stolen credit card means potentially devastating losses for the card network, banks, and the cardholders themselves. That’s why the Payment Card Industry is always trying to stay one step ahead of criminals who would steal cardholder data. That’s why American Express, MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and JCB International founded the Security Standards Council in 2006—their work prioritizes the understanding and implementation of “standards for security policies, technologies and ongoing processes that protect their payment systems from breaches and theft of cardholder data” and “helping vendors understand and implement standards for creating secure payment solutions.”

The PCI-DSS—the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards—are regulations that all merchants must stay compliant with in order to accept credit cards. These Standards exist to protect cardholder data and help keep everyone safe from fraud. As a result, they are ever-changing to keep up with new technology.

PCI Levels

The Security Standards Council has determined levels for PCI-Compliance related to how many transactions a merchant does annually. PayArc itself is PCI Level 1 DSS Compliant—which means that PayArc belongs to the highest level of security. Merchants who must comply with Level 1 do more than 6 million Visa or Mastercard transactions annually. Most merchants, however, are PCI Levels 2, 3, or 4. Merchants who must comply with Level 2 do between 1 million and 6 million Visa or Mastercard transactions yearly, merchants who must comply with Level 3 do between 20,000 and 1 million Visa or Mastercard transactions yearly, and merchants who must comply with Level 4 do less than 20,000 Via or MasterCard transactions yearly.

How Can PayArc Help?

PayArc offers a range of programs to manage risk and stay PCI-Compliant. These programs range from encryption and tokenization, to velocity filter, AVS/CVV capture, and the ability to limit transactions from select countries. Additionally, PayArc’s Gateway Service is PCI-Compliant and allows merchants to monitor transactions in real-time.

All of this is managed through our partnership with ControlScan. PayArc utilizes ControlScan’s state-of-the-art software to manage merchant PCI compliance. This includes a PCI self-assessment, vulnerability scanning, access to live support, and educational content designed to help merchants understand compliance and security better.

To understand more about how PayArc and ControlScan work together to help merchants stay PCI-Compliant, click here.

isa offers a credit card that is tailored to the needs of businesses. Visa Corporate is a commercial credit card that features spending data reports, employee convenience, and benefits like Auto Rental Collision Damage Waivers, Travel and Emergency Assistance Services, and Cardholder Inquiry Service. Commercial cards are popular with businesses primarily because it enables companies to analyze how much employees are spending and where they are spending corporate funds in detail.

A “card-not-present” transaction is a transaction that is either keyed in or done online—that is, not run through a terminal. These types of transactions have higher interchange rates because there is a higher risk of fraud.

The interchange rate for this type of transaction is 2.70% and $0.10. To find out more about Visa’s interchange rates, read up here.

Mastercard also offers a Corporate Card. This card also comes with a range of useful commercial services and savings programs,like integrated travel and booking management, expense management and reporting, and card controls; and benefits like emergency card replacement, car rental insurance, and purchase assurance. However, there is no specific rate for commercial card-not-present transactions.

s a business owner, your first priority should be keeping as much profit as you can, and that includes minimizing the number of chargebacks you experience. Chargebacks can not only eat into your profits, they can also throw suspicion onto your reputation with your payment processor. A chargeback reversal is what happens if you win the second presentment (sometimes called “re-presentment”) part of the chargeback dispute process.

Chargeback reversals will help your business, but it can be hard to prove your case. Further, many merchants choose not to dispute chargebacks at all after considering the amount of time and cost associated with going through the dispute process. You can learn more about chargeback arbitration here. If you do choose to dispute a chargeback, here are some tips for achieving a chargeback reversal:

You can learn more about Visa’s Chargeback Resolutions process here, MasterCard’s here, Discover’s here, and American Express’s here. Once you understand the resolutions process for the card network you are dealing with, it will be easier to understand exactly what you need to win a reversal.

Does your business receive more than its fair share of chargebacks?

Credit card associations are paying attention. Most card associations monitor merchant activity on a monthly basis. They keep tabs on everything from chargeback ratios, to disputes and fraudulent transactions.

Merchants are expected to keep disputes and fraud at acceptable levels. If your business receives excessive chargebacks, you could land on the chargeback monitoring program.

Here’s What Happens if Your Business is Placed in the Monitoring Program

If you exceed the threshold set by the card network, you will be placed on a monitoring program. In most cases, you will receive a warning before being placed in the program.

Businesses who receive a warning must take immediate action in reducing chargeback ratios.

Here are a few ways you can prevent chargebacks:

Chargeback Prevention Tips that Work

• Process credit immediately
• Keep customers informed about when they will receive a refund
• Share the return or exchange policy before completing the checkout process
• Obtain the customer’s signature for items picked up in store, work orders, etc
• Bill customers after products are shipped or service provided

In the event that your business is placed in the program, you may be required to pay monthly fines and additional fees until your level of fraud and disputes have gone down.

You’re going to want to take an active role in reducing your levels of fraud and disputes. Work with your acquirer to develop a strategy to reduce your chargeback levels – or what is also called a chargeback mitigation plan.

Need Help Creating a Chargeback Mitigation Plan?

If you want specialized help in preventing chargebacks, reducing your chargeback levels or creating a chargeback mitigation plan (required if you have received a warning), then get in touch with us so we can help you successfully navigate chargebacks and chargeback disputes.

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Visa

Discontinue Support of the Performance Tier 2 Program—Canada Region

Visa will no longer support the Performance Tier 2 interchange program for merchants in the Canada region. Although these programs will still be visible throughout the systems, no volume will report to these programs.

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Discontinue Support of Non-CPS Consumer Credit Interchange Programs

Visa will no longer assign the Electronic and Standard interchange programs to transactions. Although these programs will be visible throughout the systems, no volume will report to these programs.

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Discontinue Support of Supermarket Credit Tier Interchange Programs

Visa will no longer assign the Supermarket Performance Threshold programs. Although these programs will be visible throughout the systems, no volume will report to these programs.

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Discontinue Support of Business Credit Interchange Programs

Visa will no longer assign the Business Standard fee programs for travel service and non-travel service transactions that do not meet Custom Payment Service (CPS) qualification. Although these programs will be visible throughout the systems, no volume will report to these programs.

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Mastercard

Enhancements to Intracountry Interchange Programs in the Canada Region

Mastercard is enhancing the Canada domestic interchange programs by lifecycling the existing consumer credit programs and creating new ones. They are also restructuring the commercial programs by setting them up as Small Medium Enterprise, Large Market, and World Elite for Business.

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Transaction Integrity Class for Interchange Rates in the U.S. Region

The Transaction Integrity Class (TIC) is used as a method of evaluating transactions to determine their class as some transactions are inherently more secure than others. It encompasses the fundamental safety and security of a transaction and considers the differences between the technology used and the Cardholder Verification Method (CVM) used to assess the validity of both the card and the cardholder to determine the overall integrity of the transaction.

Mastercard currently provides the TIC value in the authorization for point-of-sale (POS) purchase and purchase with cash back for most transactions initiated in the U.S. region. Mastercard requires the TIC field to be part of the authorization response (as of April 2016). TSYS Acquiring Solutions already supports the TIC throughout our authorization and clearing processing platforms.

Effective April 17, 2020, Mastercard will require the TIC to be present on clearing messages and will be including it in their interchange edits. When an invalid TIC is provided by merchants or acquirers for a U.S. domestic transaction, the transaction will be rejected by Mastercard with error message 2819. At this time, approximately 50 percent of all Mastercard volume processed on our clearing platform does not include the TIC.

Electronic Commerce Security Level Indicators for the Mastercard Identity Check Program

Mastercard has updated electronic commerce security level indicators (ECSLI) values for the Mastercard Identity Check Program. This includes a new security level indicator (SLI) value for the EMV 3-D Secure (3DS) specification.

American Express

New Amex Error Messages

Amex will implement new error messages for 2077 and 2078. TSYS Acquiring Solutions will update MAS, PPM, and e-Connections to support the new error messages.

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Country Code and Country Name Changes

Amex will revise a country code and a country name to match ISO standards.

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hat is Chargeback Arbitration?

When a bank, cardholder or merchant can’t resolve a dispute on their own, you may advance along the process to the chargeback arbitration stage. During this stage, a card representative will review your case and make a final judgement.

How Does Chargeback Arbitration Work?

Chargebacks give cardholders the right to dispute transactions.

What happens if you don’t agree with a chargeback?

In the event that you want to dispute a chargeback, you can challenge it through a process called representment.

Just like a court case, you will be required to provide evidence to counter the chargeback during representment. Without sufficient or strong enough evidence, the cardholder’s issuing bank may reject your case and file a second chargeback, otherwise known as a pre-arbitration chargeback.

What happens if you don’t want to accept the second chargeback?

You do have the option to appeal a second chargeback and an arbitrator from the card network will review your case. The cardholder must accept or deny the motion for arbitration. If the cardholder accepts, the case goes into arbitration for a final decision.

It’s important to know that if a dispute makes it to the arbitration stage, it’s likely that the outcome won’t be favorable for you as a merchant.

How to Prevent Chargeback Arbitration

A chargeback arbitration prolongs the dispute which means you will incur additional fees and time spent on your dispute.

Chargeback arbitrations should be avoided and should only be looked at as a last resort. To avoid chargeback arbitration, it’s recommended that you avoid chargebacks altogether.

Need Expert Help?

We can help you identify chargeback prevention strategies for your business so that you can minimize your risk. For more information, get in touch with us here.