A Merchant Services Provider is a company that handles credit card processing and provides services such as:
Accepting customer payments by credit, debit, digital, and online payments allowing for a seamless payment experience across all channels.
Manages PCI Security compliance during transaction processing and while storing customer payment information. All transactional data is kept off your networks, reducing your PCI compliance burden, and ensuring financial data safety.
Providing your business with an all-inclusive solution to manage your payments ecosystem from customized front-end solutions and customized payment options by business function to comprehensive transactional and operational unit control and reporting. Automating through integration payment tracking and reconciliation.
What is a Merchant?
“Merchant” describes anyone who accepts payments via payment card, whether those payments are in-person, online, via mail order, or over the phone. A Merchant Services Provider provides a solution that enables those payments for the merchant.
Often Merchant Services Providers provide the ability to connect POS systems, accounting, ERP, and other existing back-end systems.
The Link in Payment Processing
A Merchant Services Provider is the link between banks and your business. Your business can rely on a Merchant Services provider to make it easy for your customers to pay. However, whenever they want to pay and ensure those customer payments are deposited securely in your business’s bank account.
When a customer uses a payment card such as a debit or credit card, the Merchant Services Provider securely moves your customer’s payment into your business bank account. The funds will typically be in your bank account within 24, although it can take as long as 48 hours.
If you take in-person payments, you can buy terminals and equipment from your Merchant Services Provider. They will program and configure your equipment and provide support as needed. If you have an online business, they will provide payment pages, lightbox modals, and other solutions that work your websites and platforms. Virtual terminals allow you to accept payments online, key in payments over the phone, or in-person without physical terminals.
Payment Security
Payment Security is essential for any business. Both external and internal friendly fraud are just two of the risks involved in payment acceptance. Fraud losses worldwide reached $27.85 billion in 2018 and are projected to rise to $35.67 billion in five years and $40.63 billion in 10 years, according to The Nilson Report, the leading global card, and mobile payments trade publication.
Using Payment Security and PCI best practices, a Merchant Service Provider can help you and your customer makes payments securely.
The Payment Card Industry or PCI has established standards applicable to everyone to accepting and processing payments, including the Merchant.
A Merchant Services Provider can help ensure that your business is PCI compliant. To be PCI compliant, a merchant follows PCI guidelines for cardholder data, including names and card numbers. Merchants can proactively protect customer financial data by using strong passwords and updating their software including antivirus software regularly and by applying software updates as they are released.
Your Merchant Services Provider maintains PCI DSS Level 1 compliance plus compliance with card association rules and government regulations. Merchant Services Providers will tokenize payment information, integrate P2PE (point to pint encryption), and advanced captcha, among other technologies, to prevent and steer fraud away from your business.
A Solutions Provider
A Merchant Services Provider provides the technology and data you need to streamline and optimize operations. For example, integration with your accounting system makes payment easier to track and reconcile payments, saving time and money. A Merchant Services Provider like IntelliPay, will also go beyond simple payment processing and can solve business, technical, and financial challenges.
With the data provided by your Merchant Services Providers solution, you can answer questions like:
Who are my best customers?
When are most payments typically made, and by what method?
What products and services sell the best or least?
How successful was my last promotion in driving new revenue?
What opportunities exist to develop new products or services?
Choosing a Merchant Services Provider
During challenging times like these, you are looking at every aspect of your business for cost-savings and efficiencies. As mentioned earlier, a strong Merchant Services Providers can facilitate payments, improve customer satisfaction with seamless experiences, and provide significant value for business operations.
While searching for a Merchant Services Provider, take a cost look at their costs. We recommend you read our guides “Are you Really Getting a Good Deal from your Processor” and “The Real Cost of Card Payments” to help you understand all the costs involved in payment processing.
About IntelliPay
IntelliPay has provided traditional and alternative fee-based processing payment options to government entities, educational institutions, and businesses of all sizes for over 16 years. Our fee-based payment options reduce or eliminate processing costs improving margins and profitability.
Twelve front-end payment solutions coupled our All-inclusive PCI DSS Level 1, Google Cloud-Based platform with its 99.99% uptime guarantee, and we have a turn-key solution for your payment acceptance challenges. Plus, our platform is infinitely scalable, allowing your payment solution to grow right along with you.
The IntelliPay solution allows you to focus on other priorities besides collecting and managing payments.
To learn more and to see our platform in action, click here, call 855-872-6632, or email sales@intellipay.com
