Make Sure You Accept Credit Card Payments Securely, Safely and Efficiently

Human nature is an interesting thing. If you lose your wallet or misplace your phone, you’ll blame yourself. But if you get accosted on a specific street or a particular neighborhood, you might avoid that ‘risky place’ rather than just putting the blame on the criminal that attacked you. Credit theft is the same way. We don’t always blame the crook – sometimes we blame the location.

This means that if your customers face identity theft while shopping on your site, they won’t necessarily be mad at the hackers or phishers. Instead they may type angry social media posts blaming your website and potentially costing countless dollars and clients. That’s why it’s crucial to ensure customers who buy from you – physically or digitally – are completely secure.

Ensuring card security

Encryption is crucial, because hackers are increasingly good at intercepting internet communication. They might physically steal a card, skim it to create a dummy card, or grab card details in transit. Encryption ensures even if they can side-swipe and re-route card data or personal information, they can’t decipher it, let alone use it.

Here’s how it works. When a customer buys from you, they type their name, address, account number, and CVV onto your online store. Or maybe they swipe their card and your POS software lifts that information off their card’s chip or magnetic stripe. If a criminal can obtain these personal details, they can pose as the card owner and use that card elsewhere.

Encryption works by masking card information in coded language. The recipient (in this case, banking software) has an ‘unlock key’ that will enable them to translate the code back into comprehensible language. This guarantees the card’s information – and the customer’s cash – is all safe. It safeguards your customer’s privacy, and your shop’s reputation.

Speed is good

Another factor that ensures safe card transactions is verification. It has two segments. One, it ensures the person using the card is the actual owner of the card. Two, it ensures the account that the credit card is drawing from has enough money to complete the transaction. With a good payment processor, both these confirmations take microseconds, and that’s crucial, because if the verification process takes too long, the customer starts to get nervous. They may feel someone may be trying to scam them, so they may cancel the transaction, and that could lead to chargebacks and other problems, not to mention that you’ll have lost a sale, so that cuts revenues and profits. And you’ll have lost the trust of this customer, and anyone they mention it to.

So how can you guarantee secure card transactions for your clientele? Use a trusted payment processor that’s PCI-approved and has quick verification measures. Check the levels of encryption they use.

For more information on making sure credit card payments are safe, secure, and efficient, or to sign up for a merchant account, please call (888) 924-2743 or go to Charge.com.