Arrow Blog

WORD TO THE WISE: CUSTOMIZE!

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:58:17 -0500

In the buffet of gateway technology, not everyone will fill their plate the same way. Some have a taste for particular features, while others loathe the thought of getting anywhere near them. Here at Arrow Payments, we encourage everyone to take a trip to the Gateway Buffet and take exactly what they like. Even if you change your mind and don’t want those brussel sprouts, you can put them back. Customization is awesome and we want you to get exactly what you want! Here are some of the ways we can cater your gateway to your business:

· QUICKBOOKS: Arrow Payments can integrate directly with Quickbooks Pro, Quickbooks Premier and Quickbooks Enterprise (2007+)

· DUPLICATE THRESHOLD: The processor can check for duplicate card numbers within a specified time. This will protect double charges from occurring.

· VERIFIED BY VISA: The Verified by Visa benefits to merchants are clear: even if the cardholder isn’t enrolled in the program, or the issuer isn’t participating, the merchant is not liable for certain fraud-related chargebacks.

· MOBILE PAYMENTS: Take payments on your iOS or Android device.

· REQUIRED FIELDS: Decide which fields are necessary for your transactions; the more information you provide, the more protection you have in the event of chargebacks. Also you are eligible for additional savings when providing more information about transactions. But if speed is more your style than trim back on the details and get it done fast!

· Allow Acceptence w/out Expiration Date: For stored customer cards you may prefer this option so that you will never need to update a cardholders changing expiration date.

· Customer Vault: This feature comes standard with Arrow Payments, allowing you to save customer payment information safely in the cloud. You can look customers up by name to charge at a later date, without having to type in all those pesky details again.

· Next Day Funding: You want your money fast. For that we can offer you the express funding option so that you see your money in your bank account within 24 hours!

· Level 3 Processing: Level 3 processing can save you money depending on your business type and the types of cards you take. Just another way to save you some dough!

So fill up your plate! There are never lines at the Arrow Payments Gateway Buffet. We’ll even help you carry your ice cream sundae back to the table if your hands are full!

Payments Soothing to the Planet

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:32:00 -0500

By: Jeff Phillips

Arrow Payments would like to wish everyone in the world a happy Earth Day! Whether you’re a tree-hugger or skeptical of climate change, we do have one globe and a shared interest in keeping resources robust. Though it may be small part of your day, there are some ways to ensure you’re being as green as can be with your credit card processing. We kept some of this in mind while creating our own in-house payment gateway.

1) Use a payment gateway instead of a terminal

Most likely you’re using a computer anyway to conduct business activity. A two-fer-one in terms of electricity drainage.

2) E-mail customer copies of receipts

Let’s be honest, we throw those things out anyway. If we need to hang onto something for our records, we can still do that electronically. You can also e-mail receipts to multiple parties, so no need to juice up the copy machine and call the elevator to go run copies over to other departments.

3) Get your settlement reports e-mailed to you

We also made it easy to check your totals throughout the day with our detailed reporting features, instead of running scrolls upon scrolls throughout the day just see where the day’s volume is at.

4) Be secure

By taking the time to ensure you’re in line with PCI Compliance security standards, you can avoid a breach. Because breaches can be a headache on so many other fronts, an audit and paper trail the length of the East Coast is an added insult to injury. Then our frustration is sort of taken out on trees, and we’re not into kicking dogs at the end of a bad day. Let’s avoid those bad days. Using tokenization and transparent re-direct, our gateway keeps the onus of maintaining secure data in our courts, and we’re watchdogs with OCD when it comes to that.

5) Waste not, want not

Don’t breeze through post-it notes to take down credit card numbers or have customers fax credit card info. Not only is that not in line with security standards leading to the potential of what number 4 warns against, you’re using more paper! And that fax machine runs on electricity. Why not e-invoice a customer? Then they can enter in their credit card information using a secure form.

6) Recurring billing

Instead of pulling out a spreadsheet with saved credit card numbers (again not making number 4 happy) and keying in the same transaction every month, set it up to recur automatically on a specified date for a specified amount. This takes a big task off your plate, and that extra time means you don’t have to stay late, and you can turn those lights off a bit earlier.

I don’t know about you, but all of the above seem to not only make Mother Earth a happier camper, but it would give me way more time to go out into Mother Earth, camping.

5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Payments Provider

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:03:00 -0500

Recently, one of our developer partners told us that a good slogan for a merchant services company these days would be, “Look, another &$^%# payment gateway!” Comical? Yes. Realistic? Not exactly. While it’s true that there are many payments companies out there today, we’re all as unique to the industry as Dennis Rodman is to mankind.

Here are the five most important things to look at to determine if a particular payments provider is right for your business.

1. Transparency

Make sure they clearly list all fees and terms on their website and contracts. Here at Arrow Payments, we regularly receive backlash merely from being associated to the merchant services industry by merchants that have fallen victim to the tricks of our trade. Hiding “non-qualified” fees, adding annual fees, long term auto-renewing contracts, and gradually increasing rates are just a few of the ways small businesses are preyed upon. When it comes to transparency in payments, your processor should expose themselves as if they are in the buff on a nude beach.

2. Security

When evaluating a payment gateway, ensure that a redirect process is used within the providers API to avoid passing sensitive data through your own servers. They should also utilize tokenization when storing data and provide a secure vault to do so. This day in age, due to the continual increase in security breaches your processor should do you a solid and handle the heavy lifting on your behalf. You don’t want to pull a hammy, do you?

3. Support

In the merchant services industry there is a tedious, expensive, and thorough process that a company like Arrow Payments must go through to become a registered provider of Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express. However, there is no registration, test, or single pre-requisite needed to become a sales rep for an organization like ours. This unfortunate situation is why there are hundreds of poorly trained sales reps banging down your doors to offer you the “lowest rate”. At Arrow Payments, we live by the saying, “the best trained team wins”. Our sales and service staff undergo extensive training, are not commission based, and work full time in our corporate office to ensure the highest levels of support. Don’t believe us? Just call, email, web chat, Facebook, or tweet us. Go on… you know you want to.

4. PCI-Compliance

There are three parts to being PCI-Compliant. a) Processing on a compliant device or system b) Following all rules and regulations set forth by the PCI Council c) Submitting your self-assessment questionnaire annually to the card associations. If your processor is unfamiliar or unwilling to assist you with PCI-Compliance, a security breach and non-compliance fees could very quickly become a problem.

5. Ease of Use

Do you need to piece together multiple companies to handle your merchant account, PCI-Compliance, payment gateway and POS System? Having all systems and support teams under one roof alleviates the need to get the “run-around” from your providers and comes equipped with a single point of contact (also known to alleviate migraines).

The truth is that all payment processors work off the same interchange costs and all credit card transactions are being authorized by only a handful of networks. Look for a payments provider with a solid track record that understands your industry’s particular challenges and provides the proper software for your company. The choice boils down to which provider offers the most advantageous combination of price, service and technology to support your business from its launch at the way to becoming a major player in your industry.

Gateways, Terminals, and Mobile Swipers, Oh My!

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:39:07 -0500

By: Rachel Blau

When I was a baby I received a green baby blanket. I kept that blanket for a long time. And even when I stopped using it, I folded it up and placed it inside my dresser drawer. I couldn’t get rid of it. It was my comfort, and knowing it was nearby made me move forward with less hesitation.

It’s hard to change or switch to something new, but many times change can be better. We keep our tried and true comforts to ease our worry.

This happens in business too. You have worked hard and built up your business using the systems that you’ve had since you opened your doors. It can be difficult to make change in your business, because the comfort of the old ways is too great to abandon to a flashy new software or program. So do what I do. Keep the old and try the new. Technology is growing rapidly, especially in the payments industry.

Businesses have gone from manual, “knuckle-buster” swipers, to terminals, to virtual terminals, and now even cloud based systems that seem like something out of a science fiction novel.

“What is the best way to process a credit card for my business?” you may be asking. Identify what is important to you:

1. Time: You and your clients don’t have much of it. You want something fast, simple and safe so that you can get your customers charged quickly and correctly.

2. Tracking/Invoicing: You have a business that relies on information and tracking receipts to products, or your business relies on invoicing your customers for payment.

3. Mobility: You’re business relies on being able to move around a process in other places besides your physical business address.

4. E-commerce: You’re business uses a shopping cart that needs to be integrated with your merchant account.

5. Pricing: You perform transactions that are B2B and large amounts; you need to save as much money as possible.

Since we’ve been around the block a few times, just tell us about your current situation. We’ll gladly steer you towards the direction of collecting payments as easily, quickly, inexpensively, and securely as possible for your business type.

At Arrow Payments we can accommodate all needs using any type of equipment. We have an amazing gateway that is not only user friendly, but also extremely safe. Don’t believe us? Try a demo out for yourself; the proof is in the virtual terminal pudding.

We understand that even though our gateway is awesome, you may still be attached to that terminal that’s been on your counter for the last five years. So you can keep it there just in case you need it.

We got a new pet! He is a Processaurus Rex and he is not a big...

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:13:46 -0600

We got a new pet! He is a Processaurus Rex and he is not a big fan of fees.

What should we name our new little guy?

The Ins and Outs of Surcharging

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:56:00 -0600

The subject of surcharging is one that has caused a great deal of confusion in our industry for quite some time. However, because the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York preliminary approved a proposed settlement agreement in the In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation in November 2012, we are starting to see some clarification from the card associations.

As a result of the settlement agreement, Visa and MasterCard recently changed their Operating Regulations, giving merchants in the U.S. the ability to surcharge credit card transactions beginning January 27, 2013. To help understand the new rules, see the following summary of the rule changes.

A surcharge, sometimes called a checkout fee, is an additional fee that a merchant adds to a consumer’s bill when he or she uses a card for payment.

Here are a few rules regarding surcharging:

1. Surcharging is prohibited on debit and prepaid cards.

2. The surcharge must be the same for all credit card transactions of that brand, regardless of issuer.

3. The surcharge must be no greater than the merchant’s average discount rate for that brand’s credit card transactions.

4. The surcharge cannot exceed 4% in any event.

5. The surcharge must be the same for all transactions of that particular product, regardless of the card’s issuer.

6. The surcharge must be no greater than the merchant’s average discount rate for credit card transactions of that particular product, minus the regulated debit interchange rate (currently 0.05% + $0.22).

For U.S. merchants that accept credit or charge cards from other payment network brands, including American Express, Discover, and PayPal, surcharging practices are subject to a competitive “level playing field” limitation.

If the merchant accepts a competing payment network brand (e.g., MasterCard) that is as or more expensive to the merchant than another brand (e.g., Visa), the merchant may surcharge one brand’s (MasterCard’s) credit cards only in the same way as the merchant would be allowed to surcharge the competing payment network’s (Visa’s) credit card.

If the merchant accepts a competing payment network brand of credit card that prohibits the merchant from surcharging in a particular channel of commerce (i.e. either face-to-face or non-face-to-face), the merchant may not surcharge one brand’s credit cards unless it also surcharges the competing payment network’s credit cards regardless of the cost of that card to the merchant. In this case, the amount of the surcharge on the competing brand must be at least the lesser of the cost to accept the competing brand’s credit cards or the surcharge imposed on the first brand’s cards.

Visa and MasterCard require that merchants who decide to surcharge credit card transactions must satisfy the following notification and disclosure requirements:

1. The merchant must provide 30 days advance written notice to Visa, MasterCard, and the acquirer.

2. The merchant must provide clear disclosure to its customers that it is imposing a surcharge, including the amount, and that the surcharge is not greater than the merchant’s discount rate.

3. The dollar amount of the surcharge must be provided on the transaction receipt.

A merchant can satisfy its disclosure obligation to MasterCard by emailing merchant_surcharge_notification@mastercard.com and providing them with your business name, phone number, and merchant number and disclosing your intent to surcharge.

Merchants who choose to surcharge must notify Visa 30 days prior to beginning to surcharge; visit https://usa.visa.com/merchantsurchargenotification/inquiry to notify Visa.

Merchants who choose to surcharge must also notify Arrow Payments 30 days prior to beginning to surcharge.

Please note, there are 10 states have laws that limit or prohibit surcharging. These states include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas. Please consult your legal advisor to make sure you comply with applicable state and local laws.

Visa has created numerous resources on this topic, including Frequently Asked Questions and other documents that can help merchants decide if they should surcharge their customers. These resources can be found at www.visa.com/merchantsurcharging.

MasterCard also provides additional information on its website at www.mastercard.us/merchants/support/surcharge-rules.html.

If you are curious about implementing surcharging to help offset credit card charges, keep in mind the effects it may have on your particular customer base.

Feel free to contact a representative at Arrow Payments with any questions about surcharging.

How To Read Your Bill

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 09:25:57 -0600

Reading processing statements can seem like another language. Lets translate things and make it easier. Simplify is our middle name…Arrow (Simplify) Payments. We come from a long line of simple genes, ask anyone.

Have more billing questions? Give us a call, and a real person will chat it over with you!

NO FEE NOVEMBER!

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:01:00 -0600

Guess what?

I give up, tell me!

We’re paying your fees for the first two months if you sign up to process with us in November!

For Real?

Yes, for real. That means we are paying for you to give us a try, because we already have a 90 day guarantee that allows you to try us out and if you aren’t satisfied, you can leave no strings attached.

That seems too good to be true, what’s the catch?

No catch, we just want people to know how awesome we are. We are so confident, we put our money where our mouth is!

Have more questions? Give us a call 312-829-1200 or check out our website for more info! http://arrowpayments.com/

Ready for Your Close-Up goYWP?

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 12:33:00 -0500

As a new budding company, we are lucky to come in contact with lots of innovative companies who are growing rapidly. We’re lucky to have met goYWP and enter into a beautiful partnership together. Aww how romantic! We want to shine a spot light on their awesome abilities. Consider the following a how-to-be-awesome guide book!

goYWP is the predecessor of a company called Internet Solutions. Around 1999 Internet Solutions was commissioned by a local news media outlet to create a custom web-based article management solution. By 2001 the product was running strong and had evolved into a full-fledged content management system called WebPress. This was the beginning of the company’s embark down the custom web-development road. In early 2011 Travis Risner acquired the company after having employment with Internet Solutions in the past. Risner, having a strong desire to write web-based software, continued on developing creative solutions for goYWP’s client base.

Later in 2011 goYWP’s new flagship utility billing solution was released to the eye of the world; UPI or Utility Payment Interface. The flexible online payment solution was integrated with many major billing systems right out of the door and boasted payment integration options from many of the world’s top payment gateways. The system was truly an all-in-one online payment solution jam-packed with features for utility customers, service representatives, and accounting admins alike.

The story doesn’t end there. After careful consideration to what the customers were looking for goYWP turned to Arrow Payments for an easy, reliable, and affordable payment gateway solution for its customers. Thus, the relationship between Arrow Payments and goYWP was born. goYWP is now developing full integration of Arrow Payments into its UPI product and hopes to launch the new gateway solution in early 2013. The company feels the ease of the signup process and the lack of hidden fees Arrow stands by will greatly benefit its customer base for years to come.

goYWP feels the new relationship is crucial for the future. Ecommerce in the coming decade will become more and more prevalent to our everyday lives. A rapidly growing number people all over the world are using conveniences like online-bill-pay and “recliner shopping” to save time and money. This is a virtual world and virtual money is not too far off. When key economic players like Google fully dip their feet into the market ecommerce will evolve quicker than ever and goYWP has confidence that Arrow Payments will have the ability to adapt right along with the times.

What’s happening at Arrow Payments?

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 13:39:00 -0500

Dear Blog,

Lately, we’ve been growing like mad. Our growth has been so wild that we forgot about you, little bloggy. Perhaps we should take you out to dinner to make amends. Come to think of it, at Arrow, our gateway is powering many of the new pay-in-advance, “Ticket” restaurants. Pick your favorite one, blog. It’s on us.

Here are a few things that have been keeping us oh-so-busy.

1. Gateway Version 2.0

Our virtual terminal customers have spoken, and we’ve listened. When you tell us about a new feature or a change that we could implement to make you happy, we take it to heart. Then, we take it to the drawing board. After that, our developers build it. Then, you smile. Lastly, it gives us that warm fuzzy feeling knowing we’ve helped because that’s what we love to do.

Within our interface;

a) Merchants can now upload their company logo to be used on e-invoices and receipts. We’ll do the work; you can take the credit!

b) A daily email is now sent out at the end of each day to break down transaction and refund totals by card type. Let’s face it, most bills are a bit tricky to read, and we’re tired of that scene.

c) Our system now allows you to fully delete customers and all corresponding cardholder information from our secure vault. Keep it clean and tidy, your mother would like that.

d) PO/Invoice numbers are now available on all transaction and batch reports.

2. API Additions (This one goes out to the developers)

We have customers from around the country come to us with websites, mobile apps, and software that are disrupting industries. We’re thrilled to be along for the ride to ensure a smooth and secure payment and transfer of funds happens behind the scenes. We’ve received some great feedback on our API’s as well, so we’ve continued to add on by popular demand. For developer’s eyes only: No seriously STOP reading if you aren’t a developer!

With our API, you can now;

a) Get a list of Transactions for a specific customer.

b) Add Customer to vault without running a transaction.

c) Add Billing information (credit card) to Existing customer without running transaction.Enroll existing customer to recurrent billing.

d) Support for Desktop and server apps: Modify 3-Step-Redirect so the 2^nd Step returns directly a token-id if the Return-URL in Step 1 is omitted.

Our mission is to not to be the biggest payment processor, it’s to be the best.

Create Beanstalk-like Growth for Your Business

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:25:52 -0500

Since we’re in the payments business, we are constantly working with developers and companies of all sizes to help them accept credit cards easily and securely. In addition to loving our awesome product (shameless self-promotion) all of our clients have something else in common; they want to grow their business. Here are few ways that some of our fastest growing clients are reaching new heights.

1. Don’t let Robin drive the Batmobile

Meaning, do what you’re good at. The same goes for your team. Find people’s strengths and work with them. If you try to make someone in to something that they are not you will be spending more time cleaning up their mess.

2. That shortcut probably isn’t shorter

Sure, it might save you time and money (even make you money) in the short term, but in the long haul (which you’re in it for, right?) you’ve got to do things the right way. Hire people that fit into your culture, don’t deviate from what makes your business money, take care of each client like they’re the only one, and foster a work environment that promotes excellence.

3. Do what you love, love what you do

If you aren’t passionate about what you do, why are you doing it? Your clients and employees will be able to see right through your mysterious cloak and your business will suffer because of it. If your business has hit a lull, it may be time to reinvent yourself and your company to ignite that spark again.

4. Passion over perfection

Your product doesn’t have to include all the bells and whistles before it launches. Create a MVP (minimally viable product) and get it out in the marketplace to get feedback from your clients. And yes, you will get new customers because they’ll see your passion, not because what you have to offer is perfect. Once people are using your product, get feedback, refine, and improve. Be open to going in a different direction than you originally thought.

5. Embrace Social Media

Create a platform to release news to your clients and receive feedback. If you want followers, send out relevant content about your company and your industry. By doing so, you will get new customers and keep your current ones more informed. Well taken care of customers = longer relationships. In fact, if your business is not on Twitter or Facebook, close out of this email right now and set it up. Link both accounts to your company website for people to find you. It helps your company’s image, and your website’s SEO.

The Benefits of Being PCI Compliant

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 09:42:00 -0500

With all the complaining about becoming PCI compliant, it is easy for merchants to lose sight of the PCI program’s benefits. Remember, PCI compliance acts as your payment processing safety net—if you ever fall, you’ll be glad it’s there.

Besides being a merchant’s lifesaver, what are the other benefits to being PCI compliant?

Protection Against (Potential) Security Breaches
I say potential, but that doesn’t mean security breaches are a rarity. They are very real, and can mean the end of your processing days—and your business. In order to become PCI compliant, you will need to answer a questionnaire about the way your business processes transactions. Depending on how you process (through a gateway, POS terminal, etc.), you may be prompted to do a security scan of your system. A scan will pinpoint any weaknesses so you can proactively nip them in the bud, before they become an even bigger issue.

Our gateway’s API provides a unique 3-step redirect process, and also stores sensitive cardholder data through tokenization in our secure off-site vault, so you are already 90% of the way to achieving PCI compliance.

Sigh of Relief
The process of becoming compliant informs you of the safest processing practices, and which old methods to leave behind. In many cases, merchants aren’t even aware that some of their methods (writing down credit card numbers, for instance) aren’t secure.

Being PCI compliant offers you peace of mind—and less time spent worrying about security breaches, means more time focusing on your business.

Boost in customer confidence
Ecommerce transactions require customers to input all of their sensitive card data onto your site—which makes some a little iffy. Because you require your customers to provide so much detail, it is important to reassure them of your site’s security along the way.

Even if your customer’s don’t know the PCI compliance basics, a positive and secure shopping experience is likely to promote return business. In addition, with security breaches appearing in the news more frequently, in-the-know customers will be seeking out compliant merchants over non-compliant ones.

Avoid costly fines
I cannotstress enough how the cost of becoming compliant (measured in minutes) greatly outweighs the cost of a security breach (measured in dollars). The cost of fines—up to $500,000!—could cost you your business, and/or prevent you from accepting credit cards in the future. Think of becoming compliant like tearing off a Bandaid—the longer you wait, the more it hurts.

At Arrow Payments, we do our best to make the process of getting PCI compliant as quick and painless as possible. As soon as you sign up and get approved, a member of our team will call you and walk you through the self-assessment questionnaire.

Arrow Payments provides a Simply Better solution for processing payments online. Have a question? Tweet Antonia at @ArrowPayments

6 Tips to Improve Your Ecommerce Website

Tue, 29 May 2012 15:37:18 -0500

There are many benefits of making your products available for sale through your ecommerce website—increasing revenue and expanding your customer base to name a few.

But simply setting up an ecommerce website, and dumping your product catalog into your shopping cart software isn’t enough. Usability, navigation, and design make the difference between just browsing and actually buying.

1. Keep It Simple
The whole point of having an ecommerce store is to sell your products, so why make it difficult for your customers to find what they’re looking for? Finding a product to purchase shouldn’t be a scavenger hunt, so it’s essential to simplify your site navigation. Create a clear hierarchy/dropdown menu for customers to browse by category. Customizable sort options—by price, arrival, brand, etc—can also help your customers find what they want, fast.

Additionally, consider simplifying the registration process if you require it to complete a purchase. Complex and lengthy registration can cause customers to abandon their cart at the checkout.

2. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Sales
The downside of making purchases online is not being able physically see the product yourself. It sounds simple, but having a picture to accompany a product can be the difference between sale and no sale. Depending on your merchandise, you may also want to add multiple images of the same product from different angles. When a customer can actually see what they’re getting, there’s a considerably lower chance that they’ll return it.

3. Go Into Detail
Your customers should never have to leave your site to find information on a product you sell. If they do, you risk losing the sale—especially if another ecommerce site comes up in the search results. It is essential that your product catalog—descriptions and specs included—be seamlessly incorporated into your ecommerce site.

4. It’s All Relative
If you aren’t linking to related products, you’re missing out on a huge selling opportunity. When a customer views a product on your site, they should be offered a list of products that fall in the same category your customer is searching. Not only does this provide customers with options, but it also helps to establish return business.

5. Cover Your Customer Service Bases
Just because ecommerce sales take place online doesn’t mean you don’t have to work for the sale. Businesses can sometimes forget that a successful ecommerce website requires support team manpower. Easy to use, easy to find contact info can help customers address any issues or ask any questions efficiently and privately.

It’s always good business practice to have your customer service policies listed up front, and most merchant providers (including us) actually require it. Return and refund policies should be prominently displayed to avoid any headaches down the road—i.e. chargebacks.

Likewise, consider including a shipping rates calculator or make the various shipping rates visible throughout the shopping experience. Sites that don’t clearly state shipping costs up front risk losing sales when the final total is added up.

6. Take the Process Out of Processing
And last but certainly not least, make payment processing easy. The customer has made it this far, but functionality issues at checkout can cause a potential purchaser to cut and run. Your customer should be able to select, purchase and confirm the sale without hassle—thus the need for integrated shopping cart software. Many shopping cart providers also offer open support, and can act as an additional safety net should any glitches appear.

Also, make a point to accept a wide range of payment options. Simply accepting Visa and Mastercard will lose you AmEx, Discover, and gift card users who were planning on purchasing. If you are hesitant about adding American Express to your list of accepted cards for fear of high fees, don’t be. In fact, the cost of accepting AmEx is (literally) pennies compared to the cost of losing a sale. Check out our pricing page for a detailed breakdown.

At Arrow Payments, we review the ecommerce sites of all our merchants to make sure they have all of these elements in place before they begin processing with us.

Arrow Payments provides a Simply Better solution for processing payments online. Have a question? Tweet Antonia at @ArrowPayments

The 4 Most Dangerous Things Merchants Do

Wed, 16 May 2012 16:10:11 -0500

It’s a scary thought, but you could be PCI non-compliant without even realizing it. Protect your business and your customers by avoiding the following bad processing practices:

Scenario 1: You want to save your regular customers time by keeping their credit card numbers on file so they can get in, get out, and everyone’s happy.

Well, not everyone. While storing credit card numbers can save time, it also puts you at serious risk of a security breach. You should never write down credit card numbers to store them in a file on site or on your computer. Instead, utilize a gateway that allows merchants to store credit card details, including level 2 and level 3 data, in a secure cloud server offsite.

Scenario 2: A customer makes a payment offsite, and emails you his payment details—credit card number, expiration date, CVV code, the whole shebang.

Never receive or send payment card details via email. Even split up into multiple emails, the truncated card number can still be easily accessed by computer-savvy data thieves—or anyone with access to your email. The Arrow Payments gateway allows you to send your customers invoices via email, which they can pay by completing a secure payment form linked to the emailed invoice. It’s just as easy as submitting card details by email, but 100% safer.

Scenario 3: All of your employees are able to access terminals and gateways through one main login and password.

You may not have even considered it, but employee theft is always a possibility. To protect your business and customers from credit card data theft, never use terminals and gateways without user-specific logins and passwords. If employee theft does occur, you will be able to isolate the breach by identifying the employee’s login. Make sure all of your employees have individual logins, and customize accounts so that you control how much access they have.

Scenario 4: To insure that your employees provide the best customer service possible, you have set up a system that records all calls made to your business.

If your business is utilizing a call recording system, you may not verbally transmit credit card details over the phone. That doesn’t mean you have to get rid of the recording system, it just means you can’t take payments over the phone. Using an e-invoicing tool (like the one on our gateway) will make taking payments quick, easy, and phone call free.

If any of the above scenarios hit a little too close to home, it’s time to get out of the danger zone and onto PCI compliant processing. Still not clear on what PCI compliance is? No worries, there’s a blog for that.

Arrow Payments provides a Simply Better solution for processing payments online. Have a question? Tweet Antonia at @ArrowPayments

Arrow Payments vs. PayPal/Stripe/Square

Thu, 10 May 2012 10:46:00 -0500

As a new merchant solution, we are frequently asked how we compare to our better-known competitors Stripe, PayPal and Square.

Overview
PayPal, Stripe, and Square are rather similar in the sense that they are known as “aggregators”, meaning they are the Merchant of Record (MOR) for the transactions they process. Aggregators essentially allow customers to use their own merchant account to process credit card payments. The two major advantages for PayPal/Stripe/Square to do this are:

1. Extremely fast sign up process

Because all businesses are essentially processing payments on the same merchant account, the merchant ID and processing platform are already connected. As a business, you are just joining the party. In fact, you can begin accepting payments immediately after enrollment.

2. Cost

By aggregating their customer’s merchant accounts, they are able to avoid charging any monthly fees. Because there is only one account used by all merchants, typical account and maintenance fees owed to the Card Associations are relatively diminished. This is why all three companies employ cost structures that have minimal or no monthly fees.

The Downside
For payments companies like PayPal, Stripe, and Square, the biggest issue they have is that they take on substantial risk from their merchants and wind up with an unusually high burden of loss prevention. Due to their minimal due diligence and quick sign-up process, they know far less about the merchants they are working with, but have more financial incentive to be cautious with them.

So if they see something that they think could present an increased risk, like large transactions or sales volume, chargebacks, international sales, etc., they may be compelled to immediately mitigate the risk by placing reserves or limits on the merchant, withholding payout, or even shutting down a merchant’s ability to collect payments, all without negotiation or warning. PayPal in particular has earned a negative reputation in this regard (Google “PayPal shut me down”).

Although all three companies have minimal or no monthly fees, you will notice that they have much higher per transaction fees. Think about it like insurance; they hold much more risk and liability, and therefore charge a premium to provide the service.

The Upside
All three companies are fine to use, and in fact recommended by Arrow Payments under these conditions; You do not process many credit card transactions, and you also do not think you will in the future. In these cases, PayPal, Stripe, and Square are less expensive and easier to setup.

The Better Side
The Arrow Payments approach is to help merchants get their own merchant account, so they can be their own Merchant of Record. While this requires a little more effort from the merchant during the enrollment process, it enables us to have a much better understanding of our customers and avoid problems down the road.

As far as price is concerned, there is a clear advantage to using Arrow Payments when processing moderate to heavy volume (starting around $10,000 a month). We are happy to provide a detailed cost comparison for your particular business.

In addition to these benefits, Arrow Payments is able to provide many more bells and whistles to Internet and B2B merchants like transparent Interchange-Plus pricing, a modern API, PCI-Compliance, Level-3 Payments, e-Invoicing, secure card storage, recurring billing, and exceptional support for merchants in their early stages all the way to becoming a serious online player.

Arrow Payments provides a Simply Better solution for processing payments online. Have a question? Tweet Antonia at @ArrowPayments

6 Tips to Green Up Your Office

Thu, 03 May 2012 10:43:26 -0500

Take a look around your office. Notice that stack of nearly blank paper? That harsh overhead lighting? The mountain of napkins and Styrofoam containers overflowing from the trashcan?

These are all signs it’s time for your workplace to green up their act! We spend a large majority of our time in the office, so making a few simple changes to workday habits can substantially reduce your ecological impact. Here are 6 green practices every business should follow—now let’s go green!

1. Flip a Switch, Save the World

It’s that easy! Even on standby your computer will continue to use up power, so it’s important to get into the habit of turning it off—that’s right, completely off—every night. Simply having your computer plugged in will use unnecessary electrical power, so the best practice is to simply power off that power strip before you leave for the day. In addition, make sure to utilize the energy-saving settings on your computer, lights, and all other electronic devices.

2. Don’t Leave a Paper Trail

Our good friend the Internet makes greening up your act a breeze, because the more you do online, the less paper you waste. Digitize your files and back them up offsite or in cloud-based data storage. You should also make a point to enable double-sided printing, and opt for recycled paper and toner for when you do need to print things out. Also, utilizing a shared drive will allow your employees to share and access documents electronically.

3. If at First it Isn’t Trash, Reuse, Reuse Again

Before you throw anything away, determine whether or not it could possibly be reused. Use misprints and duplicates as scratch paper, shredded paper as packing material, and boxes as…boxes.

4. Let the Sun Shine

(Not So) Fun Fact: artificial light makes up close to 45% of an office building’s energy use.

Luckily for us, our Chicago office has large windows that allow for us to utilize natural light on sunny days. If you have windows near your desk, skip turning on the lights until you need them. If natural light isn’t an option in your office, make sure you replace all light bulbs with Energy-Star rated compact fluorescents. Motion sensors are also a great solution to unnecessary energy use as they are programmed to automatically shut off when no one is around.

5. Save the Plastic for Your Credit Cards

One of the biggest changes you can make to your weekly trash output is to ditch the plastic ware and invest in some plates, cups, bowls and silverware for the office. Simply using real utensils instead of plastic ones can reduce your carbon footprint ten-fold. Pack your lunch in reusable containers and if ordering delivery, specify that you don’t need any plastic ware and napkins.

6. Ban the bottle

Your body is 60% water, so it seems kind of silly to pay $2 for a bottle of it. Insure that no plastic water bottles will be purchased by your employees again by opting instead for an office water cooler. Enjoy cold, filtered water in real cups or reusable bottles, for free! Most water suppliers will even recycle the used tanks for you.

Here at Arrow Payments, we’re committed to sustainability. We’ve gone completely paperless, and in fact, making our entire application process digital saves us roughly 100 pages of paper per account. I’m not saying that if you sign with us you’ll save a tree…but you better just in case.

Arrow Payments provides a Simply Better solution for processing payments online. Have a question? Tweet Antonia at @ArrowPayments

5 Ways to Use the Arrow Payments Gateway

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:08:55 -0500

We’re a team of multi-taskers, and we created our gateway in the same vein. Why serve just one function, when you can seamlessly handle 5? The Arrow Payments gateway doesn’t just move your money; it moves your entire business into the future—and an efficient future at that!

There are 5 ways to use the Arrow Payments gateway. That’s 5 excellent tools for the price of one. 5 more reasons to love us. 5 less things you have to do. I could keep going, but instead let me present the Fabulous 5:

1. Virtual Terminal – A virtual terminal is a web-based payment processing platform that allows you to process phone, mail, and POS transactions instantly online. Remote login allows you to access and process over the virtual terminal anywhere with internet access.

2. Transparent Redirect—Payments received via Arrow’s payment form which can be integrated with your own website. We simplify PCI by keeping sensitive data on our servers and off yours. Find out more about the magic behind Transparent Redirect here.

3. API—Arrow’s Application Programming Interface (API) is simple, modern, and a web developer’s dream. Our API can easily integrate into any mobile application or shopping cart software your ecommerce website may be using.

4. Recurring Billing—Transactions are automatically billed to customers via a schedule set up on the Arrow Payments website. Billing cycle lengths and due dates are all completely customizable to suit your business. The gateway will also alert you when your recurring customer’s credit cards are expiring.

5. Invoices—The gateway invoicing tool allows to you initiate customer bills through email. Clients are sent to our servers to make a payment and reports notify you of the transaction status, insuring that you never physically or electronically come into contact with sensitive cardholder data—making PCI compliance simple and secure. You also have the ability to resend the email until the bill gets paid.

The Arrow Payments gateway is the Swiss Army knife of payments processing—all the tools you’ll ever need, in one sharp little package.

Arrow Payments provides a Simply Better solution for processing payments online. Have a question? Tweet Antonia at @ArrowPayments

Meet the Team: Jeff

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:06:30 -0500

Meet Jeff Phillips—actor, writer, paymentologist. As an Arrow Payments sales rep, Jeff describes his role as “The Jim Halpert of payments processing.” Thankfully, Jeff doesn’t pull as many in-office shenanigans…well, that we know of.

When he isn’t educating merchants with his vast knowledge of paymentology, Jeff performs live sketch shows with his comedy group, Wood Sugars Comedy. The trio average three shows a month, while simultaneously producing podcasts, short films and of course, humorous tweets.

And as if that isn’t enough, Jeff keeps himself busy penning the next great American novel. He has already published two novellas, Whiskey Pike: A Bedtime Story for the Drinking Mankind and Turban Tan, and is in the process of revising a third, TeleSnuffer.

If he had the opportunity to dine with any four people in history, Jeff would pick an unexpected mix for his dinner company: “George Saunders for a funny story, Galileo for ancient planet talk, Jack Nicholson for keeping things interesting and F. Scott Fitzgerald to foot the after dinner drinks bill on his credit card since he was notorious for that sort of thing.”

Luckily for Fitzgerald, Jeff’s got a few tricks up his sleeve for getting the best rates on credit card transactions. And if things between Nicholson and Galileo take a turn for the worst, Jeff is no stranger to sword play. In fact, he got pretty good at it when he was a Spanish warlord in a play. No wonder he’s so good at slashing unreasonable rates in half.

Taking on Merchant Services’ Bad “Wrap”

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:04:00 -0500

I know—disgusting, isn’t it? Unfortunately, disgusted is the way most people feel about merchant account providers. Here are just a few of the reasons the merchant services’ industry has such a bad “wrap”:

Complicated and expensive fee structures
A lack of understanding about how the industry works
Hundreds of poorly trained independent sales reps
Rates that increase overtime, addition of unnecessary fees, lengthy contracts, costly termination penalties
Inadequate customer service and support

Before poor customer service and binding contracts make you lose your appetite for merchant services completely, let me introduce a more palatable provider.

Starting Fresh
At Arrow Payments, we’re serving up a new kind of wrap—it’s fresh, it’s nutritious, it’s completely calorie free! Ok, so maybe that’s a stretch, but it does have all the nutrients of a merchant account, without all the questionable meat thrown in.

Here’s what’s on the menu:

100% satisfaction guarantee—If you don’t like working with us within the first 90 days, we’ll refund all the profits you made with us, AND help you transition to a new provider
Transparent pricing—The fees listed on our website are the fees you pay. No exceptions. We also use interchange plus pricing and SIC code-specific underwriting, so you’ll always get the best rates for your business
PCI Compliance comes standard—We get our merchants PCI compliant as part of the application process, and go through it with them.
No contracts—We require no terms or commitments from our clients, and will never stick you with hidden fees or penalties.

Merchants need account providers, so why make them chose from the best of the worst? We think they deserve the best—period. That’s why we’ve taken everything you could want from a merchant service provider, and wrapped it up in one appetizing package.

Arrow Payments provides a Simply Better solution for processing payments online. Have a question? Tweet Antonia at @ArrowPayments

What is a Payment Gateway?

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:59:33 -0500

All of the blogs I’ve written have been about the amazing benefits of using a payment gateway for your ecommerce site. I’ve been so excited to share all the great features of our gateway with you that I may have skipped over the most important part—explaining the magic behind it all!

A payment gateway facilitates the transfer of information between your ecommerce website, mobile phone, or point of sale system, and your merchant account in a secure, encrypted format. In other words, the gateway is the armored truck that moves your customer’s money to your account, safely and securely.

Each transaction made on a payment gateway is sent through SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to a processor for approval. It sounds like it’d be a long trip, but really it takes about 2-3 seconds. Throughout each business day the gateway sends (still via that bulletproof, fraud-proof, error-proof armored car!) all your day’s transactions to be stored in our secure vault, and then releases them as a single batch to deposit into your account.

What’s So Great About Arrow Payment’s Gateway?

In a word, everything! If you’ve read any of our blogs, or visited our website, one thing should be abundantly clear: we’re REALLY excited about our gateway, and with good reasons:

For one thing, our gateway was created, and is supported, in house so if you have any questions, we’ll never outsource your call. Just call one number, and reach a team of gateway experts.
Advanced reporting tools come standard in our gateway, so searching for transactions and comparing sales volumes is a breeze.
All our fabulous features and user accounts are fully customizable to meet your specific needs.
Our easy invoicing tool allows you to initiate customer bills through email.
Our gateway allows you to set up billing plans and subscriptions, initiate trial periods, pull billing reports, and update expired credit cards.
The best part—the gateway sends all sensitive information to be stored in our secure vault, so no cardholder data even touches your system at all!

The Arrow Payments gateway offers the best of both worlds—the bells and whistles to take tracking your ecommerce transactions to the next level, and the user-friendly simplicity that makes it all possible.

Arrow Payments provides a Simply Better solution for processing payments online. Have a question? Tweet Antonia at @ArrowPayments