B2B credit card processing mistakes

Christine Speedy, 954-942-0483

Uncovering Profits that Lie Hidden in the B2B company

© No part of this document may be copied or altered.

Cenpos Innovative Payment Technology Impacts EBITDA, Reducing Costs, Controlling Risk, Creating Efficiencies


“A disruptive innovation is a technological innovation that improves a product or service in ways that the

market does not expect.

When this type of technology is introduced, it radically transforms

markets, creates totally new markets or enhances the existing market within its

space. Clayton M. Christensen Harvard Business School


In a January 2009, CenPOS launched a hosted, universal

payment processing platform to the automotive industry, improving

processes from payment acceptance to reconciliation and

risk management.

In 2010, we launched the B2B market. Our Goal: Improve EBITDA


Nearly 100% of B2B companies who learn about CenPOS request

immediate implementation. Why? •  LOWER FEES: CenPOS automates management of credit card

processing fees, removing employees from the process. •  RESEARCH: 7 years of receipt storage by customer name,

invoice, and more. •  REDUCE FLOAT: Web pay page and Electronic invoices with

pay link enable businesses to collect money faster. •  BOOST EMPLOYEE OUTPUT: CenPOS Improves employee

efficiency so they can do more in less time; boosts morale by eliminating laborious tasks.

•  REPORTING: From research to reconciliation, the graphical and text data, plus automated email alerts provides actionable data without more work.


Employee actions and software limitations largely control costs

associated with electronic payments. Without CenPOS employees directly impact: •  Hidden cost of higher credit and debit card

fees due to ‘non-qualified’ interchange that costs up to .92% more on every transaction.

•  Losses from external and internal fraud. •  Losses from check guarantee claims denied. •  Internal identity theft and associated costs.


Four Mistakes that Cost Companies Thousands Annually and How CenPOS

Fixes Them 1.  Relying on dumb terminals and

gateways. 2.  Relying on their payment processor to

help them reduce fees. 3.  Relying on employee’s to do the right

thing at the point of sale. 4.  Avoiding automation due to fear.


Mistake #1: Relying on dumb terminals. Dumb terminals and gateways are the de facto standard, including all other virtual terminals. They pass along limited payment data.

•  Desktop terminals are generally programmed once and never again, yet fees and related rules are updated a minimum of twice per year. They’re almost out of date from the moment they’re delivered.

•  Gateways can collect more information than they pass to the processor, leaving merchants unaware they have a problem unless they study their merchant statements.

•  The CenPOS hosted payment processing platform is the only solution with dynamic intelligence, automatically delivering data needed based on merchant created risk rules, federal regulations, and interchange rules.


Mistake #2: Relying on credit card processors for help to reduce fees. •  Over decades processors have done little

more than offer to cut merchant discounts when pressured. This doesn’t help when over 95% of fees are interchange, not merchant discounts.

•  If the processor is also the bank, is there a conflict of interest since card issuing banks make more money on interchange downgrades?


Mistake #2 cont’d. CenPOS reduces processing fees automatically. •  Automatically optimizes interchange for the

lowest qualified rate. This is absolutely crucial for B2B, where failing to optimize results in additional fees up to .92% per transaction.


Mistake #3 Relying on employee’s to do the right thing at the point of sale.

•  It’s virtually impossible to train employees how to reduce risk and reduce costs because the subject is too complex and constantly changing. The MasterCard Interchange Qualification book is over 140 pages long.

•  CenPOS prompts employee actions to the merchants advantage.


Mistake #3 cont’d: Example- Why Relying on Employee’s Doesn’t Work.

Manual processes don’t work. The proof is in merchant statement interchange details: BUSINESS CARD STD, EIRF, SIGNATURE PREFERRED CRP S, and COMML STANDARD, are all examples of interchange qualification downgrades, transactions that could have qualified at a lower rate, but the ‘presentation’ of data did not match requirements so a higher rate was applied.

B2B companies typically have 20-100% non-qualified transactions, costing up to .92%* extra, vs 0-5% non-qualified if using CenPOS. *Based on 2011 Fall Interchange


Mistake #4: Avoiding Automation Due to Fear of Increased Risk.

•  Nearly all B2B companies store payment data in file drawers, or on computers, or they manually enter every transaction. This creates either huge risk or wasted labor. •  The biggest identity theft growth category in 2010

was internal, in 10-100 employee companies, often “because it was easy”.

•  Merchants used to buy their way out of trouble from a data breach (this includes file drawer data). Now executives can be held criminally liable and charged with a felony.


Mistake #4: cont’d.

•  CenPOS stores encrypted checks and credit/debit payment data for both fixed variable amount recurring billing.

•  Rather than increasing risk, storing Encrypted data on remotely hosted CenPOS servers actually reduces scope for merchant PCI DSS Compliance.

PCI DSS- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards


A hot trend for B2B is using a Virtual Terminal to Process Payments,

primarily authorize.net •  There is virtually no difference for the average

B2B company, other than eliminating the terminal. •  The merchant maintains faxed authorization forms

with credit card data for rebilling customers. •  CenPOS eliminates faxed forms with exposed

card data, creates efficiencies for both check and credit card processing, and reduces fees through interchange optimization.

•  There is no comparison!


Using the Internet to Accept Payments is LESS Risky than Dumb Terminals, but not all VT’s are alike

CenPOS reduces the scope for PCI DSS Compliance, more than any other Virtual Terminal, or dial up terminal.

Other Virtual Terminals CenPOS Virtual Terminal Encrypt credit/debit cards only. Encrypt credit/debit AND checking

account for ACH. Recurring billing for same amount at defined time intervals.

Recurring billing for same amount at defined intervals (any date) AND VARIABLE amount at ANY interval.

Program a web page to accept payments on your web site. Payment is collected on merchant server.

Add a line of html code to any web page to accept payment. The payment object resides on CenPOS servers.

Enter all customer billing data for each card.

Enter multiple payment methods under a single customer, and enable payment cascading if auth fails.


Bonus: Same Benefits for Checks and Check Guarantee

•  Automatically collects required information to protect against declined guarantee claims.

•  Automatically steers lower risk transactions to lower cost check conversion or ACH instead of expensive guarantee service. Merchants control what risk they want to self-insure.

•  Encrypt payment data for repeat billing to corporate accounts.

•  Nobody else offers this!


Bonus: Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment

•  Push invoices via email for immediate payment, improving cashflow.

•  Automatically resends invoice if unpaid. •  No login required, removing barriers for

immediate payment. •  Pay page hosted on CenPOS servers with your

branding, reduces scope for PCI Compliance.


New Federal laws create opportunities to reduce payment acceptance fees. •  New 2011 law enables discounting to steer customers to lower

cost payment methods.* •  New 10/1/2011 debit interchange rate maximum of .05% and $.21

per transaction* •  B2B merchants average < 25% debit cards; discounting may be a

good option to try. •  CenPOS Provides Automated Steering with Discounts. Would you

offer .5% discount to save over 1%? Of course you would! •  * Rules and restrictions apply. CenPOS is the only fully compliant

solution available immediately for B2B merchants to efficiently implement.


Risk Management: Nearly 100% of B2B Companies Interviewed are not fully PCI Compliant. CenPOS reduces the scope

for Compliance. •  Eliminates risky practices that could result in fines,

costs exceeding $100,000, business disruption and even jail time under a new federal law.

•  For example, CenPOS eliminates faxed credit card authorizations, by empowering merchants to send an electronic invoice with a payment object, to direct the customer to a web pay page, and to encrypt payment data by creating secure tokens for repeat corporate sales.


The Competition

•  What competition? There is no other solution for the B2B market today that delivers the efficiencies, research capabilities, risk mitigation, interchange optimization and cost controls as CenPOS. NONE!


Pricing & Implementation

•  Easy to set up and easy to use. •  No installation fees. •  No upgrade fees. •  No maintenance contract fees. •  No per user fees. •  No data storage or retrieval fees. •  Pay only a per transaction fee.



Who we are

Christine Speedy, is owner of 3D Merchant Services, a leading authorized reseller for CenPOS, and reports directly to the CEO. 3D Merchant Services is an independent company. Follow my blog for payment

processing insights at 3Dmerchant.com/blog

•  Privately held, HQ Miami Fl.

•  Universal hosted payments platform is flexible and scalable for any enterprise, including international businesses using multiple payment processors.

•  Reduces internal & external fraud, credit card processing costs, and manpower associated with finance tasks.

•  PCI Compliant

•  Current Markets: USA, Canada, Europe Caribbean (EOCS)

Universal Compatibility examples:


FAQ •  How long will it take to learn to use?

•  Self-paced video clips are 15-30 seconds each. In 15 minutes, you’ll know all the basics to be up and running. Administrators will learn to use additional tools and features over time.

•  Isn’t using computers riskier than paper? NO! The risk of financial consequences from storing data in file drawers is far greater. No data is ever stored on your computers when using CenPOS. Merchants should have a network vulnerability scan in their standard course of business.

•  Do I have to change credit card processors? No. CenPOS is compatible with most major credit card processors and several check processors.

•  Do you offer credit card processing if I want to change? As your independent reseller, Christine Speedy, has CenPOS compatible options for you.


Contact and more info

•  Cenpos.com •  3Dmerchant.com/blog •  USA/ International Sales: 954-942-0483 direct line, Christine chrisAT 3Dmerchant.com

3D Merchant Services / Christine Speedy is a CenPOS Authorized Reseller and independent company.

