Before You Swipe Another Card…

If you have a business and your customers pay by credit card, make sure your machine is compliant. Any machine that reveals each number of the cardholders’ number on the receipt is not acceptable. I had an experience recently while on a doctor’s visit. I was given the receipt and I notice each number was listed. When I brought it to the attention of the front desk, she was not aware of a problem and referred me to the office manager. She was not aware of why I was concerned. Here’s why business owners should be concerned. Stolen Credit card numbers can be used without the knowledge of the cardholder. If it can be traced that a business owner made it easier to access, they can be fined

To certify PCI DSS standards, you must complete a detailed form and receive quarterly network scans from an independent auditor. For bigger Merchants (6 million transactions annually or above), the regulations require a detailed onsite assessment. Even Merchants who process less than 20,000 transactions annually are required to comply with the regulations, even though they are not currently required to be validated by the Card Associations. Certification and compliance guidelines for smaller Merchants are dictated by its Merchant Bank

Regardless of your size, failure to comply can lead to steep financial and operational penalties. The first time any of your data is compromised the fine could be $50,000. For any subsequent breaches, the fine goes up exponentially. More importantly, a credit card company can and, in fact have, taken away the ability of the Merchant to accept credit cards.

For more information regarding your credit card machine’s compliance status, contact Dana French-Marshall at 901-497-3060