General Best Practices
Every professional knows that “Best Practices” are built on a foundation of basic principles. In credit card processing, this means: (1) getting the lowest interchange rate, (2) preventing chargebacks, and (3) winning representments.

Avoiding Chargebacks
Chargebacks, or challenges to the validity of a credit card charge, are much more than a nuisance. You will pay a processing fee for each one, and if you cannot substantiate the original charge (in a process known as a “representment”), you will be liable for reimbursing the amount charged back.

Optimizing Processing Fees
Do you know what you are paying for credit card transaction processing? Unfortunately, statements from payment processors don't always tell the full story and often leave out hidden costs that are difficult to keep track of, especially in processing bank card transactions from VISA and MasterCard.

Address Verification Service
Address Verification Service (AVS) is an automated fraud-prevention system tool designed to reduce the risk of Card-Not-Present transactions. AVS helps minimize the risk of accepting fraudulent transactions by verifying the cardholder’s billing address with the card issuer.

CVV2, CVC2 & CID Anti Fraud Tools
To help guard against fraud, the major credit card brands have implemented a system to ensure the credit card used in a transaction is actually possessed by the user.  Examine how CVV2, CVC2 and CID can help reduce fraud and chargebacks.

Recurring Transactions, Installment Billing and Utilizing Soft Billing Descriptors
Consumers annually spend over $1 Trillion on Recurring Transactions and Installment Billing. Furthermore, consumers are utilizing their credit cards more often for routine monthly payments in order to accumulate miles, points or some other form of reward.

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard is the first release of a unified standard among Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB card brands to address the growing issue of cardholder account security among US merchants and payment service providers.

Interchange
Interchange is a fee that the card brands (Visa & MasterCard) impose on the merchant and pay to the card issuing banks.