PCI Compliance Milestones and Meaning to You

By: Stan Washington
Date: September 09, 2015

What does it mean to be PCI Compliant?

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that ALL companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. Essentially any merchant that has a Merchant ID (MID).

What are the penalties to small businesses for being non-compliant?

The payment brands may, at their discretion, fine an acquiring bank $5,000 to $100,000 per month for PCI compliance violations. The banks will most likely pass this fine on downstream till it eventually hits the merchant. Furthermore, the bank will also most likely either terminate your relationship or increase transaction fees. Penalties are not openly discussed nor widely publicized, but they can be catastrophic to a small business.

It is important to be familiar with your merchant account agreement, which should outline your exposure.

What is PCI Audit Relief for EMV? (October 2015)

If more than 95% of merchant Visa transactions originate from Euro Pay, MasterCard, Visa (EMV) -compliant POS terminals that support both contact and contactless transactions, the merchant may apply for relief from the audit requirement for PCI compliance (but is still mandated to be PCI compliant).

What happens on October 1, 2015?

Visa

The party that has made investment in EMV deployment is protected from financial liability for card-present counterfeit fraud losses on this date.  If neither or both parties are EMV compliant, the fraud liability remains the same as it is today.  This date excludes automated fuel dispensers.

MasterCard

Fraud Liability Shift.  MasterCard liability hierarchy takes effect.  The party that has made investment in the most secure EMV options is protected from financial liability for card-present fraud losses for both counterfeit and lost, stolen and non-receipt fraud on this date.

Account Data Compromise Relief:  On this date, if at least 95% of MasterCard transactions originate from EMV-compliant POS terminals, the merchant is relieved of 100% of account data compromise penalties.

Discover

TBD

American Express

Fraud Liability Shift. American Express will institute a fraud liability shift policy that will transfer liability for certain types of fraudulent transactions away from the party that has the most secure form of EMV technology.

Honor Services Office gets checked monthly on 300 or more points of compliance. Visit http://www.honorservicesoffice.com for safe payments.

Why We Focused on Safety for Honor Services Office Invoicing

Safety was our number one priority when we developed our Invoicing solution. We partnered with First Data Merchant Solutions and PayPal to ensure you had the best solution for processing online invoices.

First Data and PayPal Secure Payments

First Data
This is the largest acquirer processor in the world. Over a trillion dollars in credit card processing happened last year through this processor. If you do a lot of invoicing or have a high dollar value and wish to receive online payments, this solution is for you. A credit check and monthly fees may apply.

PayPal
Ease of use is where PayPal is making strides. Simply sign up for an account, tie it to your business account and you are up and running. This is a simple solution for those who do infrequent billing. It has no monthly fee, but the processing fees can be a bit higher.

Case Study (A Day In The Life Of Jasmine)
As Jasmine sat at her desk she was troubled because she was sending invoices using a Word template and had no idea how much was owed to her or when the invoices were due. Her Do-it-Yourself tactic had backfired.

She quickly subscribed to Honor Services Office and immediately noticed the difference. She was able to add taxes, fees and items she sold, within minutes. After choosing between First Data or PayPal for her processor, she was in business. She sent her clients invoices and had a surprise bonus, she was reminded when the invoice was overdue.

She resent the overdue invoice by editing the invoice. She went to Ledger Management and saw the payment automatically added to her books. "That was so easy" she said to herself.


Honor Services Office is fully PCI compliant!

My invoicing nightmare!

Excitement filled my mind when the day of business opening finally came to fruition.  All the days of planning, calculating and socializing was finally going to pay off. I had my business process practiced and I was ready for clients. Or so I thought…

When my first client appeared I was elated! Since my service was “pay first” I quickly had to send him an invoice to collect my funds. To my dismay, I had not thought of this part of my business! I quickly searched for invoice templates and found some free ones on the internet. 

THUS MY NIGHTMARE BEGAN!

I opened Word and created my invoice. Problem averted. I decided to make my invoices fancier so I used my Word prowess to do this.  ALL of my invoices were in word and at that time I also took checks. TWO BIG MISTAKES!

After waiting to receive checks or have them bounce, I found myself in a bit of a mess. My client received the work and I had not received payment. Then the end of the year hit and my accountant asked “how much did you sell?”

My answer was I don’t know! I spent two days sorting through a mass of Word documents trying to make sense out of my receivables. As an executive I had computer systems for all of this and now I was too busy to do “projections!”

BUSINESS NEEDS REAL SOLUTIONS

Once reality hit that I was in “business” I actually had to think like a business. When I looked at the cost of business solutions I found that none of them really fit my needs. I had to change my business to fit what I could afford. So I looked to FREE technology. THIS WAS MY THIRD MISTAKE!

Free software did not manage my business well. Yes I could collect a few contacts here and there but I could never totally understand my business. Since my background was in technology I hired some of the best cloud developers I could find to build what I needed.

INVOICING HAD TO HAVE DIRECT DEPOSIT

The very first thing we designed on Career Coach Office was a secure environment where your clients could enter their credit or debit information online without worrying. Once they clicked the pay button the approved funds would be directly deposited into your account.

SUBSCRIPTION INVOICING WAS A MUST

Many of my colleagues have subscription services for their clients so we added this feature.  This had to be simple as well. Set a billing date and an amount and you’re done. Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Annual invoices are sent without worry.

MULTIPLE PAY OPTIONS PROVIDES FLEXIBILITY

We looked around to find the highest used solutions.  We chose First Data for the direct deposit solution and PayPal for the less integrated solution. First Data processed over $800 Billion in transactions last year and PayPal is highly used because the signup process is very simple. Both solutions are secure and they quickly enable you to take credit and debit cards. They are Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant.

try it for free: http://www.careercoachoffice.com