FAQ Page

Be careful when relying on PayPal. Although their service terms seem liberating, in the event of a fraudulent transaction or a charge back, their Terms of Service agreement gives them unrestricted rights to hold  and remove all funds form your PayPal and checking accounts. You are processing transactions through an account that doesn’t belong to you. This means that your rights are very limited in the event of a dispute. Be prepared to ask questions about service terms upfront. With a traditional Merchant Account from Reliable Card Service, you have total control over your bank account and how transactions are conducted.

PayPal is referred to as a 3rd party payment processor. This means that with PayPal you process payments through their merchant account. They charge a fee slightly higher than what they are paying.
One of the advantages to PayPal is that there are no credit checks, no monthly minimums, no monthly service fees, no contract and their shopping cart is free. Other 3rd party payment processors, like ProPay, The Square and 2checkout.com, use similar models, but some of them do have set-up or monthly fees in addition to higher per transaction fees.
Disadvantages often include flimsy security features, higher rates, fewer options for you and your customers and longer hold times before money is made available to you.

The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (DSS) is a set of requirements for enhancing payment account data security. These standards were developed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which was founded by American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa, Inc., to facilitate industry-wide adoption of consistent data security measures on a global basis.

The cardholder does not have enough funds to cover the cost of the purchase.

• Lower stolen card fraud (when verified by a PIN)
• Fewer chargebacks because EMV verifies that the cardholder was present
• More satisfied customers because cardholders know their card will work; this is especially important for travelers from other countries where EMV cards are prevalent

• Offers enhanced cardholder verification
• Makes it virtually impossible for criminals to counterfeit cards
• Validates the authenticity of each transaction with a unique digital signature

In October 2015, Retail merchants that Swipe without EMV capability in their POS system will hold the liability for transactions with counterfeit cards. Failure to comply means that the merchant will be held financially responsible for any resulting card-present counterfeit card losses. For example a small ticket item coffee shop can afford to absorb a few fraudulent transactions at $5 each, but a jewelry store owner would feel quite differently about the loss on a single $10,000 transaction.

• EMV stands for Europay International, MasterCard, and Visa and helps stop counterfeiting and fraudulent payments.
• Rather than a magnetic stripe, EMV uses a microprocessor chip embedded in the card.
• EMV cards can be either debit cards or credit cards and are often referred to as chip cards or smart cards.

• Built‐in printer
• Dual communication compatible with phone line, DSL or cable
• Quick load clamshell paper load
• Internal PIN pad for debit transactions
• Online access to daily merchant account activity
• *As an added bonus, we also provide our retail customers with a free image check reader for check guarantee and deposit

Yes! Reliable Card Service happily accepts applications from non U.S. citizens.

Have you ever wondered, “who pays for your credit card rewards / Air miles?” or “why do some stores have credit card minimums”? The short answer is interchange: a fee the store, or “merchant,” pays every time you run a transaction. Interchange is like a tax the merchants pays to allow consumers to make purchases  via debit or credit card. Interchange accounts for 78% of assessments  fees and they varies from card to card, and is set by payment networks like Visa® and MasterCard.

The bank that issued the credit card being used will also want to be paid. The largest percentages of processing fees are paid to banks.

Visa.com

Mastercard.com

• 1 Simply Complete merchant account application
• 2 Select payment type (swipe terminal, gateway, virtual terminal, POS, mobile)
• 3 Start Processing!

Visa / MasterCard Card Associations have different criteria for evaluating the potential risk involved in credit card transactions where the card is not physically presented to the merchant. This type of business is typically referred to as “card not present” or “MO/TO” (mail order/telephone order). For this reason, a separate merchant account is needed.We STRONGLY recommend that any retail location that is keying in transactions over the phone, IMMEDIATELY contact us to create a MOTO (Mail Order/Telephone Order Account). This is the ONLY way to protect keyed in transactions from chargebacks and fraud. REMEMBER! ONLY SHIP TO THE BILLING ADDRESS. And to instruct, in writing, their delivery service (UPS/FEDEX) not to reroute ANY package.

We can reprogram your existing compatible terminal or POS system.
Note: Include your terminal make and model or your point of sale payment application name and version number.

Reliable Card Service is recommending alternative EMV compliant, oftentimes, standalone solutions for our clients.

Many merchants are tied to Integrated POS systems and their associated software and gateways which have not been certified for EMV — Software Programs such as Aloha, Oracle, Authorize.net.
Aloha, Oracle, Authorize.net etc., have all promised to have their software “certified” by April of 2016. This is NOT going to happen.

If considering a new EMV compliant POS system (there are some out there), take precaution to avoid the financially devastating proprietary software solutions prevalent in the industry.

These solutions are built into the POS software and are often given away for “free” if the merchant processes through the POS’ companies processing provider.

Once locked into this proprietary Point of Sale system, the merchant has literally given over control of the single most important form of payment to their business.

Once this fiscal control is relinquished, the merchant then begins to watch his costs climb uncontrollably. At that point, the only alternative the merchant has is to completely replace his entire POS system in order to escape the financial hemorrhaging created by the free and proprietary solution.

Depending on the size of the merchant, this cost can run anywhere from a few thousand dollars up to a few hundred thousand dollars.

For example: Proprietary systems like Smythe Retail, Liquor POS, CardConnex should be avoided as there are other products equally as efficient, without holding the merchants revenue hostage to convoluted and unmanageable costs and pricing matrices.

The PCI DSS can be confusing, which makes it difficult for some merchants to figure out which SAQ applies to them. That’s why our DataGuardian portal includes a questionnaire selection wizard, which helps your merchants select the SAQ that’s right for their business. Merchants simply answer a few questions and the system will present the SAQ that best matches how they process transactions.

Level 1 and Level 2 merchants are not covered through the Data Breach Protection Policy.

At this time we do not offer additional coverage, beyond the $100,000 policy that is included as part of Data Guardian. If you have a merchant who is interested in additional coverage, they should shop around for an insurance provider who can best meet their needs.

In the event of a real or suspected breach, we provide free data breach consulting to merchants. The merchant should immediately contact the Reliable Card Service Customer Support team, who will put them in touch with our team of Qualified Security Assessors (QSA) and forensic security experts. They will then set up an audit and guide the merchant though the customer notification process, equipment updates, and more, all at no additional cost.

To ensure your merchants never miss a sale, we are including free emergency use of the our Virtual Terminal as part of the DataGuardian program. This is an extremely valuable benefit for merchants who need to have their POS equipment repaired, updated, or replaced and need a temporary way to process their transactions. The Reliable Card Service Customer Support team can help merchants get access when needed.