Fraud prevention should be a priority for all merchants. Putting into place preventive measures like using AVS can help merchants retain hard-earned revenue and prevent fees cause by customer disputes. Address Verification Services or AVS is a commonly used fraud prevention tool that matches the billing address of the purchaser against the address that the card issuer has on file. Its purpose is to ensure that the person making a purchase with the credit card is … Read More
How Real-time Resolution Helps Digital Subscription Merchants
Digital subscription billing models are amazing. This model allows merchants to have continual transactions without putting the customer through any friction or a checkout process. Everything about that model seems wonderful—until the chargebacks hit. The same frictionless checkout that makes these business model tick is susceptible to customer disputes. But digital merchants can curb losses and stay a step ahead of disputes with Real-time Resolution. We will go over some of the challenges digital subscription merchants … Read More
Using Delivery Confirmation as Compelling Evidence
Merchants need to be prepared for possible disputes with a detailed and effective prevention and response strategy. With the many different types of disputes merchants can experience, this isn’t always the easiest thing to do. Some strategies, however, are relatively easy to implement. Delivery confirmation is one of them. A common type of dispute merchants receive is when a customer claims a product was not received. That’s where delivery confirmation can be extremely helpful for merchants … Read More
Difference Between ‘Acquiring Bank’ and ‘Issuing Bank’
Acquiring and issuing banks are some of the necessary parties that make payments happen. It is important for merchants to understand what these parties do, how they connect in the payments process, and what their roles are in the dispute process. Without further ado: An acquiring bank (the merchant’s bank) is a financial institution that initiates and maintains contractual agreements with merchants for accepting and processing credit card transactions. The acquiring bank is also referred to … Read More
What is Return Fraud?
Merchants are very familiar with returns. In 2017, total merchandise returns accounted for more than $351 billion in lost sales for US retailers. With the rise of ecommerce, the amount of returns has not lessened for merchants. Just creating an effective process for handling returns and the logistics that come with it can be overwhelming for merchants. While creating the return process, merchants should also be keeping in mind the balance of easy returns for customers … Read More
What is the Visa Chargeback Monitoring Program?
The Visa Chargeback Monitoring Program is Visa’s way of monitoring merchants that receive excessive amounts of fraud or disputes. But this isn’t a program merchants want to be enrolled in. In this post, we will go over Visa’s two monitoring programs, how merchant’s get put on those programs, and how you can monitor your disputes. Visa monitors all merchant disputes activity. On a monthly basis, if any merchant has excessive disputes Visa will notify the acquirer. … Read More
Evidence Gathering Strategies for Physical Subscriptions
If you’re a merchant that sells physical goods on subscription billing model, this blog post is for you. We will go through some of the specific evidence required by the card networks for subscription physical good disputes and where to find it. Depending on the card network, reason code, and transaction modifier, the evidence needed in a dispute response will change. For recurring billing disputes, there is specific evidence that is required by the card network. … Read More
The Free Trial Crack Down
Mastercard announced new rules for merchants that offer free trials; requiring merchants to gain the cardholder’s approval to continue charging them for the service. The goal is to prevent any unwanted charges on the cardholder’s account. Mastercard explained in their press release the reason for the change: “At Mastercard, we want every commerce engagement to be simple, safe and secure and we are introducing rules for merchants that offer free-trials to make this a hassle-free experience … Read More
Using Authorization Holds to Prevent Disputes
Using authorization holds is a common practice used by gas stations, car rental services, and hotels. There is a good reason for this. Merchants who use this practice effectively can prevent disputes, fraud, and refunds. Authorizations are part of the payment process that the customer never sees. When a customer enters in their card number online or uses it at a physical terminal, there is a series of parties and actions that take place to approve … Read More
Merchant Credit Card Fraud Prevention: Using Card Security Codes
Ecommerce transactions are not as secure as in-person transactions. But in a world where not offering ecommerce options to customers is simply not acceptable, merchants have to be as careful as possible when accepting online payments. One common method of ecommerce fraud prevention that merchants can use is to require the card security code at checkout. The requirement for a security code at an ecommerce checkout is a normal practice for ecommerce merchants. There is a … Read More