We’ll show you some methods on how to make e-payments a bit safer. In this article, you will get to know about preventing payment risks in the UK: quick guide.
High-Risk Merchant — What Does It Mean
Those merchants whose business is “attacked” by the frequent chargebacks (including fraudulent ones) can profit from high-risk merchant services in the UK. Basically, in the United Kingdom, every business that makes 15,000 pounds or more every month and has frequent card transactions, can potentially be classified as “high-risk”. What does this status bring to your company, though?
Being a high-risk merchant obliges you to face the following:
- High fees. Processing rates and higher fees/commissions are the main disadvantages of the status.
- Reserve. They will also demand that your business has a sufficient money reserve to cover possible refunds.
In the long run, these fees will result in bigger expenses, decreasing your company’s revenue.
Here are some of the business types that are especially vulnerable to this threat due to their work specifics:
- Electronic stores.
- Car-selling companies.
- Various agency services.
- Hotel booking and ticket services.
- Shops that sell vape-related products, e-cigarettes, etc.
And many others. So, what can you do to avoid this calamity?
Reducing Payment Risks — Ways & Means
Now let’s quickly review the strategies to minimize various e-payment risks.
1. Address verification
It’s not a panacea, but Address Verification Service (AVS), helps reduce the risks. This algorithm checks the billing address and indicates if something suspicious is happening or not. If everything seems legit — a money transfer goes through.
2. PCI DSS
There’s a set of rules called the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). It shows which security standards your company must adhere to when processing such payments.
In total, there are 4 classification levels. Each one depends on the size of a given enterprise and its annual revenue, so your case must be treated individually.
If your business is in 100% compliance with the PCI rules, you’ll both protect your company from all types of e-fraud and also decrease your risk status in the eyes of a bank.
3. SSL
SSL or Secure Sockets Layer is a protocol, which employs security encryption to protect online money transactions for e-stores, etc.
Look at the URL bar of a website — like Amazon. There you’ll see an HTTP prefix plus a little lock icon. This is an SSL protocol, which among everything else acts as an extra safety layer to protect money transfers.
4. 3D Secure
3D Secure is another safety algorithm, which helps your system figure out whether a client who pays with a card is the actual cardholder.
3D secure puts in action such extra whistles-and-bells as fingerprint authentication, SMS or PIN-code verification, and so on. If biometrics and other data match then there’s a very high chance that the transaction is safe to go.
Risk-Free Biz
We recommend you outsource setting up all these guarding walls to an expert team. They’ll do it quickly and at a smaller price than what, you would have to pay to cover false chargebacks and high-risk account fees.
