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Honoring the Code: Ethical practices key to industry success |
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Through the years, the bankcard business has evolved into a multi-billion dollar marketplace that touts honest, ethical professionals at its core. However, several incidents have tarnished the industry’s reputation, including the 2002 Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against CMS alleging deceptive modification of customer contracts and unauthorized debit of customer accounts and the FTC’s recent suit against Merchant Processing Inc. alleging the ISO misled merchants. Are ethics breaches a growing problem or is it diminishing due to adoption of prudent standards and practices? Everyone, it seems, has an opinion and the answer depends on whom you talk to.
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Several Alternatives for Alternative Payments |
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It seems that every time that you turn around, there’s a new alternative payment product or system hitting the market. One of the latest is GratisCard, backed by AOL co-founder Steve Case. This PIN-protected credit-debit-prepaid card will charge merchants a processing fee that is capped at 0.5 percent. Of course, heavyweight in the alternative payments space is eBay-owned PayPal, with more than 140 million users. Another heavyweight to keep an eye on is Google, with its Google Checkout service. Other alternatives to traditional credit and debit cards for merchants are products offered by Tempo Payments, National Payment Card, Pay By Touch, eBillme and Bill Me Later.
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Funding Surge: Selling Advance Funding |
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The advance-funding bandwagon is starting to roll. AdvanceMe Inc., probably the oldest and largest provider, reports growth of more than 60 percent between first-quarter 2006 and first-quarter 2007 in its ISO channel, which accounts for more than 70 percent of its advances, according to Glenn Goldman, CEO.
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Merchant Cash Advances: Legal Issues |
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One of the hot products ISOs can offer to merchants that accept credit cards is the merchant cash advance. While the cash advance product has been around for many years, it has not been a product embraced by ISOs and others in the credit card processing space.
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President's Letter: An Advocate in a Fast-Moving Industry |
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This is my first letter to the readers of Transaction Trends as president of the Electronic Transactions Association. It comes at a time of change for the electronic transactions industry. In my remarks as incoming president to ETA’s membership at the annual meeting in April, I noted that over 16 years ETA hasn’t stood still and I promised to build on the work of my predecessors. I also promised to maintain ETA’s emphasis
on being an advocate for our industry, providing a forum for networking among industry professionals, offering top-flight educational products and being a first-class source of information for and about our industry.
Read the full article.
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Industry Insider: TenderCard |
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It’s no secret that ISOs can no longer rely solely on price and profits to retain merchants. As
TenderCard CEO Aaron Sorgman puts it, “If you live by the price, you’ll die by the price.”
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Online Issues 
