[Jewelry making - Article 01073] - Re: [Orchid] Credit Cards and Internet Sales

[Andrea Hill]

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Dear John,

    The VISA merchant agreement is roughly the same everywhere, except
    as impacted by the laws of various countries.  However, the
    "chargeback" clause is present in every contract I've negotiated. 

    There are, however, a few things you can do to protect yourself
    against fraud and reduce those chargebacks.  If you are using a
    credit card processing agency such as Cybersource or Verisign (they
    are equally good), they can provide you with a tremendous amount of
    support to reduce your credit card fraud through more aggressive
    verification of the card. 

    Banks and card processing organizations also "reward" certain fraud
    protection behaviors on your part.  For instance, if you ask for the
    full billing address of the card holder, and insist that the zip code
    of the billing address for the card being presented matches what is
    in the credit database (most card number thieves have no idea of the
    billing address for the card they are using), you can reduce or avoid
    responsibility if a fraud occurs.  Also, if you collect the CVV2
    number (that "new" number that appears on the signature line of the
    card -- the 3 digits at the very end that are not part of the credit
    card number on the front of the card) you can reduce or avoid
    responsibility for fraud. 

    I strongly suggest that anyone taking credit cards over the internet
    participate with a vendor who specializes in those transactions,
    such as the ones mentioned above.  You will pay some fees, but it is
    the cost of doing business, and think about how much business you
    have to give up if you can't easily accommodate those sales.  There
    are operational costs to handling checks and cash as well -- we just
    tend not to calculate them because they are "absorbed" costs.  Also
    -- don't forget that those fees are always negotiable.  If your card
    transaction volume is low, you may not get much off, but every penny
    counts. 

Good luck!

Andrea Hill
Director
The Bell Group



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