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The Scam. Credit cards have been
in
the
news a lot lately.
There's a new credit card scam that affects internet
purchases. According to a 2009 U.S. Senate report,
just three companies have made $1.4 billion in
revenue using this practice. How does it work? You
make your internet purchase and enter your credit
card information. Then a window pops up about a
different product. You click on it to make it go away
and end up purchasing something you didn't want,
which often has a monthly recurring charge. It's
called "data pass" because the first merchant passes
your credit card information to the pop-up.
In an attempt to put a stop to this deceptive practice,
Visa just announced plans that will require any
merchant accepting their cards to get the credit card
information again for the second product. The
company hopes that the additional step will give the
cardholder a clear signal that they are about to make a
second purchase.
The New Law. The new Credit
Card Act of 2009 went into effect in February, 2010.
The Act limits when interest rates can be changed on
existing balances and
requires that late fees are "reasonable." But one
change
that cardholders will actually see is on their monthly
statement. It must disclose the amount of time it will
take to pay off the balance if only minimum payments
are made, and the total amount that would be paid
including the amount of interest. It's an eye-opener to
see that paying the minimum payment on $3,000 can
take 10 years and the interest would be $2,241!
Higher Interest Rates. And we've all
heard
that the card companies might raise
their interest rates and add new charges in advance of
the Card
Act going into effect. Take a look at your card
statement. You might want to shop around a bit for a
different card. There's some good information on the
internet on web pages like Credit Cards
, Card
Ratings, and Bank Rate.
You
can compare fees and interest rates charged by
different card issuers. There's advice on how to
consolidate card balances and plans for paying off
cards. It's a lot of
information but it's all in one place and allows you to
compare one card against another.
For Travelers. If you travel a lot, one
thing to look for is foreign transaction fees. Using your
charge card in another country usually comes at a
cost, sometimes called a currency conversion fee.
But recently many of the card issuers have increased
this fee. Visa and Mastercard each charge 1% but
most card issuers add their own charge on top of
that. If you have a Bank of America Mastercard for
example you could be paying a total of 3% on each
charge if the business is in another country.
If you have more than one card it's a good idea to
check the foreign transaction fee on each one before
you make
that trip overseas. But these fees are not easy to find.
As a matter fact they're so well hidden that you may
have to call your card issuer to determine the amount.
Currently the Capital One card has no foreign
transaction fee---the only one I could find with no
charge. Other cards charge up to 3%. It might be
better to get cash from the ATM and pay cash for some
purchases. But, of course, if you plan to do that, you
better check to see what the charge for using an ATM
in another country is.
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In our last newsletter we announced a new credit card
interface that will make it easier for Space Control
users to comply with the new Payment Card Industry
Data Security Standards. That interface (with Element
Payment Services) uses tokenization for recurring
monthly payments.
Tokenization is a relatively new concept in the credit
card industry, developed specifically for businesses
that use credit cards for recurring monthly charges.
Being able to charge the customer's card each month
means that you must store that number in your office.
Whether it's data in a computer or written on a card,
you are responsible for protecting that data from
hackers and thieves.
The Princess in the Castle. How
can
tokenization help you? One blogger
uses a princess analogy to explain tokenization. The
princess is in the castle and the bad guys are trying to
kidnap her. You can put bars on the windows, build a
moat, surround the castle with soldiers; but the bad
guys might still get through. Why not remove the
princess from the castle? That's what tokenization
does. Instead of trying to protect the credit card
information in your office, it removes the sensitive
credit card data from your office altogether. And, in the
process you reduce the paperwork associated with
credit cards under the new Standards by about 70%!
How does it work? When you want to
set up an account for recurring charges, Space
Control takes you directly to the Element server
online. You enter the credit card information there and
Element stores it. Element sends back a unique
reference pointer for that customer and that is what
Space Control uses to make all future payments.
The self-storage business is perfect for recurring
monthly payments. With your renter's written
permission you save their card number and expiration
date. Then Space Control will automatically charge
the card when the rent is due (or a few days later if you
prefer). For all those renters, your payment is always
on time. It's money you can depend on hitting your
bank account when it should.
Or ACH. ACH works the same way.
The sensitive bank information is stored at Element,
but instead of charging your customer's credit card,
the payment comes directly out of their bank account.
Some business owners prefer ACH because the fees
are usually less than those on credit card charges.
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... that Space Control can keep an inventory of all the
items you sell? If you add your locks, boxes, and
moving supplies to the Merchandise part of the
Maintenance program and enter the quantity that you
have on-hand, Space Control will automatically reduce
that quantity each time you sell an item. Put in a
reorder number and Space Control will remind you to
order more when your inventory is low.
With Merchandise Group you can put together several
items and sell them as a package. Make a Moving
Package made up of some different sized boxes, tape,
bubble-wrap, etc. You set a price for the whole
package and, when you sell it, each of the individual
items will be removed from your inventory.
You can even establish a Customer price and a Retail
price. When you sell through a customer account you
can offer a bit of a discount. Those who are not
renters can be charged more.
Contact our Support Department to find out
about the new version of NX.gen.
Call 877-591-0455 or email
support@spacecontrol.com.
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Floods. Tornados. All we've gotten here is some kind of late season flu thing that everybody is catching. It doesn't seem right to have the flu when it's warm outside but I guess you can't predict what Mother Nature is going to send your way.
 Ramona Taylor
Space Control Systems, Inc.
email:
rtaylor@spacecontrol.com
phone:
1-800-455-9055
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