Credit Card Processing Space

Small businesses don’t build themselves, and neither do their websites! If you start off on the wrong foot when looking for small business web hosting it can cost you a considerable investment of energy, time and, worst of all, missed opportunities and money! 15 years ago, web sites were a vanity project, a nice to have. Now, if you have no online presence, you may as well have no presence at all. Even if someone has heard great things about your business they will often look you up online to see what you offer, and if they can’t find you it adds an air of unprofessionalism to your business before they’ve even set food in the door. ...

What This Review is Not! Ok let’s set things straight from the start this is not another time wasting review, with a load of facts about a company that doesn’t really mean anything to a potential customer. We set up this site to stop people getting ripped off by Merchant Account providers, and that’s exactly what it does, so read on… To understand whether Merchant Warehouse is a good Merchant Account provider and whether it is the right one for you is easy, it comes down to 3 things. ...

Are you listening? The credit card processing and merchant account industry is a minefield. There’s a strong chance that if you choose the wrong credit card processor you will end up paying ridiculously high fees which will cut in to your profits and make them rich, rather than you. We are here to prevent that!. This page has been written to explain how to avoid high charge rates, what hidden costs you have to look for, and what to look for with respect to customer service so you can choose the best credit card processing for small business. ...

American Express may be looking to invest in Foursquare Labs inc., according to Bloomberg. American Express and Microsoft are supposedly competing for the chance to have a stake in Foursquare. Foursquare is also said to be talking with other companies as well, and it is not clear if any of the talks will result in a deal. Foursquare is a social networking service that allows users to “check in” to various locations, such as restaurants or stores. Foursquare is also said to be talking to venture capitalists who own convertible debt. Foursquare allegedly wants them to turn their debt into equity. ...

Huntington Bank is preparing to once again issue consumer credit cards to its customers, according to the Wall Street Journal. Huntington, based in Ohio, will be launching its new credit card on Wednesday. Huntington Bank’s new card will offer consumers a choice among rewards in 13 different categories or low interest rates on revolving balances, according to the WSJ. By not issuing credit cards to its customers, Huntington has been letting its customers simply go elsewhere and sign up with other banks. ...

Sift Science is working on the ongoing development of software intended to allow small to medium-sized online businesses protection from fraudulent transactions, according to Xconomy. Companies like Google and Amazon have huge departments dedicated specifically to detecting fraudulent transactions. Google’s fraud and spam prevention team includes 120 engineers led by Matt Cutts. Amazon’s fraud team is twice as large. However, smaller companies usually don’t have the resources to devote to fighting fraud. Because online fraud is estimated to cause $3.4 billion in credit card chargebacks annually, this can be quite a problem for businesses of all sizes. ...

Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. will follow through with a multibillion-dollar antitrust settlement with numerous U.S. merchants, even though enough retailers declined to participate in the class action lawsuit that Visa and MasterCard could walk away themselves, reports Bloomberg. U.S. retailers who together saw over 25 percent of the total volume of credit card transactions have opted out of the class action settlement. The 25 percent mark is a threshold that allows Visa and MasterCard to back out of paying the suit if they wish. The settlement still needs to receive a final approval from a federal court judge in Brooklyn, New York, on September 12, but it appears Visa and MasterCard will be following through with the payment despite the 25 percent opt out threshold being reached. ...

This week it was revealed that many leading banks in Britain will be paying out £1.3bn ($2 billion USD) in compensation to customers who pay have been the victim of being sold unnecessary credit card and identity protection policies, according to The Guardian. Thirteen banks in Britain, including Barclays, HSBC, and Royal Bank of Scotland, will be paying out about £1.3bn ($2 billion USD) in compensation to 7 million customers. The banks were involved in a scandal concerning wrongful selling of credit card and identity protection policies. The corporations have agreed to pay compensation to those affected. The compensation is expected to average about £185 ($ 286 USD) per person. ...

According to CNBC, American Express and Discover Financial Services are consistently gaining credit card market share despite U.S. consumers reducing the average amount of credit card debt they hold. The two companies were the only major U.S. credit card companies with portfolio increases in July. On Thursday, American Express reported that the average credit card debt held at any one time by its customers increased from $54.4 billion in June to $54.4 billion in July. It may seem like a measly increase of a mere 0.4 percent for the one month span, but when annualized, that same increase would be a growth rate of 4.4 percent for the year. Remember, this is at a time when U.S. consumers are reducing their credit card balances. American Express’s credit card balances were up 3.8 percent over this time last year. ...

The U.S. judge who ruled that the Federal Reserve’s cap on debit card swipe fees was set at a level against the intentions of Congress has now given the Federal Reserve one week to decide whether to write a temporary rule to replace the thrown out swipe fee cap, according to Money News. Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a ruling in late July that the Federal Reserve had wrongfully set its cap on interchange, or swipe, fees. Swipe fees are fees paid by merchants to banks when customers use debit card for their transactions. ...