When customers offer their credit card at the point of sale, over the Internet, on the phone, or through the mail, that information becomes exposed and vulnerable, however briefly.
Your customers want assurance that their account information is safe. In recognition of that need a joint effort between Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB created the common and uniform industry security requirements known as Payment Card Industy (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS).
Payment card industry (PCI) compliance is adherence to a set of specific security standards that were developed to protect card information during and after a financial transaction. PCI compliance is required for all merchants that accept credit cards.
PCI compliance does take time and energy for each business to meet all the requirements; however, the protection you receive from keeping up-to-date on the security of your credit card processing is significant.
If there is a security breach of cardholder information and your business is not compliant, the merchant runs the risk of being fined for each indcident and losing the trust of their customers. In addition most merchant account providers charge you an additional monthly fee when you are not compliant. Taking the time to become compliant and remaining vigilant about securing cardholder information from theft will not only protect your company in case of a security breech, it will build trust with your customers, and lower your monthly merchant account cost.
At More Payment Choices we enjoy doing the right thing and getting you the money you deserve when customers make payments by check, credit card or installments. We share what we know and educate our merchants. Our merchants know about all the ways they can offer payment choices to their customers to expand their business and how to protect themselves with secure compliant transactions.
Contact More Payment Choices for more information.