When it comes to accepting credit cards, there’s one little five-letter word that has a big impact on businesses’ bottom line: fraud. As is the case for every business owner, regardless of size, to need to fight fraud is inevitable. Fraud, in many cases, is seen as cost of doing business — similar to the concept of accepting credit cards.
The volume of fraud that businesses accept, however, has to do with security processes in place — including their chosen payments processing system. It’s also about ensuring they are staying compliant and being proactive when it comes to mitigating and managing the need to fight fraud.
Even with the migration to EMV chip cards, the imperative need to fight fraud isn’t going away anytime soon — regardless of if you’re a business accepting credit cards in person, or online. Card-present and card-not-present fraud are both penetrating the commerce and eCommerce ecosystems at an alarming rate.
A report from financial industry consultant Aite Group projected that 2016 saw a staggering $4 billion in fraud. That figure is expected to grow exponentially, and over the next three years is projected to rise to the level of $10 billion in credit card fraud. As businesses rush to upgrade to EMV-compliant terminals, this can makes accepting credit cards increasingly worrisome.
That’s why, more than ever, businesses must stay up-to-date with rules and regulations on accepting credit cards, and be equipped to tackle credit card fraud proactively. This starts with being aware of widespread credit card breaches, staying alert of how fraudsters are hacking systems, and aligning your own systems with industry-wide best practices.
This also means having the right payments processing partners in place.
What Businesses Need To Know About Accepting Credit Cards in Order to Fight Fraud
First, businesses can’t ignore the fact that plastic is king, and therefore, so is the ability to accept credit cards. Consumers aren’t as keen on carrying cash as they once were, but they aren’t quite ready to make the mobile payments commitment (also a card-based transaction).
Not accepting credit cards can deter consumers from visiting any business, simply because of the security and inconvenience of having to carry cash. Moreover, consumers with a card are more likely to engage in impulse purchases and often contribute to higher ticket spend since they aren’t restricted to how much cash they have in their wallet.
In the case of a stolen credit card, the accused will likely face theft by deception charges. However, unlawful chargebacks and fraud can be hard to prove, and most of the time, these criminals don’t face any consequences. For these reasons, you must protect yourself against these fraudsters by setting up a safe payment system.
Accepting credit cards is easy for any business, regardless of size. Still, every business owner still needs to be aware of the risks associated with accepting credit cards.There’s also the cost of the processing fees for purchase transactions. But in today’s modern payments ecosystem, staying up-to-date with how consumers prefer to pay can make or break any business. As trends show, that’s still credit and debit cards.
Bottom line?
Accepting credit cards will add some additional expense to your business. Still, with the right payment processing partner in place, and adherence to industry regulations and best practices, any business should be well positioned to accept credit cards, serve their customers — all while protecting themselves and their bottom line.
To learn more about protecting yourself and your business against the threat of fraud, reach out to Payline today. Our team is equipped to help your business — and your customers — stay protected from fraud.
Anna Lothson is a content contributor for Payline. She previously wrote for PYMNTS.com, as a Sr. Content Producer, where she focused on financial services and payments innovation, fraud and security, emerging payments, and FinTech news, research and thought-leadership content across the payments industry.
