Seymour Direct

Mobile Terminal

Seymour Direct — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:16:02 +0000

Accepting credit card payments on the move requires a no nonsense approach and mobile businesses often need to hire a portable card machine over specific amount of time, contracts can be as short as a week but usually over longer time periods such as 24 months.

If you want to hire a mobile terminal you will need a merchant processing account, if you don’t already have one of these Seymour Direct can get you set up with one of their acquiring banks. This account is required in order for credit and debit card payments to be accepted and transferred into your assigned business account.

You could save money on merchant service charges but you would need to provide certain information about your business that would be passed on to the acquirer. You should supply Seymour Direct with the average cost of your products or services so they can look at your annual turnover, the acquiring bank would also want to know your business account information, the type of business and any guarantees/warranties offered to customers.

If you decide on mobile PDQ terminal hire then you can expect it to come ‘ready to use’, this means you get sim card hire, full customer service and warranty, you can also be assured that you will only be sent one invoice for merchant processing fees and airtime.

Seymour Direct handle both the setting up of your merchant account and the supplying of your portable credit card terminal, many other providers in the payment processing industry use a third party to supply the terminals but Seymour Direct are on hand if you have any queries or problems operating your device.

One of the great things about applying for mobile credit card terminals with a merchant processing provider like this is that you will see a fast turn around for your business, you will not be wasting time phoning around different service providers regarding the airtime or fees on your terminals since it is handled by one company.

With Seymour Direct you can choose between a variety of mobile networks since all of the Ingenico mobile terminals provided use GSM/GPRS, this means you can use the network provider that you have had good experience with in the past. The terminals all have the highest degree of security in line with PCI compliance and can ensure you quick bank authorization on transactions, if there are any other questions or requirements you might have then don’t hesitate to fill out the simple contact form onsite.

Mobile Credit Card Terminal

Seymour Direct — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:25:06 +0000

There are several types of portable machines that enable you to accept credit or debit cards on the move. In this blog I will concentrate on the two most commonly used which are Bluetooth and Mobile GPRS versions. The Bluetooth Portable card machines, sometimes referred to as a Wireless Credit Card Machine, is very often used by restaurants who want to take the card payment at the table ensuring that the diner is in full control of their card and does not end up in the wrong hands. During recent years Bluetooth portable machines are also being used by other types of businesses such as hair salons, builders merchants, garden centres etc who want to provide a better shopping experience plus be able to close a sale quickly, such within a large garden centre, before customers talk themselves out of the purchase.

The vast majority of Bluetooth Portable Machines communicate with the bank via a telephone line that is connected to its docking cradle which also acts as a charger. Some recent machines have the facility to connect to the bank via an Ethernet cable connected to the internet through a router. These portable machines are referred to as Portable Bluetooth IP (Internet Protocol) and are very fast and have the added advantage of not needing to use a phone line which can save a lot of money in line rental charges. There are also WiFi Credit Card Machines which use a wireless internet network to connect to a bank; however these machines can be tricky to set up.

A Mobile Credit Card machine uses similar mobile telephone technology to connect to the bank in order to obtain authorisation and check against fraud transactions. These machines are battery operated which are rechargeable by placing the handset on a charging cradle just like a DECT portable phone used in a home. The battery life is usually more than sufficient for one day of card transactions however for very busy businesses a spare fully charged battery pack would be advisable and a car charger can also be purchased to ensure the battery is in tip top condition. Mobile Credit Card Machines are used by all types of trades from market stalls to emergency plumbers, wanting to take a card payment on completion of the sale or job without the worries of taking a cheque that may bounce.

So there you have it all you need to know about which Ingenico Wireless Credit Card Machine you should order from Seymour Direct. Further help can be obtained by calling 0800 980 4007

High Risk Merchant Account

Seymour Direct — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:20:52 +0000

Discussing Your High Risk Merchant Account

There are some cases in which the merchant applying for a card machine may be assessed by their issuer as ‘high risk’. These cases most often arise when the merchant has an especially high volume of turnover in a business market that also has a greater percentage of fraud in comparison to other markets. In such scenarios, the merchant is eligible for a high risk merchant account.

Of course there are a wide range of business models that could potentially fall into this high risk category, such as furniture retailers, travel agents, auctioneers, etc. However, the most common who apply for these accounts include pharmaceutical companies and betting or gambling organisations. They offer an alternative form of card processing solutions for special circumstances.

Potentially, the business in question will be subject to higher credit and debit card rates, while other particular terms may also be included in the contract, such as an annual fee or a rolling reserve – this is a percentage holding (ordinarily in the region of 10%) of the merchant’s approved transactions over the course of an agreed period of time, held back with the intention of paying off any chargebacks which may be stated against the new account. A fraudulent credit card payment is seen far more in these types of businesses and so issuers look to protect themselves from commonplace chargebacks.

If you think your business may be classified as ‘high risk’, don’t be reluctant in applying for a merchant account and a card machine. The same benefits of accepting card payments apply as with any business, plus, in the case of a potentially high risk company, it is more important than ever to set up as much payment protection as you can and reduce the possibility of fraud in the future, such as ensuring that your customer enters their pin number into your PDQ Machine. The same safety measures can be implemented as with any standard ecommerce merchant account, such as 3D Secure and fraud screening (see blog posts below for a comprehensive summary of the protective measures that you can take).

Remember, Seymour Direct looks to accept all types of businesses, and by working closely with several of the country’s leading acquiring banks, your chances of being approved as a member with us have never been better. Contact us to discuss your options in card processing solutions.

Stef Lenza

6th February 2012

Payment Methods

Seymour Direct — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:35:18 +0000

Electronic payment methods are now standard at almost every small business or retail store that wants to capitalize on credit card processing, this is due to the fact that 64% of the UK adult population own a card shown in the official report here.

As with any new technology, Chip and PIN is a challenge to get used to at first and you will have to calculate your budget to allow for card transaction fees but it will help your business compete with rivals and it will open you up to a whole new revenue stream.

Whether you want to accept payments face-to-face in a store environment or if it is an eCommerce shop, you must pay a small percentage towards the ‘payment processor’ or ‘payment service provider’ for verifying the card holders details with the card issuer and notifying the merchant bank that the funds will be deposited in your account.

The first step to taking payments from customers by card is to apply for a merchant account through a provider such as Seymour Direct, they are particularly helpful towards business owners who might not be very familiar with how merchant services are handled. After you have been assessed for risk factors and your documentation has been sent off and approved by the acquiring bank, you will be sent a PDQ machine that reads customers credit cards.

As this blog post is intended to explain, there are many ways to accept card payments and this also includes telephone and online payment methods. They work in a similar manner to face-to-face payments in the fact that you require a merchant account and the usual payment processing checks are carried out, however, they are also known as ‘Card Not Present’ transactions and because of this are considered higher risk.

Seymour Direct will provide you with a virtual terminal for processing a customers card details whilst you speak with them on the phone, all you need is an internet connection and no website is required because they send you a specific address where the interface can be accessed.

It is also interesting to note that online business now accounts for a huge percentage of a card transactions, in fact over 70% of the UK adult population has purchased goods online according statistics in 2010. Before you can accept a large amount card payments online you will need an internet merchant account, Seymour Direct can get you approved and set up since we are official business partners with Sagepay.

Consumer Credit Act

Seymour Direct — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:58:08 +0000

Know the Law for Accepting Credit Card Payments!

Now that you have your credit card terminals in place and you’re free to accept credit cards, you will be attracting more business through your door from people who insist on using their credit card because they know their rights under Section 75. It’s important to know the loopholes and exceptions when it comes to dealing with Section 75 claims. The following 4 points provide scenarios in which the legal protection of the customer under Section 75 becomes invalid…

• Third party purchases are where credit card payments go to an organisation that is not supplying the goods or service. You’re unlikely to make a successful claim when a credit card is used for payments to a third party company because the credit card company ( bank ) must have a direct relationship with the supplier of the goods or service for them to be equally liable. However, when booking a flight through a travel agent, customers are likely to make a successful claim should the chosen airline go into liquidation before the service is provided.

• There are such instances when a claim will be made for a goods or services that does not directly benefit the primary card holder. These claims would not be successful. Any card that is set up by person A for the use of person B, like a child or friend, which is used in payment of an item not intended for person A will not be protected by Section 75.

• Credit card payments for land are regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Therefore, this indirect relationship will also sever any ties with Section 75 law.

• And finally, credit card cheques or payments made with cash withdrawals will also fall short of any protection under this legislation.

Other than these, the customer is likely to make a successful claim – though of course each claim will vary from the next – so ensure you’re clued up on the card holder’s rights when you begin card processing.

It’s also important to remember that the holder can pay only a fraction of the total amount for any one good or service on their credit card, perhaps in the form of a deposit, in order to gain legal protection in a transaction that goes wrong. And credit card payments for goods overseas are protected as well!

Clearly, with these rights in place, customers are far more willing to invest the time in applying for their own cards, so should you not accept credit cards yourself a major opportunity will be lost. Seymour Direct can arrange these credit card services for you, among a range of other cost-saving strategies, in recognition of the increasing importance of credit card machines for small business.

Stef Lenza

17th January 2012

Accepting Credit Cards

Seymour Direct — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:30:42 +0000

Why You Should Accept Cards

Credit Card Purchases:

As a small business if you do not accept cards from your customers you are probably loosing valuable sales from customers who prefer to use credit cards instead of cash or cheques because they know their rights under Section 75 should something go wrong with the purchase

What is Section 75?

The next series of posts focuses on credit card purchases, specifically exploring the ramifications of the law specified in ‘Section 75’ of the Consumer credit Act 1974.

Section 75 is a piece of legislation that states a credit card issuer ( bank ) can be held equally liable in a credit card transaction for faulty goods, should the credit card payment exist within the boundary of £100-£30,000. For example, the value of an order placed with an online retailer worth £500 will be refunded by the issuer, if the retailer were to go out of business before delivery of the purchase. The regulation will also apply if goods are broken upon delivery or a service has been falsely advertised, etc. Claims can be made whether the customer has paid through a physical card machine or a virtual terminal.

So, by making use of card payments on a regular basis, the customer is far more likely to be protected by law if the transaction does not bear the fruit intended. If unsure as to whether entitled to a section 75 claim, credit card holders should check if a Debtor-Creditor-Supplier agreement is in place when the transaction is made – this is the indisputable link between the credit card payment and the goods or service purchased; effectively, it is proof to the finance company of the direct relationship between the two parties. Bank loans are an example of indirect funding, so the law does not protect the card holder in these cases, regardless of the value of the loan.

Another pitfall is in regard of the interest that issuers charge with every transaction. Its value, in most cases, will often compensate for the claim itself and protection becomes useless anyway. Experts suggest avoiding this by setting up a monthly direct debit that pays off the card so as not to have to pay interest at all.

In the cases of debit and prepaid cards, or a credit card payment of value below £100, section 75 does not apply, although alternatively card holders may be able to claim chargeback, in which a supplier’s own bank offers money back for faulty card payments. More often than not, card holders will make this claim when they believe a transaction has been authorised without their knowledge.

Section 75 is but another form of card processing solutions for the card holder and a vital piece of legislation that it pays to become familiar with. Consumers have become very aware of their rights when making purchases and are more likely to use a card when making a purchase.

Stef Lenza

12th January 2012

Accept Cards

Seymour Direct — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:23:08 +0000

One of the most important points we try to emphasize over and over to our customers is the fact that more and more people now expect to pay for products and services with a credit card. How often have you been to a store and although you only want to buy something cheap, you still reach for your wallet and pull out a credit or debit card because its more convenient than drawing out cash to pay.

You might be hesitant about whether to accept cards at your small business, even though you’ve heard there are many flexible packages and options regarding PDQ machine equipment. To make you aware in more detail the advantages of accepting card payments, here are some bullet points:

• You will increase sales because customers have more options of payment type, even if they wanted to pay with cash they might not have enough on them but they will always have a card in their wallet.

• With the introduction of Chip and PIN machines in the UK, Merchants are guaranteed payment when a customer purchases an item since they cannot claim that some else used their card because they are the only one with the pincode.

• When you set up your payment processing through a merchant services provider such as Seymour Direct, you will know exactly how much each transaction will cost and you can then work out your return on investment.

• It has been proven over the years that people using a credit card spend more while shopping than using cash or a cheque.

The statistics show that nearly *94% of adults in the UK hold either a credit or debit card and 66% of all payments occur via credit and debit card, this means that you are competing with your rivals who accept cards.

You could drastically cut down on costs and time spent transporting large amounts of cash via secure measures and trips to the bank, these savings can be re-invested into other areas of your business.

Merchant Services is an expanding field within the financial sector because providers such as Seymour Direct can give you the advice and resources to expand your sales reach with card payments. We have been in this industry for over a decade and have seen how rapidly technology is progressing, this is why we are able to advise merchant’s on merchant account’s, eCommerce websites and virtual terminals.

If you are considering setting up any of the above payment systems, why not chat to one of our trained advisors via our live chat facility or phone our 24 hour freephone helpline 0800 908 4007 we look forward to hearing from you.

*Nilson Report 2010.

Merchant Card Services

Seymour Direct — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:13:59 +0000

If you own a retail store front, have an eCommerce website, telephone or mail order business, Seymour Direct can offer you some of the most efficient and cost effective ways to accept credit cards.

Various business types need different payment processing solutions, for example, if you are a retail merchant that sells business to business(B2B) then you will need merchant card services which are fast, reliable and offer extensive PCI security testing.

Aside from our state-of-the-art PDQ machine technology which can be reviewed in full by downloading the following PDF’s(Countertop,Bluetooth,Mobile), Seymour Direct’s goal is to offer services to business owners which transcends their expectations formed from current or previous merchant services they have experienced.

Hospitality industries such as restaurants or guesthouses usually have special rates because the transactions are carried out face to face but Seymour Direct accesses every business we receive applications from to surpass the rates they would expect for card payments.

You may be searching for what is known as a MOTO merchant account, which refers to Mail Order/Telephone Order payment processing. Card transactions which are keyed in by yourself via a virtual terminal such as the ones we described in the last blog post are different to when a payment is made face to face. If this is where the majority of your orders come from then you will not be able to verify the card holders chip card or pin-code and this could increase risk, however, Seymour Direct work with payment service providers like Sagepay to offer you the most secure and affordable virtual terminals.

Remember, if you want to accept payments for an online store or for telephone and mail orders through a virtual terminal, you will have to set up different merchant accounts to the one which handles your stores payments because like already stated these transactions occur under different circumstances.

Our regular merchant account application form sets up Visa and Mastercard, American Express, Maestro and JCB, which means you can accept credit and debit card payment. If you aren’t taking debit card payments from your customers, you should think again since you may be able to arrange fixed fees per transaction with the acquirer.

In today’s merchant services world there are so many options available to suit different needs. Seymour Direct has provided solutions for businesses ranging from chauffeurs to chain brand hair salons, see our testimonials and enquire to find out what system we advise for payment at your business.

Virtual Terminal

Seymour Direct — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:01:02 +0000

Following on in our tradition of explaining generic terms of online payment systems, today I wanted to talk about the ‘Virtual Terminal‘ and what it can offer your small business if you decide to set one up.

A virtual terminal is a method of processing payments via the internet but is used for businesses who want to manually process individual transactions received via telephone, fax or mail order.

Seymour Direct only provide the best virtuals terminals for our customers because we are business partners with Sagepay and because of our long standing relationship with them we know what requirements they expect to get you approved for your internet merchant account.

Your Virtual Terminal is a stand alone application which allows you to log in whilst talking to your customer on the telephone, you do not need to install any hardware or software on your end.

One great feature about the Virtual Terminal is that you can customize it to include specific details about your customers business, this can then be stored and help you answer questions on how best to target other potential sales. All of the latter information can be accessed through the reporting tool and there is ‘Live Support’ if you have any concerns or issues regarding a particular customer.

You don’t require a website or a swipe machine to handle payments with a virtual terminal, as long as you have an internet connection you can train your call center staff and have multiple transactions being processed simultaneously.

Credit & Debit card transactions via a Virtual Terminal will take about three working days before credited to your bank account. However the acquiring bank that provides you with the Merchant Number ( needed when using a virtual Terminal ) has the final decision when setting up your crediting timescale at the very beginning of your Merchant Account application, taking into account the risk to the acquirer and card holder for non delivery of goods or services.

With your new virtual terminal you will get near instant responses from the acquiring bank when authorizing payments, it allows you to generate receipts and delivery notes for issuing a customer with.

You can be sure that Seymour Direct will only provide you with encryption PCI compliant level 1 virtual terminals, there is also an integrated velocity check fraud analysis. If you have any other queries about the requirements for your business then don’t hesitate to speak to one of our payment experts here.

Payment Service Provider

Seymour Direct — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 02:59:16 +0000

One term that we often use throughout our blog here is ‘Payment Service Provider’ or PSP, it can be a lot to comprehend with all of the keywords relating to merchant services and this is why we title our posts so they are easy to find.

A Payment Service Provider connects to many acquiring banks and card issuers to allow online businesses to handle a large amount of transactions at once without having to rely on financial institutions or handle the connections individually.

A full Payment Service Provider like the ones acquired for you by Seymour Direct can also equip your business with risk management services for credit card based payments, reporting and advice on PCI fraud protection.

What are the Reasons for using a Payment Service Provider?

• Any issues you have with a particular payment, you only have to contact one company to have them resolved, as mentioned in the latter paragraphs you will not have to contact any customer card issuing banks and this saves a lot of time.

• It is very quick to set up a PSP rather than establish relationships with banks individually, a PSP already has existing experience with acquirers and can negotiate deals.

• You can start using the Payment system straight away because the interface is already set up. It can be expensive to design your own payment interface with all of the necessary PCI requirements, by using a PSP, you know the system is already fully functional and has been tested thoroughly.

eCommerce

As with the eCommerce blog post that was written previously, there are also many factors that make up a ‘Payment Service Provider’. A PSP should provide all of the technical options available for you to collect credit card details, whether this is by redirecting customers from your site to their hosted pages or a way of integrating authorization remotely into your pages.

Effective online payment services should include the right reporting and administrative tools which allow you to manage your payments efficiently. If you have access to to real-time transaction details and are able to download statistics, you will have answers on how to target future sales.

Your personal bank might offer a PSP, however, a dedicated PSP such as the one Seymour Direct would supply you with specialize solely in online payment services and will have a wide range of solutions for you to choose from as well as full support for backup.