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We just chatted with a business owner, who once loved her prior processor. The key phrase is “once loved” because we just helped her do the math on her equipment lease. Her old processor “helped” her out with a low monthly lease payment of $44 a month; which she has been happily paying for the past 10 years. Her processor has billed her a total of $5280 in payments for a credit card terminal we sold 10 years ago for $499. Can you hear the love leave the room? At Total Merchant Concepts, we rarely recommend leases. Every once in a blue moon, an attorney or CPA can make the fiscal case for a small business to sign a lease for a credit card terminal. But in most

PCI Compliance is something that most merchants are familiar with these days. Each year, merchants are required to prove that they are handling credit card data properly, that their systems are secure and that the processes they have in place protect the card data. It all sounds good right? Protect card holder information, make sure everything is safe and secure…….but what happens when things go wrong? We have been fortunate at Total Merchant Concepts in that we have never had a merchant sustain a breach however, in the past two weeks we have been referred to two separate merchants who have been told by their processing companies that their Point of Sale system had been hacked. One merchant is looking at nearly $50,000.00 in fines in addition to

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the Mommies, Moms, Mothers, Mamas & Grandmas out there! Every day is special when you are a Mom but TODAY is the one day per year set aside to really honor Mom- for all of the many things she does! Here are some fun facts about Mother’s Day- This year, the average person will be spend $126.90 on gifts, flowers & meals for their Mom Americans buy 140 million cards for Mother’s Day There are about 83 million Mothers in the United States Mother’s Day is the 2nd biggest gift giving holiday in America People will spend 1.9 billion dollars on flowers for Mother’s Day The most popular type of flowers are mixed bouquets, carnations, daffodils, roses & tulips The total spending

Last week, Sony announced it may have lost up to 77 million people’s personal information, including their debit and credit cards. Confidentiality and information integrity is always important but here are some timely tips: What to do if you think your credit or debit card is stolen (Information provided from the State Department of Financial Institutions) Consumers have strong protection if unauthorized charges are made on their credit cards. Typically in the U.S., cardholders are protected from unauthorized transactions on their credit card accounts. Call the issuing bank or credit union right away. Act fast – the sooner you report the loss, the more likely you will limit your liability if someone uses your card without your permission. Once reported, you are not liable for any further charges

Good Monday Morning! Sir Smiley here with a quick thought for the day: Genuine beginnings begin with us, even when they are brought to our attention by external circumstances or opportunities! ~William Bridges TMC will be posting some great information this week on rates and fees- a continuing education of sorts! Until then, enjoy your new beginnings as we launch into this fresh new week of spring! Sir Smiley- OUT Sir SmileyMonday, April 18, 2011

In our first online poll, we asked how you handled the signature panel on the back of your credit cards and the results are in: SIGN YOUR CARD (they said to sign it) 30%? WRITE CID (I’m not giving the crooks my signature!) 40% SIGN & WRITE CID (It was a tight fit- but I made it) 17% LEAVE IT BLANK (Nobody checks it anyway) 13% So what is the ‘RIGHT’ answer? Technically speaking, Option #1 is the correct answer- let’s look at all 4 options: Cheri PerrySaturday, April 9, 2011