Recurring Payments

I'm trying to understand the different ways of handling recurring payments. My service basically bills customers monthly. We've set it up so when the members sign up, their credit card data is passed directly to our credit card vendor. They're billed and then rebilled every 30 days.

The problem is that when the credit card fails to go thru on one of the recurring billings, we have no automated way of having the information passed back into our system. Also, when members cancel, we need to manually go into our credit card system and cancel the member.

There are also problems around credit card updates in that these are handled as cancellations and new accounts, not just as a credit card update. So our records get all messed up.

When I inquire about to automate these things, I'm told that we should switch to batch processing. The credit cards can still be kept at the vendors but we'll have to submit a daily list of people to bill.

Any ideas or articles to point me to which discuss these issues?

PaySimple Payment Processing Services

I found a new very promising looking vendor. And I quote from their website....

PaySimple is an easy to use web-based payment processing application providing a complete payment gateway for electronic check (e-check) processing, ACH direct-debit processing, credit card processing, recurring billing, online bill-pay, and check processing via phone or online.
PaySimple provides one simple time and money saving solution for a variety of credit card and ACH payment processing needs:

RECURRING BILLING
The Recurring Billing feature sets PaySimple apart. With recurring billing, you can set-up automatic payments for your customers, via ACH direct-debit transfers from a bank account or via credit card.

ONLINE PAYMENT PROCESSING
PaySimple's secure online payment gateway is ideal for implementing online bill-pay and payment processing for online shopping carts. A payment form can be hosted on your site or on PaySimple's secure server for one time transactions or customer initiated auto recurring billing.

CREDIT CARD PROCESSING
PaySimple offers some of the lowest credit and debit card payment processing rates available. We combine credit card transactions with check and direct debit payments in a single system. You can also set-up auto recurring billing for credit card payment processing.

Merchant Accounts and accounting

We just finished the final kickoff meeting for the accounting team for 2009. We implemented a series of changes about how we get our accounting done.

Most significantly, we are considering the receipt of payment at our merchant account vendor account to be revenue. Previously, the accounting system recognized revenue only when the funds were transfered from my merchant account into my bank account. The result was that our revenues appeared uneven. For example, January 2009 ended with a three day holiday. So all the funds received by us from Friday Jan 27 until Tuesday, February 1st were deposited on the first.

So 10% of our January revenues would have, under our old system, been reported in February so our accounts were arbitrarily uneven. New system more accurately reflects revenues.

Got a better rate on my merchant account!

My bank called me this week which I interpreted as bad news. I immediately returned the call. In fact, there was a problem. I had exceeded my limit.

Now I am talking about my merchant account for taking credit cards so apparently, I had forgotten, that when I applied I had been given an amount that I could collect monthly. And a few years ago, it was upped. Well, she informed me that I am now collecting on a monthly basis, about 30% above my limit.

"But, this is a good thing right?" I asked.

"Why yes, but it does need more paperwork. I need a balance sheet, income statement, and a filled in questionnaired and we can raise it."

I then played a little softball talking about how since I've gotten so much bigger and have such a low chargeback rate (way short of 1%), then I must be a more attractive client. She agreed and volunteered that she might be able to get me a better rate.

And she did? While it's hard to understand, it sounds like I've gone from 1.95% to 1.8% on a key expense line. I think I'm pleased but I will keep an eye on the overall expense as a percentage of sales because now that I know it's going to move, I wouldn't be surprised if they reclassify things in such a way that the net change is not, overall, in my favor.

PCI Compliance for Level 3 Vendor

I'm a level 3, 20K-1M online transactions vendor, none stored.

The requirements for me are, I think:

1. Filling out and sending to my bank a PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire.
2. A quarterly scan by an approved vendor. Here is a partial list of vendors:

Mcafeesecure.com - 807 322-9965
ControlScan.com
SecurityMetrics.com

3. Ensuring your gateway provider is PCIDSS compliant. Here is where it's a little gray for me. My vendor is not on the list. But, he has submitted a letter to me showing that he is compliant under an arrangement with another company. If I wanted the validity of that reviewed, who would I check with? Am I being too nerdy in wanting to check?

Google Checkout is no longer free

Durn. I just read on the Merchant Account Blog that No More Free Checkout from Google. Until now, Google Checkout merchants who advertise on Google’s Adwords platform, have received credit for use toward Google Checkout fees they incur.

But Google Checkout is no longer free or even reduced for Adwords users. I'm disappointed since as a large adwords advertiser (large in terms of my credit card processing fees), this was looking like a no-brainer way to save money.

I did think it was a little too good to be true. It's terribly 500 pound guerillaish for google to have started squashing the credit card processing industry by this type of cross marketing. Given their troubles as a potential monopolist, I think this was really heavy-handed of them.

As it is, they are going to get grief for taking over Madison Avenue and most of the advertising industry

the PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire

A copy of the PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire is available from your processing bank or:
https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/saq/index.shtml.

For a quarterly scan there are several companies that offer a free scan or you can subscribe to their yearly service. Examples:

http://www.hackerguardian.com/hackerguardian/buy/pci_free_scan.html
http://www.mcafeesecure.com/us/pci-intro.jsp
https://www.controlscan.com
https://www.securitymetrics.com/sitecertinfo.adp