Credit Card Manual Imprinters May Become Obsolete

This year Visa announced their unembossed credit card program, where they will begin issuing cards that are completely flat and do not contain embossed numbers (which are often useful in the case of imprinting credit cards).

While these cards have a "cool" look and feel they create a bit of a problem in the case of those merchants using manual entry for their credit cards or some sort of touch-tone/telephone solution. The traditional manual imprinters have been the most effective option used to prove that the card was present at the point of sale, helping merchants fight against chargebacks, but with this news by Visa/MC merchants will have to decide on which change they should make.

There are only two things that a merchant can do:

1. Purchase a portable copy photo copy machine - this will allow you to still prove that the card was present at the point of sale (good for fighting chargebacks attempts by customers claiming to not have "authorized your sale").

2. Setup a wireless merchant account with a true wireless credit card hardware terminal - Though this option is more expensive (wireless terminals do cost, you can either receive one free and pay more for it over time, or you may pay less to purchase one up front), it is still a viable option and one that offers faster processing times while still verifying cards on the spot in a wireless or mobile environment.

Regardless of which option you choose to go with, merchants need to be prepared to make changes if their primary method of card validation is to use a traditional manual imprinter (also known as "knucklebuster"). And as always MerchantSeek.com can assist you if you need help deciding which option works best for you.

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Joe

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