MONEY SAVING TIPS

AVS:

AVS stands for "Address Verification Service." It is a validation system that determines whether or not the street number and zip code entered by the purchaser is actually a match with the issuing bank's "on file" information for that same cardholder.

It is important to know that AVS does not work on most foreign cards, and the AVS service is not available overseas. This is one of the reasons why foreign transactions are considered "higher risk" by U.S. banks and why such transactions have a higher cost. When you key in a card, try to get the correct street number (example: If the address is 400 N 100 W, the street number would be 400) and the correct zip code. This will help the transaction get approved on the lowest possible discount rate.

Understanding a Batch:

Whenever you run through one or more sales transactions, you are granted an "authorization code" for each successful one. These authorization codes and transactions are grouped together into a "batch."

At the end of each day, you may be set up to automatically "settle” your batch - which means we transmit the list of orders through the bankcard network which subsequently serves to begin the funds transfer process between the cardholder's bank and our merchant bank. Or, you may have chosen to enter the batch manually. Either way, batching on time will prevent your transactions from downgrading due to failing to batch within 24 hours of a transaction.

PIN Debit:

Often overlooked is the PIN debit system. Using this system, your customers can choose to enter their PIN (Personal Identification Number) into a PINpad similar to using an ATM machine. Using PIN debit will reduce your overall processing fees, and will also completely eliminate any potential downgrades for PIN Debit transactions.