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Accept Mobile Credit Card Payments with Novera Payment Solutions

Posted on Mon, May 04 2015 @ 02:48 PM

Accept Credit Card Payments ANYWHERE

Whether you are in the trades or operate  a delivery business and want to accept credit or debit card payments on the road, Novera Payment Solutions' mobile card reader is the best choice for your company. You can accept mobile credit card payments today with Novera's mobile card reader! It’s fast and easy to set up. With no need for a fixed broadband connection, you can accept payments anywhere you have mobile coverage.

integrated software vendor (isv)

Novera Payment Solutions Makes Mobile Payments as EASY as 1-2-3!

1. Swipe the customer’s card on your mobile card reader

2. Enter the payment amount

3. Customer accepts payment

You can now accept payments wherever your business takes you. With Novera, you'll enjoy fast and reliable processing from virtually any internet-enabled device. You can process payments easily and manage reporting from your mobile device. Simply download the mobile app to start accepting payments, add tax and tips, and email receipts with just a few screen taps!

Advantages of Mobile Payments?

  • Make a call; make a sale! Mobile payments turn any compatible mobile device into your handheld terminal.

  • Accept credit card payments anywhere with mobile network coverage

  • Accept all major credit or debit cards

  • Your funds, faster

  • Take payments in seconds

  • Real Time Reporting

  • We offer 24-hour support, every day of the year with WorldPay

Mobile Payments are a Necessity

Many businesses struggle to keep up with the pace of mobile innovation.  Will you accept the challenge?  Novera Payment Solutions is here to help you get setup to accept mobile credit card payments. We even offer a QuickBooks Plugin so can seamlessly accept credit card buttons directly through your existing QuickBooks software.  We are a leader in the credit card payments industry and we are committed to helping businesses improve their bottom line by providing significant savings on credit card processing fees through our innovative flat fee merchant account pricing model. 

Contact Novera today to learn more about how we can help you!

 

Request a FREE QUOTE

Tags: payment processing, accept mobile credit card payments, accept online credit cards, online credit card payments, mobile payments

Make Sure Your Business Website is Mobile Friendly

Posted on Thu, Apr 09 2015 @ 04:32 PM

Is Your Business Website Mobile? 

According to www.SmartInsights.com, the Internet passed the mobile user tipping point in 2014. This means that there are now more mobile only users on the internet than desktop users. The numbers astounding ... there are now about 1900 MILLION mobile users versus approximately 1700 MILLION desktop users globally. 

Most Popular Devices

Some interesting statistics on the most popular devices that people are now using to search the internet: 
  1. 80% of internet users own a smartphone and use it to search the internet
  2. 47% use a tablet
  3. 37% use a game console
  4. 34% use a Smart TV
  5. 9% use a Smart Watch
  6. 7% use a Smart Wristband (and this figure with grow!)

Where users start their Internet searches? 

According to the Smart Insights research, 48% of mobile users start online searches using a search engine, like Google. Another 33% start on a branded website (like MSN or Amazon), and another 26% start their search on a branded app (like Yelp). An astonsihing 89% of people are using mobile devices to view social media via mobile apps.

Google Comes in to Play April 21

Need more convincing that you now need a mobile-friendly website? Search giant, Google, announced a couple of months ago that as of April 21, 2015, they will include "mobile friendliness" as one of their 200+ factors in their ranking algorithm.  Google updates its algorithm regularly, but rarely actually announces a specific date of implementation ... this means businesses better take this one seriously.

What does this mean for your business?

Having a stand-alone mobile website enables you to get in front of the huige mobile marketplace and display your important business information clearly and quickly to a mobile users.  This can lead to better sales conversions for your business. Plus, with Google's recent announcement, it may also mean that you website will rank better than it was without a mobile-friendly version.

About Novera Payment Solutions

Novera Payment Solutions is a leader in the payments industry. We enable small and large business to accept credit cards and save money through our innovative flat fee merchant accounts. Our customers can accept online payments using smart phones, tablets, desktops, and in-store terminals ... anywhere they interact with their customers, they can accept credit card payments quickly and seamlessly.
Interested in learning more about mobile payment options to go with your mobile friendly website?  Contact us and one of our team members will provide a free, no obligation savings analysis comparing our flat fee merchant account to your current processor!
Request a FREE QUOTE

Tags: accept credit cards, accept mobile credit card payments, accept online credit cards, flat fee credit card processing, online credit card payments, mobile payments

6 Holiday Shopping Dates All Retailers Should Know

Posted on Mon, Nov 17 2014 @ 02:29 PM

'Tis the season ... and if you are a retailer, it's time to get your holiday shopping game plan together!  Start by recognizing essential dates during the holiday season and planning your deals and discounts accordingly.

holiday shopping 2

Here are 6 holiday shopping dates that every retailer must know:

  1. National Shopping Reminder Day (Nov 25)
    As if we needed a reminder!  National Shopping Reminder Day is there to remind us that the countdown has started to get your Christmas list in order and get busy! As a retailer, you can take advantage of this national day by promoting early specials or discounts on your website and social media channels.

  2. Thanksgiving Day (Nov 27)
    This is controversial shopping day. With many retailers suffering negative publicity for being open on Thanksgiving Day, consider proceeding with caution if you intend to promote Thanksgiving Day as a shopping day for your business.  That said, there are plenty of people who DO shop on Thanksgiving Day.  How not to miss out? Promote online only specials! That way you aren't encouraging people to ditch their families on this day of tradition, but you are giving them a great opportunity to pick up some deals online while the guys are sleeping on the couch.

  3. Black Friday (Nov 28)
    The most well known of ALL shopping days ... the earlier you open the better! Retailers offer steep discounts in limited quantities and profit from the multitudes of people with open wallets coming through the doors. In recent years, Black Friday has become more of a weekend than a single day. Why not take advantage and tier multiple offers that last Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday?

  4. Cyber Monday (Dec 1)
    Still in the shopping spirit, people head to work the Monday after Thanksgiving and spend their time looking for great discounts online. According to Channelnomics, "55 percent of businesses predict their employees will spend two to four hours a week throughout the holiday shopping season starting Cyber Monday -- and 63 percent expect a greater decrease in productivity compared with last year." Their loss is your gain ... make sure you take advantage of Cyber Monday by promoting your specials and discounts on your website and across all of your social media channels.

  5. Free Shipping Day (Dec 18)
    Not a favorite day for retailers, but HUGELY popular with consumers, Free Shipping Day is not to be overlooked. The idea behind free shipping day is that you don't set a minimum order amount for free shipping. All shipping is free that day and the items being ordered are guaranteed by Christmas. Many consumers WAIT to shop just for this day, so make sure you are in the game. Avoid huge losses by minimizing other discounts and deals ... let your free shipping be the deal.
  6. The Weekend Before Christmas (Dec 20 & 21)
    Procrastinators are your best friend. Shoppers who have waited until the weekend before Christmas to get their shopping done tend to price compare less and impulse buy more. You can profit by running specials this weekend, and you can even scale those specials back a touch. Instead of 15% or 20% off, try 12% (for the 12 days of Christmas)!

 

About Novera Payment Solutions

Novera Payment Solutions is a leader in the credit card payments industry. We are committed to helping businesses improve their bottom line by providing significant savings on credit card processing fees through our innovative and trasparent flat fee merchant account pricing models. We are confident we can save your business money on credit card processing fees!

Save money on your credit card processing fees this holiday season. 
Contact us today for a free quote!

 

Request a FREE QUOTE

Tags: accept credit cards, flat fee merchant account, accept mobile credit card payments, accept online credit cards, credit card processing, flat fee credit card processing

Accept Credit Cards & Debit Card Payments Anywhere

Posted on Fri, Nov 07 2014 @ 12:59 PM

Novera Payment Solutions enables merchants to accept credit card payments anywhere. Whether you are on a job-site, on delivery routes, at the office, or even at home, Novera offers business on the go at a very affordable rate!

accept credit cards

Our WorldPay Mobile card reader is now available, making accepting credit card payments from ANYWHERE inexpensive and easy to get started.

A few of the benefits of accepting mobile credit card payments include:

  • Convenience
    Merchants can accept payments from virtually any location
  • Easy to Use
    Simply plug the card reader into the headphone jack of a compatible smartphone
  • Faster Checkout
    Use the mobile reader as an additional checkout terminal during peak hours
  • Direct Link to the Portal
    Direct link to our http://my.worldpay.us portal
  • Security
    Card readers are encrypted with WorldPay's advanced encryption technology
  • Next-Day Funding
    Eligible merchants can get the funds they earn as soon as the next day!

Our mobile payments card reader is compatible with the following devices:

  • Apple Devices

    • iPad Mini (1st Generation)

    • iPad Mini 2

    • iPad Mini (3rd & 4th Generation)

    • iPhone 4/4S/5

    • iTouch (5th Generation)

Best when used with iOS 5,6, and 7
iOS 8 is not compatible at this time (release date targeting late October)

  • Android
    • Samsung Tablet - Lite OS v10.1
    • Samsung Galaxy Note II (phone)
    • SAmsung Galaxy 4S (phone)
    • Google Nexus 10 Tablet

      Operating Systems:
      Ice Cream Sandwich (v4.0 and above)
      Jelly Bean

 For more information about about our mobile card reader, contact us!

About Novera Payment Solutions

Novera Payment Solutions is a leader in the credit card payments industry. We are committed to helping businesses improve their bottom line by providing significant savings on credit card processing fees through our innovative and trasparent flat fee merchant account pricing models. We are confident we can save your business money on credit card processing fees!

Request a FREE QUOTE


Tags: accept credit cards, flat fee merchant account, payment processing, accept mobile credit card payments, accept online credit cards, credit card processing, flat fee credit card processing

The Anatomy of a Credit Card (Because You've Always Wanted to Know!)

Posted on Mon, Oct 27 2014 @ 02:59 PM

Just because we know you've always been curious about what all that "stuff" is on your credit card front and back, we thought we'd give a basic anatomy lesson. A few facts may surprise you, like did you know that VISA card numbers ALWAYS start with the number 4?  Read on!

anatomy of a credit card

 

1. Bank Name
Typically a bank name appears at the top of your credit card. This represents the bank that is lending you money via the credit card transaction, not the company that processes the payments. For exmaple, your VISA or MasterCard will have a bank name at the top ... the bank is the entity lending the money and VISA or MasterCard is the processor.The exception is with American Express or Discover ... they are both the bank lending you money and the processor.

2. Computer Chip
The computer chip is being phased in to United States issued credit cards to improve security and reduce fraud. The credit cards containing chips are called EMV cards. EMV cards are more secure because the computer chip generates a unique code for every transaction you make, whereas the magnetic stripe has static data that can be stolen and re-used. During the phase in, cards will have both, the computer chip AND the magentic strip on the back, but ultimately the magnetic strip will go away.

3. Account Number
The account numer is made up from a series of complex algorithms and each series of numbers has very specific meanings. The details are way too much information to go into here. However, you may be interested to know that the very first number on the card is the "Major Industry Identifier." You can tell what kind of card it is from the first number if you know that all Visa cards start with a 4, MasterCards start with a 5, Discover cards start with 6, and American Express cards start with a 3.

4. Cardholder Name
Credit cards will also have the first and last name of the cardholder or the organization that is associated with the account. Online transactions typically require the name on the card to
exactly match the cardholder name as an added layer of security.

5. Hologram
The hologram displays a three-dimensional image on the two-dimensional surface. This was introduced to help prevent counterfieting of credit cards.

6. Expiration Date or Valid Thru Date
This indicates the last month and year the credit card can be used. Some banks include a day of the month, but typically it's just the month and year.  The day (not shown) is the last day of the month.

7. Magnetic Stripe
Magnetic stripes on credit cards come in three colors colors black, brown or sliver.  They have up to three tracks. The first two tracks contain the card holder data necessary to complete the transactions.  With the new EMV credit cards, magnetic stripes will ultimately be phased out.

8. Signature Strip
Credit cards must be signed to be valid. When you sign the strip it gives businesses an extra tool to guard against fraud, because they can see whether the signature on the cardmatches the one on the receipt.

The signature stripe also includes the credit card security code (CVV or CIV code) on Visa and MasterCard cards. This also provides additional security against credit card fraud because you have to have the card in hand to see the code.

 

About Novera Payment Solutions

Novera Payment Solutions is a leader in the credit card payments industry. We are committed to helping businesses improve their bottom line by providing significant savings on credit card processing fees through our innovative and trasparent flat fee merchant account pricing models. We are confident we can save your business money on credit card processing fees!

 

Request a FREE QUOTE

Tags: accept credit cards, flat fee merchant account, payment processing, accept mobile credit card payments, emv credit card, emv card, credit card processing, flat fee credit card processing

EMV Credit Cards - The Basics that You Need to Know

Posted on Sat, Sep 27 2014 @ 11:22 AM

What is an EMV Credit Card?

In light of several recent major data breaches, you may have heard the term "EMV credit card" used in news reports. When it was created, EMV stood for Europay, MasterCard and Visa. It is a global standard for credit cards equipped with computer chips, as well as technology used to authenticate chip-card transactions. Simply put, this technology better protects consumers and makes it more difficult for people to counterfeit cards and commit fraudulent activities.

According to EMV Connection, today EMVCo manages, maintains and enhances the EMV specifications. EMVCo is jointly owned by American Express, Discover, JCB, MasterCard, UnionPay, and Visa, and includes other organizations from the payments industry participating as technical and business associates. Information on the specifications and organization is available at http://www.emvco.com.

What Makes EMV Cards Different

When you look at your credit card, if you see a small metallic square, that's a computer chip and it is what makes the card an EMV card. The basic difference between traditional credit cards with magnetic stripes and EMV cards with computer chips is that the magnetic strip cards hold static data and the computer chipped EMV cards hold dynamic data.

If the magnetic stripe card is compromised, the data can be used over and over again because it doesn't change. This makes it easy for fraudsters to profit from stolen card holder data. For the EMV card computer chip, with each transaction, a unique transaction code is generated and cannot be used again. That means if the credit card data is stolen from a single sale or transaction, the next time it is used, the card would simply be denied because the transaction code is no longer valid. This makes it much more difficult for nefarious people to profit from stolen card holder data.

EMV credit cards

What Does this Mean to Me?

For merchants and financial institutions, the switch to EMV means adding new in-store technology and internal processing systems, as well as complying with new liability regulations. For consumers, the switch to EMV means receiving and activating new credit cards and learning new payment processes.

The fundamental difference in the way the cards are used is with the magnetic stripe the consumer swipes the card through a terminal for the data to be read. With the new EMV cards, the consumer will "dip" the card in a terminal slot and wait for it to be processed. It is a little slower than the magnetic stripe swipe, so consumers will need to get accustomed to it. Technology also exists called "contactless card reading" where the consumer taps the card against a terminal scanner to be read. However this "contactless" technology is not as prevalent in the United States as of today.

When is the EMV Shift Going to Happen?

The shift to EMV technology has already started. This first issuance of EMV cards will have both technologies, magnetic stripe and the computer chip, but will ultimately transition to the computer chip only. The deadline set by major U.S. credit card issuers MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express is October 1, 2015. That doesn't mean that EVERYONE is going to be transitioned by then, but what it does mean is that the fraud burden shifts on that date. Any parties not EMV-ready by October 2015 may face much higher costs in the event of a large data breach. Basically the liability will shift to whoever is the least EMV-compliant party in a fraudulent transaction.

Are You Ready for EMV?

Novera Payment Solutions will continue to publish blogs on this topic because it's important for you as a merchant to be aware of your requirements and your potential liabilities. If you have questions about EMV, please don't hesitate to contact us. Our job is make the transition as easy as possible for merchants.

About Novera Payment Solutions

Novera Payment Solutions is a leader in the credit card payments industry. We are committed to helping businesses improve their bottom line by providing significant savings on credit card processing fees through our innovative and trasparent flat fee merchant account pricing models.

 

Request a FREE QUOTE

 

 

 

Tags: accept credit cards, flat fee merchant account, merchant account, accept mobile credit card payments, emv credit card, emv card, accept online credit cards, emv

Novera & WorldPay - Your Team for Affordable Credit Card Processing

Posted on Mon, Sep 15 2014 @ 04:46 PM

Novera Payment Solutions and WorldPay offer businesses the most reliable and affordable payment processing services in the industry.

flat fee credit card processing

Who is Novera Payment Solutions?

Novera Payment Solutions, LLC  is based in Atlanta and is a registered Member Service Provider (MSP) of WorldPay. Novera is also a registered Independent Sales Organization (ISO) with Visa & MasterCard.  We represents an innovative approach to doing business in an industry where integrity and a positive customer experience is absent at many levels.

What does this mean to you?

Our payment processing services are designed to bridge the gap between the  brand and buying power of WorldPay, combining that with the sales and service experience of your smaller home town business.

Who is WorldPay?

WorldPay is one of the most reliable and affordable credit card processors in the industry. WorldPay offers fast, reliable payment processing for the full range of card types, including credit, debit, prepaid, loyalty, and payroll. WorldPay provides access - and advocacy on its customers' behalf - to the credit card associations including Visa®, MasterCard®, Discover®, American Express® and all of the major PIN-secured debit networks. Its customers are also on the forefront of new payment acceptance, including RevolutionCard®, the nation's first PIN-secured credit card.

WorldPay acquires transactions coast to coast and around the globe ranging from brand name companies you already know to independent businesses in your own community. Point of sale authorization through settlement of funds, WorldPay provides the highest standard of payment processing to businesses ...businesses just like yours. WorldPay also offers seamless support and integration with industry-leading point-of-sale platforms and middleware providers, and it works with POS providers to certify new systems to their network on a ongoing basis.

What Makes Us Different?

Our flat fee pricing for payment processing saves merchants thousands and tens of thousands per year over other merchant account providers. If you are looking for a credit card processing program that can deliver maximum savings for your business (or for your  merchants) we can provide the guidance and know how to help you accomplish your objectives, save money on fees, and be as competitive as you want to.

Novera has a unique pricing format that passes along all the direct transactional costs; a) interchange, b) the processor fees (including mark-up) and features a c) TRANSPARENT FLAT FIXED FEE per month depending upon the monthly merchant volume.  

This flat fee merchant account pricing format delivers:

  • Substantial savings based upon volume
  • Transparency in pricing
  • Detailed reporting on statement
  • One of the best “cost plus formats” available

Contact Novera Payment Solutions today!  We'll do a free, no obligation cost/savings analysis with your current merchant processor and let you know how much money Novera's flat fee merchant account can save you annually.

Request a FREE QUOTE

Tags: accept credit cards, flat fee merchant account, payment processing, accept mobile credit card payments, accept online credit cards, flat fee credit card processing

7 Tips to Gain More Twitter Followers

Posted on Tue, Sep 02 2014 @ 12:27 PM

There's no doubt that Twitter is one of the largest and most influential social media platforms.  Business owners know they they need to be on Twitter, but too many of them create an account, start tweeting, and then crickets ... no one is hearing them, following them or interacting with them.

If this sounds like you, don't despair! 

credit card processing companies

 

Here seven tips to help you gain more followers on Twitter.
 

1. Leverage Your Other Social Media Accounts

If you are already rocking Facebook or LinkedIn, use your existing presence on these platforms to let your Fans and connections know that you are on Twitter. Make sure you use a call to action to FOLLOW your company on Twitter and give specific reasons why following you will be worthwhile. In other words, what type of content/tweets will you be making and how will they be beneficial for your followers?

2. Engage with Your Existing Twitter Followers

If someone retweets your content or replys to your tweet, be sure to reply back and thank them for their interaction.  This lets your current followers know you care, making them more likely to interact with you again. When followers interact with your Tweets, their followers see this and may be prompted to follow you, as well.

3. Interact with Other People & Companies on Twitter

Show interest in other companies on Twitter by retweeting their content or replying to something they've tweeted. This will spark their attention and you could gain a new follower as a result.

4. Tweet at Peak Times of the Day (or night)

Tweeting at times when your followers are online increases the chances of them finding you and following you.  Test out tweeting at different times of the day and use an analytics prgram to see  what times your tweets get the most interaction and engagement. Once you know, focus on getting your new tweets out at those times.
 

5. Fill Out Your Twitter Bio (Completely)

Your Bio is displayed on Twitter's suggested users page, so having it blank or filled with non-descriptive information will not help you gain followers.  Your bio needs to tell people who you are and what to expect on your page.

6. Bring Twitter into Your Physical World

If you are doing a presentation or running a business meeting with a large group, use Twitter to get your audience engaged. Create a hashtag and ask everyone to tweet questions, comments, and feedback with that hashtag.  You may gain new followers from your audience that wouldn't think to follow you on Twitter if you hadn't brought it up.
 

7. See What's Trending and Join the Conversation

By participating in a trending conversation that others are highly engaged in, you expose yourself to a whole new market.  People are already reading tweets on that particular topic and when you use the trending hashtag, your tweet is forced into the conversation thread.  Be interesting and offer a new perspective on a trending topic and people will be more likely to click through to your profile and follow you.
Use these tips in combination with valuable, engaging, and interesting content and you're sure to quickly grow your followers on Twitter!
Who Are You Following?
As a business who accepts credit cards, you should be sure to follow the major credit card brands on Twitter.  Here are easy links to their profiles.
Major Credit Card Brands on Twitter
https://twitter.com/Visa
https://twitter.com/MasterCard 
https://twitter.com/AmericanExpress
https://twitter.com/DiscoverSmBiz
And of course, for more great business tips, money saving tips for credit card processing, and event more social media tips, be sure to follow Novera Payment Solutions on Twitter!
https://twitter.com/NoveraPayment

About Novera Payment Solutions

Novera Payment Solutions is a leader in the credit card payments industry. We are committed to helping businesses improve their bottom line by providing significant savings on credit card processing fees through our innovative flat fee merchant account pricing model.

Contact Novera to learn more about how we work with businesses  to provide the most fair and transparent pricing structure available on the market today!

 

Request a FREE QUOTE

Tags: accept credit cards with quickbooks, accept credit cards, flat fee merchant account, accept mobile credit card payments, accept online credit cards, credit card processing, online credit card payments, hashtags

Phishing & Online Credit Card Payments ... What You Need To Know

Posted on Fri, Aug 22 2014 @ 09:44 AM

Pronounced like "fishing", phishing is a technique used by those with malicious intent to trick you into providing sensitive information online, like username/passwords, credit card payments information, and bank account information. This is obviously important for you to be aware of as an individual, but even more so as a business owner.

People who engage in phishing techniques vary in skill. The idea is they masquerade themselves as a known and trusted business, send you an email that appears to come from that business, and then ask you to click on a link in the email to confirm or enter information. Some phishing attempts are obvious, with blatant typos in the phishing email, shabby graphics, and suspect English. Others are highly skilled ... and even the most savvy internet user can be "taken" by the deceptive phishing attempt.

credit card payments phishing

Phishing attempts used to be limited to email for the most part, but now you'll find phishing attempts across social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. Some of the phishing attempts you may have seen in recent years appear to come from well known banks and the IRS. If you've ever been manipulated by a phishing scheme, you know the stress and trauma it can cause, not to mention the potential financial issues that can arise.

As a business owner who accepts online credit card payments, it's important to understand what phishing is. The worse case scenario is a malicious attempt to masquerade as YOUR business and solicit your customers for personal information. Business system security is the first step in protecting your business against this activity, but understanding what phishing criminals do to try to manipulate you and your customers is also essential. Information is power.

Types of Phishing

Phishing
As we've already defined it, phishing is a simple attempt to collect sensitive information using a disguised electronic communication.

Spear Phishing
This is a more targeted phishing attempt in which the perpetrator gains personal information about the target before sending the phishing attempt.  Personalizing the communication makes it more effective.

Clone Phishing
Clone phishing is when a perpetrator takes an ACTUAL email that was sent from a trusted source, copies it, and then resends it. These are highly effective for phishers, as well.

Whaling
Whaling is a phishing attempt targed at high level executives or high profile individuals.

Rogue WiFi
This phishing technique is slightly different in that the perpetrators setup rogue free WiFi hot spots rather sending electronic correspondence. They configure them to run man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks to steal sensitive information.

Phishing Techniques

Link Manipulation
By far the most common technique used is link manipulation. An individual will receive an email that appears to come from a trusted source (i.e. their bank) asking them to click on a link to verify information. Often, there is a scare tactic used. For example, "your account may have been compromised ... click here to reset your password".

The example below is a low quality phishing attempt, but rest assured, there were likely thousands of people who fell for it.

accept online card card payments

Notice the email appears to be from Wells Fargo. However "Wells Fargo" is misspelled as "Wellsfargo".  The email address it's from appears to be legit as serviceaccount@verify.wellsfargo.com.  In this case, the quality of the writing in the email is suspect, but it provides a link for the recipient to click to update their account information. Many people will simply click the link and do what is asked of them ... this is a mistake. When you roll your cursor over the link, you can see that the link does NOT take the user to Wells Fargo. Instead, it takes the user to a website called "www.successlibrary.info". This is definite evidence of a phishing scheme.  Once on this "suspect" website, the user may be asked to enter login information ... OR the website may just automatically download a trojan virus or keystroke tracking malware to the user's computer.

There are several other phishing techniques out there including filter evasion, website forgery, phone phishing, and tab nabbing. However, by far the most common technique involves link manipulation in emails that come from what appear to be trusted sources.

Protect Your Business & Your Customers

As a business owner who accepts online credit card payments and debit card payments, and who may have login areas for customer access, it's important for you to understand that there are criminals out there who attempt to take advantage of businesses to gain access to customer card holder data and bank account information.

You should educate your customers about never clicking on links in emails. As a customer, they should ALWAYS go directly to your website by entering the URL in their browser window before entering any type of payment information, login information, or personal information of any kind.

It's also critical that you keep your business systems secure so your client lists and their contact information cannot be compromised. If a perpetrator gains access to your client list they can engage in spear phishing ... it empowers them with information that enables them to personalize phishing emails to your customers, making it more likely that your customers will click through to the nepharious link.

Who is Novera Payment Solutions?

Novera Payment Solutions is well known as a leader in the credit card payments industry and is committed to helping businesses improve their bottom line by providing significant savings on credit card processing fees through our innovative flat fee merchant account.

Contact Novera to learn more about how we work with small businesses to provide the most fair and transparent pricing structure available on the market today for credit card processing and debit card processing.

 

Request a FREE QUOTE

 

Tags: accept credit cards, flat fee merchant account, accept mobile credit card payments, accept online credit cards, credit card processing, online credit card payments

Online Credit Card Processing & SSL - What You Need to Know

Posted on Tue, Aug 05 2014 @ 12:07 PM

Your customers should feel confident about the security of your website every time they pay online. As a merchant, it's your responsiblity to understand the fundamentals of online credit card payments and security. At the root of online security is SSL, or secure sockets layer. 

Here's what you need to know about SSL and Online Credit Card Payments for merchant account security.

What is SSL protection?

SSL provides privacy protection by encrypting the communication between your website and the consumer. It is basically a mathematical formula. SSL takes the the information you exchange on your website and turns it into a complex code. This makes it so that even if the data exchanged is intercepted by a hacker, the data would be extremely difficult to read.

When SSL is enabled on a website, it helps the consumer’s web browser scramble their personal information before it gets sent to you (the merchant) to complete the transaction. Once sent, SSL allows only your software to unscramble the data sent. With SSL, you can complete transactions with the assurance that others cannot access the personal information (i.e. credit card numbers) as it travels across the Internet, from the consumers computer to your website eCommerce software.

How to Tell if a Website has SSL

To find out if your online credit card payments are protected by SSL, look for the picture of the unbroken key or closed lock in your browser window. Either indicator confirms SSL is activated.

Another way to verify if SSL is protecting your online credit card payments is to check the URL of the website you are on. You should see it change from "http" to "https" when processing secure transactions.

 

secure online credit card processing

 

How to Get SSL on Your Website

There are four basic steps involved in getting SSL on your website.

  1. Purchase SSL Certificate
  2. Generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request)
  3. Enroll for a SSL server certificate
  4. Install the SSL server cerificate

It sounds pretty technical, but typically your website hosting provider guides you through this process as you setup your online storefront and merchant account credit card payments capability.

SSL is Just the Beginning of Your Security Requirements

SSL is only the beginning of your responsibility for protecting card holder data transacted through your website. PCI Compliance is an absolute must. According to the PCI Security Standards Council, more than 340 million computer records containing sensitive personal information have been involved in security breaches in the U.S. since 2005, and more than 80% of the attacks targeted small merchants. If you are at fault for a security breach involving card holder data, the fallout and penalties can be severe for your business. For more on PCI Compliance, read our recent blog article: 7 Reasons Why You Should Care About Protecting Card Holder Data

At Novera Payment Solutions we work hard to take to take the headache out of PCI Compliance for you.  Give us a call ... not only will we save you money over your current credit card processing solution with our flat fee merchant account, but we will guide you through PCI Compliance maze and make it simple to get up and running!

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Tags: accept credit cards, flat fee merchant account, accept mobile credit card payments, accept online credit cards, credit card processing, flat fee credit card processing, online credit card payments