These days there are lots of easy solutions for taking online payments.
But what if you want to ensure the highest level of security possible—both for
you, and for your customers? Here are three of the most impressively
security-focused online payment solutions we’ve seen.
1. To
Prevent Fraudulent Transactions
Any merchant knows that fraudulent transactions are a headache. In fact,
they’re more than that—they may be the single biggest downside of the otherwise
bullish world of online commerce. When a thief or scammer uses a card number to
make a fraudulent purchase from your company, it will result in a
chargeback/refund, the loss of shipping/fulfillment expenses, and potentially
the loss of the merchandise itself. In other words, the thieves who steal from
your customers are stealing from you too. Let’s look at how you can stop them.
One online payment
solution we really like is payer authentication using the “3-D Secure”
authentication process. This is a simple add-on service that can be used on its
own or as part of an online payment processing platform. The system “speaks” to
secure data verification protocols from the Card Association, Visa and
MasterCard, using additional data about the card account to verify that it is
the authorized payer before the
transaction is made. This means you can simply decline fraudulent
transactions—instantly and automatically—without losing a penny.
2. To
Securely Take Phone, Mail, Email and Fax Orders
There are lots of ways to potentially process credit card orders that
come in through mail, fax or over the phone. But most of them involve adding
extra software to your computer, and many of them have security holes. Not
anymore. One of our favorite payment solutions is to use a “virtual terminal.”
Instead of clunky software, your terminal is a simple, secure web page where
you process credit card orders. You can enter the card number as easily as if
you’re making a Paypal payment. Best of all, each of your staff members gets
their own secure login and password and all transactions/sales are logged for
you to see.
3. To Keep
Credit Card Information Secure Online
What if you want to save your customers’ credit card information for
them, but don’t want the risk of holding that data? That’s where a solution
called “tokenization” comes in. With tokenization, you never touch your
customers’ sensitive data. Instead, you’re given an encrypted “token” that
allows you to complete transactions for them, without carrying a database full
of credit card numbers. The token cannot be cracked mathematically and is
stored with your payment processor, not with you.
