BEST PRACTICES

Minimize Costs: Card Acceptance Basics > Best Practices

The following best practices can help you minimize costs and mitigate fraud risk. However, keep in mind that there can be exceptions to the simplified best practices outlined below (for example, Lodging and MO/TO businesses often require more than one authorization in the course of ordinary card acceptance).

• To avoid chargebacks, act promptly if contacted directly by the cardholder to resolve a dispute.
• By working directly with the cardholder to resolve disputes regarding the quality of merchandise or services rendered, you can avoid costly fees and processing costs as well as promote goodwill with your customer.
• If the cardholder does not contact you, respond to inquiries from Merchant Services with as much information as possible about the sales transaction in question.
• Limit one authorization for each settled transaction. Avoid duplicate processing of a transaction and follow the proper procedures for settling your daily transactions.
• Obtain an authorization code. Refuse to process a transaction when you receive a declined code during authorization. Don't force the settlement of any transactions without a valid authorization.
• To verify cardholder account status, perform a zero value account verification transaction instead of $1.00 authorization transaction.
• Include a description of the goods or services on the transaction receipt.
• Deliver merchandise or services before charging the card.
• Include the CVV2/CVC2 and AVS codes for card not present transactions, if applicable.
• Submit transaction receipts on the same day the transactions are authorized.
• Make sure an imprint appears on a manual transaction receipt or that the relevant transaction information appears on the terminal-generated transaction receipt.
• Do not accept expired cards or cards having effective dates after the date of the transaction.
• Void authorizations within your outstanding batches if they are not going to be settled.
• Call for Voice Authorization, if needed. Call for a Code 10 authorization if you are still suspicious of the cardholder, card, or transaction after receiving an approval code. Click here for more about Code 10.

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