What would you do if you were sent an email from your online credit card processor telling you that your account has been suspended or frozen? How are you going to pay the bills in the meantime? It is extremely important for you to familiarize yourself with the terms of your contract with your credit card processor. As long as you comply with their set regulation and guidelines to maintain your account in good standing you should have no problems.
However, if for some reason you were faced with your account being suspended you need to know:
Factors Leading To Account Suspension!
To protect yourself from unnecessary problems and disruption of your daily business you should use another third party credit card provider while you are making enquiries to restore your account. Make regular transfers of your earnings to your bank account and keep up to date records of all transactions.
10 Point Checklist To Prevent Fraudulent Orders
1. Do not use the same bank account to receive your earnings and for your daily essentials such as expenses, bills, shopping, etc. Use a separate bank account to deposit funds from sales and make regular transfers into a separate bank account.
2. Provide full contact details so that customers can contact you direct. Also make sure you return their messages in good time to avoid unnecessary delays and aggravation.
3. Make a clear statement in your terms and order page that customers should use their primary email address and not free email accounts. A high proportion of free throw away email accounts are regularly used to commit fraud.
4. Only allow orders to be shipped to the same address as the billing address registered to the customers credit card. Many cases of fraud use alternative addresses to get hold of goods without the original credit card holders knowledge.
5. Exclude delivery to known high risk countries. You can get this information from your credit card company. Use a pull down menu with a full list of countries eligible for delivery of your goods.
6. Consider setting a minimum spend value to help discourage fraudulent attempts to place orders for small sums repeatedly in the hope of getting goods with stolen cards.
7. Review orders manually to check if repeated orders have been made using the same credit card number.
8. Don't put all your eggs into one basket! Use a minimum of two or more 3rd party companies for orders so that you will always have at least one ongoing payment system to continue to receive and process orders.
9. Refuse shipments to P.O. Boxes. Request the full mailing address before shipping any order.
10. Put a hold on unusually high orders until further verification can be made such as a phone call to the customer.
Other areas to consider are to prevent the incidences of chargebacks.
What Are Chargebacks?
A chargeback is what is when a customer contacts their credit card issuing company directly for a refund of a payment. The credit card issuing company will claim back the full payment on the customer's behalf. For which a fee is charged to your credit card processing company. This cost will also be charged to you and you maybe subject to additional fees according to your provider.
This process can become a very costly affair if you as a merchant are subject to excessively high incidences of chargebacks. In severe circumstances too many chargebacks can cost you your merchant account. In this case your account will be frozen and inactive pending further investigation into all billing disputes.
In the case of fraud where a customers details were compromised you cannot be 100% sure of when or how this may happen until some time after the transaction. By that time you would have already shipped the product to the customer. In these cases you could stand to loose on the initial processing fees as well as the time and cost to ship the goods.
Top Tips
Conduct regular checks on your list of orders at regular intervals and mange your bank account and customer enquiries to the best of your abilities as a reputable merchant. Your continuing good standing as a reputable and trustworthy merchant will help your business as long as you maintain your daily business tasks to the highest standards and afford your customers the highest levels of customer support.
Maintain good bookkeeping of all orders so that you can track orders to verify the dates when an order was placed and any email contacts made to a customer for any disputes received.
This could help in cases where a customer has forgotten placing an order, or does not recognize the billing company name on their statements. You should also make it very clear on your order page and confirmation page as to the billing name that will appear on customer statements to prevent any confusion.
Nancy P Redford shows you how to Take Online Payments for any web site without a costly merchant account. Stay safe on the Internet by getting wise to Online Scams and Shams. Plus get some of the best business tools and resources for your home-based business here at: http://www.miriadz.com
Knowledge Management for beginnersKnowledge Management (KM) can be defined simply... Read More
There are F words in business. We have seen many... Read More
Many surfers already know about Froogle, Google's shopping portal that... Read More
Anyone with an online business, whether for auctions, services, or... Read More
E-commerce offers customers the chance to eliminate many stages in... Read More
Greetings!Friends and relitives ask us all the time " How... Read More
Using the Internet to sell products and services to ever... Read More
The first article of this series discussed page views per... Read More
Some people do not understand the Internet idea of online... Read More
According to NOP World, 48% of all Internet users have... Read More
Building BridgesI have often used the analogy of building a... Read More
Have you ever gone grocery shopping just before a holiday?... Read More
The sad truth is, general Web users would love it... Read More
E-commerce offers customers the chance to eliminate many stages in... Read More
Choosing an online shopping cart is a big decision. Unlike... Read More
Is shopping online becoming popular and safe enough for you... Read More
ClickBank.com can offer you multiple solutions for your e-commerce business.... Read More
So you want to start a business? Good for you.... Read More
The Internet began as a male dominated medium, but those... Read More
Selecting the right emarketplaceAlthough, IT spending has been staying flat... Read More
SSL ("Secured Socket Layer") is a protocol used to... Read More
What is a Stakeholder?Try "define: Stakeholder" in Google and you... Read More
There are lots of ways to advertise for free but... Read More
We all know that accepting credit cards is the key... Read More
Much of my consulting work comprises writing 'Outside Opinion' reports... Read More
To obtain more local customers for your business, consider expanding... Read More
1. You didn't follow up after the first sale. After... Read More
The Internet is the fastest growing source of mail order... Read More
Do you sell something online? Do you have a business... Read More
Business processes are the building blocks of an enterprise. If... Read More
If your business features products or services for sale, undoubtedly... Read More
When it comes to e-commerce, the time-tested cliché is, "Content... Read More
The principle of "permanent establishment" is very important for avoidance... Read More
Three years ago I was doing some work for a... Read More
If only I had known that autoresponders are a necessity... Read More
When most people think of a retirement gift, they think... Read More
You want to succeed at eCommerce? Welcome to a very... Read More
Often the simplest Web stores have the most success. But... Read More
Customers are tough cookies. They're extremely media aware and increasingly... Read More
Once your website has secured an order, you have to... Read More
You're excited. You have a great idea for a profitable... Read More
According to Internet.com, by the year 2008 nearly 30% of... Read More
After building and transferring many e-commerce sites it still amazes... Read More
There are lots of ways to advertise for free but... Read More
I have written at length about the need to anticipate... Read More
Thanks to the ubiquity of the internet, online virtual businesses... Read More
We have to make amendments in existing substantive and procedural... Read More
The Millennium ExperienceA successful project is one that delivers on-spec... Read More
The birth of the Internet and the mass availability of... Read More
An internet business is by far the best way to... Read More
Being able to accept credit cards and other online payments... Read More
The European market is a multi-billion $ sector which you... Read More
Much of my consulting work comprises writing 'Outside Opinion' reports... Read More
Too often we charge ahead and treat the web as... Read More
Making profits with your existing website design or creating a... Read More
What does "helping your visitors" mean exactly?It means writing your... Read More
Our website, Best Of The Home, has been listed in... Read More
My previous article I wrote called "One Point Two Billion"... Read More
The concept of linking is that sites with common interests... Read More
Knowing which credit card merchant account to get can be... Read More
Have you ever gone to the store and thought you... Read More
SSL ("Secured Socket Layer") is a protocol used to... Read More
Choosing a carefully pinpointed niche market should be one of... Read More
If your business features products or services for sale, undoubtedly... Read More
Building BridgesI have often used the analogy of building a... Read More
This may not be a popular view, but I think... Read More
E-commerce |