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April 2012 Interchange Modification Notification for Payment Processing
April 02, 2012 - 13:18:16
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April 02, 2012 - 13:18:16
Category: All
By Dan DeBraal
April 2012 Interchange Modification Notification for Payment Processing
There are a number of new and enhanced fee structures effective April 1, 2012 being implemented by VISA, MasterCard, and Discover Card. Wind River Financial believes in transparency of all association fees applicable to your merchant processing costs, so we will be passing through these new fees with no mark-ups or changes. There are hundreds of fee structures and not all are applicable to all card types or to all merchants, so detailed below are the few that will affect most merchants’ day to day transaction processing costs. For a full listing of these new fees please go to our web site in our Client Links and Resource Library and look for the titleApril 2012 Interchange Modifications.
VISA Transaction Integrity Fee - Beginning on April 1, 2012, VISA will charge a $0.10 fee for each signature debit card that is not eligible to qualify for the Custom Payment Service (CPS) program. This fee is intended to promote processing and transaction quality standards in the newly regulated debit environment. This fee will be charged in addition to the applicable interchange fee. To avoid this fee, make sure you obtain a card swipe for card present transactions and include an invoice number along with an AVS attempt for card not present transactions. For further details please contact your Wind River Financial Relationship Manager.
VISA Acquirer Processing Fee – This VISA fee will be reduced from $0.0195 to $0.0155 on all VISA branded debit authorizations. (Credit authorizations will remain at the current $0.0195).
VISA Interlink Switch Fee – The VISA Interlink Switch Fee will change from $0.035 per transaction to $0.0225 + 0.08% which will be capped at $0.035 per transaction.
Discover Card Acquirer Assessment Fee – Discover will increase their Acquirer Assessment Fee from the current 0.100% of the gross amount of Discover Card sales volume to 0.105%.
Posted by: Dan DeBraal
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April 2012 Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF) Notification
April 02, 2012 - 13:08:16
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April 02, 2012 - 13:08:16
Category: All
By: Dan DeBraal
April 2012 Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF) Notification
In an earlier blog we spoke about a new fee effective April 1, 2012 introduced by VISA called the VISA Fixed Acquirer Network Processing Fee (FANF). As you may recall this new VISA fee will vary from month to month dependent on merchant volume, number of merchant IDs (MID), and combination of Card Present/Card Not Present transactions. For Card Present locations the fee will be $2.00-$5.00 per month for most locations. For Card-Not-Present transactions, the fee is based on monthly sales volume and will be $2.00 -$15.00 for most merchants. However, in either category, large merchant sales volumes may carry monthly fees as high as $65- $1500+ per month.
At the time of the blog we were in direct contact with VISA to clarify the new fee structure and minimize the impact for all our merchants. Those discussions continue, but we do not have any indication that the effective date of April 1, 2012 will change so we have posted further detail of the FANF on our web site in our Client Links & Resource Library titled April 2012 Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF).
We continue to work with VISA on these fees and will keep you posted if things change.
Posted by: Dan DaBraal
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Recent Fraud Scam Involving Wiring of Funds
March 27, 2012 - 13:07:24
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March 27, 2012 - 13:07:24
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By Becky
Recent Fraud Scam Involving Wiring of Funds
There have been recent attempts by fraudsters to trick merchants into wiring funds.
How it works: The fraudster commonly initiates communication via email and attempts to place a large order, or several orders, using more than one credit card. The credit cards numbers are often the same except for the last few digits. The fraudster then tricks the merchant into wiring funds to prepay the freight company for shipping, insurance, etc.
The Result: The credit cards used for the orders are all stolen. As the physical card was not present for the transactions, there is little the merchant can do to fight chargebacks once the legitimate cardholders realize that they have fraud charges on their credit cards and dispute the transactions. If the merchant shipped the product, they will be out the product and payment. If funds were wired, the wired funds will also be a loss.
Red Flags:
Orders that arrive via email
Larger than normal orders
Use of multiple credit cards
Credit card numbers seem sequential (begin with same digits)
Customer asks merchant to wire funds (regardless of reason)
Shipping address does not match billing address on credit card (AVS)
Overseas orders
Customer reinitiating contact to confirm amounts were approved on credit cards
Customer request to use a specific freight company
If you have been the victim of one of these scams, please contact Wind River Financial Risk Management (800)704-7253.
Posted by: Becky Tjugum
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VISA Announces a New Fee
March 19, 2012 - 16:05:02
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March 19, 2012 - 16:05:02
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VISA Announces a New Fee
By now, most merchants have heard of the Durbin amendment that took effect in October 2011 and the Federal Reserve’s mandated interchange controls on all debit transactions.
The result was that most merchants experienced significant reductions in their debit card processing fees which they have been enjoying since. Visa has responded to the “altered competitive landscape” the Durbin amendment has created by announcing a new Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF).
This new FANF expands VISA’s current approach to assessing merchant fees beyond applying interchange on sales volume. The FANF fee will be applied as a monthly fee (in addition to interchange) starting at $2.00 a month per merchant for card present transactions, card not present transactions, and e-commerce transactions. These monthly fees scale higher based on the number of locations a merchant has and the monthly sales volume of each type of transaction. In addition, VISA has announced a reduction in their variable debit fees which they believe will offset the FANF increases. Visa’s claim is that the changes in these fees will offset FANF for most merchants. Wind River does not believe this is the case.
Some payment processors bundle new fees and add margin to them before passing them onto the merchant. Wind River Financial does not. We maintain transparency by directly passing through only those fees that VISA charges. We also take great pains in making sure to provide the best available service to our merchants, so we are in direct contact with VISA to clarify the new fee structure and minimize the impact for all of our merchants. Further, the payment industry as a whole, through the Electronic Transaction Association, has sent a letter to VISA requesting a delay of this new fee implementation until further definition takes place. (View the letter here http://www.electran.org/docs/ir/ETA_Letter-Visa_FANF_2012-03-07.pdf)
Wind River Financial appreciates your business and we will be providing the specific program information as soon as we have received VISA’s response to our inquiries as well as the ETA’s request for delay.
Posted by: Dan
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Visa Data Security Bulletin
March 19, 2012 - 12:10:25
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March 19, 2012 - 12:10:25
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Visa has issued a data security bulletin related to a remote access utility that many businesses use to access their business networks remotely. Please see text from the bulletin below.
Insecure remote access continues to be the most frequent attack method used by intruders to gain access to a merchant's point-of-sale (POS) environment. It is therefore critical that acquirers, processors, agents and merchants take preventative measures to address any potential risks.
Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol Visa would like to alert clients to the latest Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS12-020) issued on 13 March 2012. The Bulletin provides information on a critical security update which addresses vulnerabilities in the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). As per Microsoft alert, these vulnerabilities affect all supported releases of Microsoft Windows and could allow remote code execution. Microsoft customers who have automatic updating enabled will not need to take any action because this security update will be downloaded and installed automatically, however all other customers who have not enabled automatic updating should check for updates and install this update manually. For more information clients should refer to the Microsoft Bulletin. Link to the page Symantec: pcAnywhere Visa would also like to remind clients of a recent security alert published by Symantec. A Technical White Paper relating to pcAnywhere security updates can be accessed at the below link:
Posted by: By Doug
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