Something I am getting asked about with greater regularity is how to manage a merchant account facility for e-commerce purposes. To be honest it’s a bit of a minefield and there are some solutions that work better than others.
One possible option is the package provided by UK based payment service provider - Axiar Payments.
The big question is what does this type of company actually add to the average e-commerce based business.
Here are some things to chew on:
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The City of London is the leading financial centre in the world. Ok New York doesn’t do badly either!!
But it appears that London may well be becoming a leading centre for fraud too.
According to the Debt Line:
“London has come top in the UK as the region that encounters the greatest amount of credit card fraud, in a new survey.
Some 367,335 cases were encountered in the last five years – more than double the amount experienced in the Midlands, according to InsureandGo.
The amount stolen on cards ranged to upwards of £4,000, highlighting the need for vigilance and card security.”
Interestingly Perry Wilson, a spokesperson for InsureandGo, commented: “As our research shows, holiday card fraud is a massive problem and is continuing to get worse.”
I can only concur that the only credit card fraud I have encountered was on holiday to Spain. Just make sure you never let your card out your site is my advice.
A nice piece from the Consumerist which is an ironic reminder of how not to spiral into a black hole of debt
“You’re too far in debt ...
1. If you can’t remember the last time you had zero balances on all your credit cards.
2. If your FICO score is below 650.
3. If you don’t remember what you bought on your credit card last month.
4. If you don’t really know how many coffees, teas, soft drinks or snacks you buy every week.
5. If you use your credit card for utilities, food, snacks and so on, and you’re not doing it to earn frequent flier or bonus points.
6. If you have money in a 401(k), but you have to live on your credit cards in order to put it there.
7. If you have no money in any sort of general savings account.
8. If you’re still paying for restaurant meals you can’t remember eating.
9. If you have to take a cash advance from one credit card to make a payment on another one.
10. If you ever held a garage sale to raise money to make credit card payments.”
I think even the most sensible of us that own credit cards can familiarise ourselves with these ten points.
Credit card fraud seems to be escalating to gargantuan proportions with Discover, American Express, MasterCard and Visa reporting a rather worrying 9.3% increase from 2005 to 2006. The Nilson Report compiled the figures and confirm that the data doesn’t include debit cards.
According to Creditbloggers there could be a few reasons for this spike:
“There could be several factors at work. The increased use of credit cards has certainly contributed. Also the growth of credit card fraud that involves fast-moving international crime rings. Consumer awareness about fraud and enthusiasm for reporting it could have contributed as well.
Another significant factor is the credit card issuer’s general policy of accepting credit card fraud losses as a cost of doing business. Translated: They don’t care about fraud losses.”
I would put a far simpler explanation to this phenomenon and that’s quite simply declining economic circumstances.
According to Sandra Block at USA Today everybody taking a vacation should be keeping their eyes peeled for expensive currency conversion deals on credit cards:
Here are some examples:
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