Merchants,
For all of you small business owners who are even remotely thinking about security let me add one more thing to the heap. If you have a POS system that generates a receipt when you run a credit card transaction the receipt cannot have the full credit card number on it. Sounds simple right?? Let's go a step further! It is against sate and federal law to have the full number and expiration date on any credit card transaction receipt period. That includes the merchant or the customer copy. Why do you need it anyway?? You don't. But we always had it before?? Hey we just realized that the bad guys were watching and we have to make them work for their money like every body else right?? Now just in case someone tells you different like your processor plain and simple their wrong. I was in my local hair stylist and I told them about the rule and they said they would look into it. Well my stylist told the owner and I when I spoke with her she said that her processor said "that wasn't true and she didn't have to do anything", I almost fell over! I said let's make it easy. Call them and tell them you would like to truncate all but the last four digits of each credit card receipt, the customer and merchant's copy. They can do it easily with a partial download of your credit card terminal. Now if you don't feel you need to do this the reality is that you can be fined by the associations (Visa/MC) and or your state up to $1000 per incidence, that's per receipt. Now if someone breaks into your business and steals the receipts that you failed to fix, your liability could be in the millions. Now how do I know you can't afford that type of hit. Easy, I know I couldn't!!! Here is another reason, your customers are getting smarter and smarter when it comes to credit cards and some will not be happy at all to see their credit card number in full on your receipt. Recently I was in a small diner who truncated the credit card number on my receipt but not there's. I told them they were breaking the law so I signed the customer copy and took their copy. They just looked at me funny. So in conclusion take action and get the full number off of your receipts. Your customers will be happy, your processor will be happy and trust me you will be happy!!! James D Jones is the President of NetPay2K International Corp for more questions about payment processing check out CreditCardStore.com or call James @ 301-829-3331

How can you accept credit cards for everything but tips???

Sorry but I'm going to have to let it fly on this one!!! I just got my hair cut by my local hair stylist. Anyway they have a rule there that while you can pay by credit cards for a haircut BUT you can't tip your stylist with your credit card. Do you know how incredibly STUPID this is??? So I asked the owner why. She said it was too much of a bookkeeping nightmare to deal with it. So she doesn't. Now get this, are you sitting down??? The owner is also the girl who cuts my hair. So you guessed it right she won't even accept a tip from me if I pay by credit card. And just to prove a point I tried. She said "no it's not worth it", I couldn't believe it, Absolutely hysterical!!! But wait there is more by not allowing her employees to accept credit cards for there tips she is seriously cutting into there income. Now I understand bookkeeping is a hassle but COME ON!!! Let's say that your average stylist works 22 days in a month x a modest $20 per day (trust me it's much much more) then that is $440 a month in lost wages and seeing that a majority of these people don't report tips it's more like $550 to you and me. Now by accident I recently wound up at another spa and what do you know, they had the same policy. Employers WAKE UP!!! How would it affect you if you let 5 to 10 thousand dollars a year simply walk out the door?? Hell you might not even be in business!!! Here is a questions for you. Which is more important to you, getting good service when you eat out or good service when you get your hair cut??? Duh!!! Trust me know one likes bad service at a restaurant but screw up my hair and I might go nuts!!! Are you with me?? I know a few people don't mind that you can't pay your tips by credit card (oh I'm sorry I'll get you next time) but most of us know that a huge part of their salary comes that way. So salon owners GET A CLUE. These people are making less than you. If you are worried about the fees then go ahead and charge them a flat 2 or 3%. Oh and by the way did you ever consider that you might be inconveniencing your clients. Don't you think most of them feel bad when they can't tip that way. One more time in unison DUH!!! So in conclusion your hurting your stylist ability to make a living, your inconveniencing your clients, and the truth is you are making your self look really really stupid. And if you're still doing it after reading this YOU ARE!!!

Why should my business accept credit cards??

Well, first of all you need to accept both Credit Cards & Debit Cards. Sure Credit Cards offer instant financing, but debit cards offer your customers the opportunity to pay with their checking accounts, hence the name Check Card. The biggest reason to accept credit cards is to allow your customers to pay with money they don’t have. So even though they don’t have the money they can “Get it Now”!!! So the item is financed and as long as you follow the card acceptance rules the money is yours!!! Now, accepting check cards has equal benefits. Obviously you can’t accept checks without check guarantee so why not accept checks without the hassle. You can swipe check cards like credit cards or with a little prodding allow your customers to enter their pin number for pin enabled debit transactions, which is actually cheaper. The bottom line is that for most businesses accepting credit cards is a MUST if you are serious about MAKING MONEY!!!