September 7, 2012
As a value added service for our merchants, Axia provides an online newspaper that focuses on delivering concise and relevant information about the payments industry with a merchant centered mindset.
As we’re sure you already know, your business is continually influenced by the dynamics of the payments industry in regards to economics, new laws, and innovative technologies. At Axia, not only are we prepared for these changes, we intend to be a continued leader and a guiding influence for our industry and our clients. We take great pride in providing this value and trust that you will enjoy reading about the positive advances in the payment processing industry.
To ensure that you’re getting updates on the latest in industry news please subscribe at The Axia Payments Weekly.
April 2, 2013
February 19, 2013
If you had an extra $20,000, what would you use it for?
Qualifying Axia merchants have the opportunity to receive cash advances through our partner Gibraltar Capital Advance. Gibraltar Capital Advance offers cash advance services to restaurants and retailers as a way to alleviate cash flow problems and to help grow your business.
Cash advances are often a faster and easier alternative to taking out a business loan from a bank. Unlike a loan, repayment on a merchant cash advance is based on the volume of credit card sales. So, if business slows down, so does your repayment.
For more information on Gibraltar Capital Advance, please contact your area manager.
February 14, 2013
As part of the Visa and MasterCard antitrust settlement merchants are now able to implement surcharges under certain criteria. Any merchants who choose to surcharge will have to follow certain requirements, including disclosure of surcharge practices to customers at the store entry point and at the point of sale. Merchants are also required to notify Visa, MasterCard, and Axia 30 days prior to implementing a surcharge.
This settlement does not supersede existing state legislation which prohibits a merchant from imposing a surcharge. We have been informed that the following states are currently prohibiting surcharging:
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Florida
- Kansas
- Maine
- Massachusetts
- New York
- Oklahoma
- Texas
Surcharging is limited to credit cards only. Check, debit and prepaid products cannot be surcharged.
For more information on surcharging rules and registration, please visit http://www.axiapayments.com/merchantsurcharging
September 7, 2012
It Pays to Know People. $100 to be Accurate.
We will pay you $100 for every merchant that you refer to Axia that begins processing with us. Once the referral begins processing with Axia, we will ACH your bank account $100 for each successful referral.
For more information, please go to http://www.axiapayments.com/products-services/referral-program/ .
September 7, 2012
Get Ready for the Holiday Season with Gift Cards
With the holiday season quickly approaching, it’s a great time to take advantage of our current gift card offers. Right now Axia merchants can receive:
- 30 FREE gift or loyalty cards with all reorders
- Conversion of up to 1,000 gift cards at no cost
Contact us at 877-875-6114 ext. 3 today to place your order and don’t miss out on a great way to generate revenue!
September 7, 2012
Don’t have Data Breach Insurance? Read this…
Data breaches cost companies a staggering $156.7 billion over six years
Data breaches cost organizations $156.7 billion over a six-year period, according to new data breach study by Digital Forensics Association.
The study presents data breach information collected from 2005 through 2010, including the disclosure of more than 800 million records over that period. The association said the overall data breach dollar figure did not include the costs that the organizations downstream or upstream incurred, or the losses sustained by the data breach victims. Further, the report, The Leaking Vault 2011, said the data breach cost estimate was low because 35% of the incidents did not name a figure for records lost.
On average, these organizations lost over 388,000 people’s records per day/15,000 records per hour every single day for the past six years, according to the report, which studied 3,765 publicly disclosed data breach incidents from 2005 through 2010.
In 65% of the data breach cases, the data disclosed included the subject’s name, address, and social security number. In contrast, only 15% of the incidents disclosed credit card numbers, and 16% disclosed medical information. Medical disclosures saw a significant increase with the addition of the 2010 data. This is more likely due to the reporting requirement of existing regulations going into effect than an actual increase in incidents, the report observed.
The data breach incidents where criminal use of the data was confirmed increased by 58% from the prior report. The two vectors most likely to show criminal use were the fraud and hacker vectors. Hackers were responsible for 48% of the records disclosed in the study.
Download file: Don’t have Data Breach Insurance? Read this… (39.pdf / 5,016kb)
Source: InfoSecurity
August 1, 2011
Durbin Amendment = Merchant Savings for Axia Clients
An Open Letter from President & CEO Randal Clark, Axia Payments
Valued Clients,
I personally wanted to take this time to update you on this piece of legislation and the recent Federal ruling relating to your debit card processing. If you have followed this government decision you no doubt are wondering how this might affect your credit card processing and the fees associated.
The Durbin Amendment was a last-minute addition to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. With the passing of the Durbin Amendment on July 29, 2011 the Federal Reserve announced their final regulation and effectively capped Debit and Check Card transactions at 21 cents per swipe and 0.05 percent of the transaction*, effective October 1, 2011.
While many details are yet to be clarified – technologically and otherwise – Axia is committed to passing on the savings attributed to the Durbin Amendment to our clients.
We anticipate that our customers will average over $1,000 annually in savings. It is important to note that this is actually more, on average, than what Axia receives for processing.
Please be aware, not all competing processing companies will be passing on all, or even a portion, of the savings to their clients. We earnestly desire to have our clients benefit from these positive financial changes and such savings reflect Axia’s long-term partnership and commitment with our clients. Added to our superior support, products and personnel it continues to affirm that Axia is the ideal choice for merchants and their payment processing needs and expectations.
As always, the greatest compliment we can receive is a referral from our clients. Please feel free to share this good news with your business friends, and we would enjoy the opportunity to serve as their payment processor.
We appreciate your continued trust in Axia and we celebrate with you this significant decrease in costs.
Sincerely,
Randal Clark,
President/CEO, Axia Payments
Download file: Durbin Amendment = Merchant Savings for Axia Clients (38.pdf / 597kb)
December 20, 2010
2010 Holiday Mid-Season Update: Positive Momentum Holds Steady
http://www.pymnts.com/spendingpulse-2010-holiday-mid-season-update-positive-…
Season-to-Date Highest Growth in eCommerce, Apparel; Most Other Categories Also in Positive Territory
A macroeconomic indicator, SpendingPulse reports on national retail and services sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with survey-based estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check. MasterCard SpendingPulse does not represent MasterCard financial performance. SpendingPulse is provided by MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard Worldwide.
Source: Mastercard USA
December 10, 2010
MasterCard, Visa, PayPal thwart DDoS attacks
Recent cyber attacks on the major payment network websites reportedly caused a disruption Dec. 8, 2010, of MasterCard Worldwide’s SecureCode service for secure online transactions.
The attacks by a band of hackers calling itself “Anonymous” were reportedly in retaliation for Visa Inc., MasterCard and PayPal Inc. dropping Wikileaks from their client rosters after the controversial website refused to stop publishing hundreds of thousands of pages of confidential cables between U.S. embassies and Washington.
The distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks by the “hacktivists” involved the use of software Anonymous offered to supply free to supporters. Downloading the software connects the user to a network of hacker machines known as a botnet, which is used to flood websites with requests until the sites are unable to cope with the traffic.
The primary result of the attacks was to make the websites of PayPal, MasterCard and Visa temporarily unavailable due to the magnitude of the web traffic generated.
SecureCode service out briefly
Also unavailable was MasterCard’s SecureCode service, apparently because verification relies on loading pages from the company’s web server, which was one of the targets of the DDoS attacks. MasterCard SecureCode allows cardholders to create a private code for use in shopping online as added protection against fraud.
Mike Monsivais, a Security Analyst for SecurityMetrics Inc., a company that provides Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) compliance consulting and tools, pointed out that disruption of the SecureCode system didn’t mean users couldn’t make purchases online.
Monsivais said, “It means the system defaulted, or ‘failed over’ to asking them for the normal credentials needed to use your credit card online: credit card number, security code and expiration date.”
MasterCard posted a statement on its website stating, “Our core processing capabilities have not been compromised, and cardholder account data has not been placed at risk. While we have seen limited interruption in some web-based services, cardholders can continue to use their cards for secure transactions globally.”
DDoS attacks a fact of life
Security analysts suggest that the DDoS attacks vary in intent, method and impact from those launched by “financially” motivated hackers. When a financially motivated hacker launches an attack, “he’s attacking weaknesses in the protocols and applications on the vulnerable server to try and access it,” said Chad Horton, Penetration Testing Manager at SecurityMetrics. “In a DDoS case, they’re flooding the pipelines that feed into websites with legitimate traffic so that other legitimate traffic can’t get through.”
Security experts admit DDoS attacks cannot be prevented; they advise the best way to protect against intrusions from financially motivated hackers is to be vigilant and adhere to security best practices.
“Part of security is an appreciation that these sorts of things can and will happen,” said Tim Cranny, President and Chief Executive Officer of Panoptic Security Inc., a technology security company specializing in PCI compliance. “You do everything you can to prevent it, but then you also do everything you can to mitigate the effects and consequences of it.”
Source: The Green Sheet
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