts are showing full account numbers get in touch wih your processor and change that printer quick, or better yet contact Preferred Merchant Services and we will provide a compliant unit to your business.

No more Gift Card Leftovers in Califorinia

On Jan 1 2008, California Senat Bill 250 went into effect. The bill requires merchans to reimburse consumers for the unused remainder of gift cards wit a balance of 10 dollars or less. In SB 250, an unredeemed gift card is any private label gift card purchased after Jan. 1, 1997. The indivdual purchaser, not the retailer, controls if and when the gift card will be redeemed. In California there are no expiration dates on gift cards. Policies regarding unredeemed gift cards vary from state to state. Watch for more states to follow California new law.

lost revenue contracts

I have run across a new type of contract in the Merchant Services industry, it is called a lost revenue contract, and it works like this. When a Merchant signs with a Credit Card Processing Company, the usual agreement in the past was a 36 month auto renew contract with a 295.00 cancel fee. Now I'm starting to see a new penalty in the contract, a lost revenue fee, which works this way if you wish to cancel your contract you will be charged the amount of money which the processor is making from your monthly charges and will charge you that amount times the number of months remaining on your contract. Say the processor makes 50.00 dollars monthly off your account, and you have 12 month remaining on the contract, they would charge you the Merchant 600.00 dollars to cancel. Preferred has no long term contract.
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