DOES EMG CHARGE A PCI COMPLIANCE FEE?

Yes, in the amount of $124.75 per merchant account. EMG auto-enrolls every merchant account in the PCI Smart Program. This program is supported by a company, Trustwave, that performs third-party analysis on merchant accounts to determine their level of compliance within the Payment Card Industry.

Is this fee really necessary?

Over the course of many years, EMG has determined, like most merchant service providers, that the steps being taken to secure credit card data at the merchant level are simply not enough. The exposure to both the merchant and the processor is becoming greater and greater with more class-action lawsuits being filed against both merchants and processors alike. In order to secure both parties, EMG has determined that a PCI compliance program is absolutely necesary to ensure that both parties are equally protected.

Why should the merchant pay the fee and not EMG?

As it stands, EMG and its family of partners spend millions of dollars every year in extensive security and PCI audits on all of our systems and procedures. The PCI Smart Program that merchants are enrolled in is geared specifically on a merchant level.

Is there any way out of the fee?

If a merchant has been previously certified through another companies PCI compliance program, then they simply need to present the certification to the PCI support team (pci@e-mg.com) and the fee will be refunded. However, the PCI auditing process does need to be completed on an annual basis so the fee is only able to be waived the first year unless the merchant has another PCI certification company providing this analysis for them.