Fall 2007

Industry News & Trends Canadian Consumers are eCommerce Ready Being Prepared for Peak Sales Periods Fraud Prevention Ten Tips on How to Reduce Chargebacks Reducing your risk exposure should be your main concern Merchant Spotlight Merchant Success Story: Optical Showcase

Tips on How to Reduce Chargebacks

Running your business efficiently can be challenging at times, especially when you are faced with chargebacks. Chargebacks are debits to your bank account that may be the result of various issues such as a cardholder dispute, improper acceptance or authorization procedures, fraud, processing errors, and more.

Here are 10 tips to help reduce chargebacks at your business:

1. Train your staff on card acceptance policies and procedures. Give them the skills and knowledge to assist them in doing their jobs accurately and confidently.
2. Ensure that the card being presented is valid and that the standard identification and security features of the card have been verified.
3. If you are using a manual imprinter, confirm that the customer's card number, expiration date and signature is visible on all copies of the manual sales slip. In addition, record the authorization number on the sales slip.
4. If the authorization request returns a declined response, do not complete the transaction and do not repeat the authorization request, ask for another form of payment.
5. Do not accept a card after its expiry date unless an authorization approval for the transaction has been obtained from the card issuer.
6. If the cardholder is present and has the card number but not the card, decline the transaction. Even with an authorization, the transaction may be fraudulent and charged back to you.
7. Before completing a sale, ensure that the transaction information on the sales receipt is complete, precise and legible. Illegible receipts produce illegible copies and as a result, cannot be processed accurately.
8. Verify the customer's signature on all cards. If the signature varies greatly, ask for additional identification.
9. There should be one entry for each transaction. Ensure that each transaction has been entered and deposited only one.
10. Void incorrect or duplicate sales receipts immediately.