Simply Stated, Chargebacks are bad

As defined by Visa, a chargeback is the reversal of the dollar value, in whole or in part, of a particular transaction.  For merchants this can be a costly inconvenience resulting in the loss of the dollar amount being charged back and the loss of the related merchandise.  Not only that, processing companies tack on handling fees of their own. All in all a chargeback is something that ever business wants to avoid.  The good news for merchants is that, with a little bit of training, most chargebacks can be prevented.  Here are a few quick tips:

1. If your business has a return policy, print it on your receipt or otherwise disclose at the point of sale.
2. Ensure that transactions are entered once and deposited once.  Duplicate transaction chargebacks are all too common.
3. Make sure you have a manual imprinter available.  If your terminal is ever un-operational, be sure to take an imprint of all cards.
4. Train your staff to check IDs at the point of sale. Proper procedures can help protect against fraud and fraud losses.
5. If you run a lot of ‘card not present’ transactions, make sure that your terminal is prompting you to enter address verification information.

I’m sure we’ve all been out for coffee armed with nothing but plastic to make our purchase only to realize that we would be charged 50 cents or more for using our card. If you’re like me you probably chalked it up as a minor inconvenience and went ahead with the purchase. After all, coffee is king.

As a business owner you probably accept credit cards and understand the cost associated with the service. On a pragmatic level, you probably agree that it makes sense to pass some of the cost on to the card holder.

The question remains, what does Visa and MasterCard have to say? This is a question I get from business owners quite frequently. For the answer lets go to the source. Check out page 10 of the regulations here: VISA Regulations

You do have an alternative. Simply calculate your average cost per transaction and build that into your pricing. You can then offer a discount on cash purchases to further entice your customers to pay with cash or check. I hope that helps!

Cheers,

The Gravity Team

I’ve got some really exciting news for you and for once it doesn’t involve your credit card processing :) Before I go into it let me just ask you a quick question.

Imagine for a moment that I came to you and said, "Devise a system that promotes local consumer spending, raises awareness of local businesses and helps increase their revenues while simultaneously driving funds to charitable organizations, non-for- profits and community schools. Oh yeah, make sure its easy for everyone involved." How would you do it?

The answer is, someone has already done it and you can be a part of it! Read about it here!

Cheers,

The Gravity Team