Most online business owners know that credit card payments are not a guaranteed form of payment but a consumer convenience instead. The rules and regulations involved with online credit card processing were written in favor of the credit card holder. So as a small business owner, you need to be diligent about protecting your business from fraudulent activities and unjustifiable disputes. The following 7 practices can help where this is concerned.

1. 7 Practices to
Protect Your
Business
When Accepting Online Payments

2. About the sides
•
Most online business owners know that credit card payments are not a
guaranteed form of payment but a consumer convenience instead. The
rules and regulations involved with online credit card processing were
written in favor of the credit card holder. So as a small business owner,
you need to be diligent about protecting your business from fraudulent
activities and unjustifiable disputes. The following 7 practices can
help where this is concerned.

3. 1. Ask for an electronic
signature
•
Verify that the customer has read and agreed to the terms of their
purchase and your return policy. They can do this by simply typing
their initials into an area provided for this purpose. Even if you have a
“No refunds / All Sales Final” (i.e., a limited refund) policy, the
customer still expects your products or services to work. If not, you
may still be facing what is called a “not as described” chargeback.

4. 2. Check the Merchant
Category Code (MCC)
•
each product that you have sold matches the product that the
customer receives.

5. •
3. Ensure the
consumer has the
card in there
possession
Do this by by asking for the three or four-digit CVV2 (credit card
security code) on the back of their credit card. Transactions without this
code attached to them are 5 times riskier than those that have it listed.

6. 4. Have customers
sign for delivered
items.
•
You should be suspicious of any customer that wants the products
shipped to another location that does not match the billing address they
gave you at the time of purchase.

7. 5. Verify the Billing
Address.
•
You can implement an address verification service (AVS). This will
help to eliminate errors in shipping.

8. 6. Your customer’s
billing statement
needs to match your
doing business-as or
DBA name exactly
•
This limits any confusion that may occur as well as the number of
disputes that you encounter. Be sure that your business phone number
is also displayed on the document.

9. 7. Be suspicious of
customers who want
to use multiple credit
cards
•
Especially if each one has the same first 4 to 6 digits. This could mean
that the same bank issued all of those credit cards. Common sense
should tell you that using multiple credit cards is not an issue for
concern – provided those credit cards have been issued by different
banks.

10. Learn more
•
http://www.nationalprocessing.com
•
http://www.nationalprocessing.com/blog