“I am a huge fan of this whole system as it is extremely easy to use and offers amazing features. How cool is it to know you can just carry the card reader in your pocket with your device, and you can accept credit cards anywhere?”

Adam Zeis – CrackBerry.com

Read the whole review on CrackBerry.com

“Do not be surprised if you see MerchantWARE Mobile being a “Must Have” application in the Business environment soon.”

BlackBerrySites.com

Read the whole review on BlackBerrySites.com

Businesses “On the Go” can increase sales with iPhone^TM and iPod® Touch

Merchant Warehouse’s free Point of Sale application runs credit card transactions

on Apple mobile devices

BOSTON, MA – March31, 2009 - Merchant Warehouse, a premier provider of merchant accounts and credit card processing solutions, today announced its first mobile application for the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone^TM and iPod® Touch, now available on iTunes and at the Apple App Store.

MerchantWARE Mobile is a point of sale application that allows merchants to run credit and debit transactions in real time.  A merchant only needs to install the application on their device, and have a merchant account and a connection to WiFi, Edge or a 3G network.  Unlike competitive solutions, MerchantWARE Mobile is free, has no gateway fees, and does not require an expensive third party license.  The solution is ideal for the mobile workforce where convenience and low costs are a necessity.

“We’re always looking to be one step ahead of our customer’s needs.  We saw an opportunity to help smaller mobile merchants who want the security and functionality to process transactions without having to invest in expensive, dedicated wireless terminals,” said Henry Helgeson, president and co-CEO of Merchant Warehouse. “We believe MerchantWARE mobile will provide these merchants with the tools they need to help grow their businesses.”

In the past, mobile workers such as contractors, insurance agents or tradeshow vendors would accept payments by check, cash or handwrite the credit card information and then later process the card back in their office.  These payment options are time consuming, un-secure, and expose merchants to the risk of bad checks and declined credit cards.  MerchantWARE Mobile addresses these concerns with secure and immediate processing of transactions – saving merchants valuable time and money.

“MerchantWARE Mobile for the iPhone and iPod touch is the tip of the iceberg for innovative mobile applications from Merchant Warehouse,” said Helgeson.  “Over the next few months we will be addressing the need for mobile applications that will assist merchants who may be utilizing other wireless devices powered by Blackberry, Windows Mobile and others.”

With security breaches being a top concern for merchants and consumers, MerchantWARE Mobile eliminates worry as all customer information is encrypted and sent over a secure SSL connection.  Additionally, all data is stored on Merchant Warehouse’s secure servers, not the merchant’s mobile device.

MerchantWARE Mobile features include:

• Easy to run secure credit card transaction, including sales, refunds and voids;
• Encrypted and secure SSL connections for safely transmitting customer information;
• Reporting capabilities including, transaction summaries, totals by card type and date and transaction details;
• Automatic end of day batch processing to avoid hassles and downgraded transactions;
• Access to the MerchantWARE Virtual Terminal enabling users to process transactions through the same merchant account from any web connected computer.

More information on MerchantWARE Mobile is available at; http://merchantwarehouse.com/credit_card_software/merchantware_mobile.

iPhone and iPod Touch are trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple, Inc.

About Merchant Warehouse
Merchant Warehouse was founded in 1998 on the principle that businesses should be able to purchase credit card processing software, POS equipment and merchant services at a reasonable price.  With over 55,000 merchants, Merchant Warehouse now sets the standard for price, innovation, customer service and integrity.  For more information, please visit www.MerchantWarehouse.com.

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Contacts:

Brian Waldman, Vice President of Marketing and Strategy

Merchant Warehouse

800.941.6557 x2050

bwaldman@merchantwarehouse.com

Dial-up, phone line based terminals: This is your basic terminal which you’ll find in a majority of small to medium sized businesses. If you do some research, you’ll find that these are overall the least costly machines and the ones that have been around the longest. In order to use this type of equipment, you’re business will need a dedicated, analog phone line. By analog, I mean a regular landline, not digital or Voice Over IP.. By dedicated, I mean that it shouldn’t be a phone line which is part of a greater office phone system, such as a PBX or IP-PBX System. Though your office can use one of these, you should speak to your phone people about getting a dedicated phone line which is separate from your system. Many times, a merchant will already have a fax machine which runs off of a dedicated line. One good thing to note is that almost all dial-up credit card terminals come with an extra phone port so that they can share the phone line with a fax machine or a single phone. The one problem here is that you wouldn’t be able to use your credit card machine and your phone or fax machine at the same time. The next type of terminal connectivity eliminates this problem

IP-based terminals: These terminals work off of your broadband internet connection, and they are great for merchants who use Vonage or other Voice Over IP solutions. Basically, you’d attach your terminal to a Cable Modem, DSL Modem, or into your IP Router in order for the terminal to process transactions. Two great advantages to IP terminals is that they process transactions faster and that they allow you to process transactions and leave phone lines open, allowing you to conduct business without having to wait to free up a line or receive phone calls without worrying about disrupting your credit card terminal. There are also two disadvantages: Firstly, these terminals are usually more expensive than dial-up terminals. Secondly, if you’re experiencing problems with your IP-terminal and need to perform a download to correct programming problems, you may need an analog phone line. Though your terminal will work over IP for authing credit cards, there’s a great chance your processor won’t have the ability to have your terminal pick up your merchant information over IP. It’s been my experience that many merchants who use the internet or VoIP for their phone service won’t have a backup analog phone lines for situations like this. I’d advise you to invest in a phone line for this very reason. It can prevent downtime your business would experience from your Internet Connection or VoIP connection being down.

Wireless terminals: No in-depth explanation necessary. Just like a cell phone, these credit card terminals access a cellular network such as GPRS or CDMA to send info to the credit card processor. Although these are usually the most expensive of the three connectivity types, they are definitely worth it for merchants who process a volume of credit card transactions at trade show sales events or in on-site situations like a plumber or carpenter who comes to your house to make improvements. With this terminal, you will have the piece of mind knowing whether or not a customer’s card will go through at the actual point of sale instead of writing down their information and bringing it back to your office to be keyed in. Not only will it give you piece of mind, but swiped credit card accounts generally get lower rates than those of a MOTO or Keyed Face to Face merchant account would so it may end up saving you money in the long run.

If you are interested in finding out more about which terminal you should use with your existing telephony setup or about how you could benefit from a wireless terminal, call up Merchant Warehouse and let one of our account representatives help you figure out what type of terminal would work best for you. We will definitely have the solution to your credit card terminal needs.

Joseph Fitzgibbons – Senior Support Specialist

First, how will you be conducting business? Are you generally going to see the customers or do you do business via the Internet or telephone? If business is done face to face and payments are accepted directly at the point-of-sale, you’ll probably want to purchase a credit card machine. However, MOTO or Internet merchants may want to consider an Internet Gateway, which integrate with a website’s shopping cart, or with a Virtual Terminal such as MerchantWare. One advantage to using an Internet Gateway, Virtual terminal, or both, is that these can be used on a computer with a broadband internet connection. If you already have this in place, all you have to buy is the software or a license. Not having to invest in new hardware will save you both money and work-space.

Secondly, for regular Retail merchants, do you have customer demand for more secure, PIN-based transactions? If so, you might want to get a POS terminal with an internal PIN-pad (no additional hardware to purchase, besides the terminal itself), or one that is compatible with an external PIN-pad. If you have a compatible terminal, I would recommend that you get an external PIN pad. With the external option, the PIN-pad is usually already facing the customer so there wouldn’t be a need for you to hand over the entire credit card terminal for the customer to use. This also means that your credit card terminal is more secure and there is less of a chance of the terminal falling into the wrong hands, literally. Using a customer-facing, external PIN pad should also cut down on transaction time.

Credit and Debit transactions aren’t the only electronic payments you can accept as a merchant. Gift Cards could be a great way to strengthen customer loyalty, beef up your customer retention, and broaden your customer base. If you are considering taking these cards, you will need to either make sure that your existing POS solution can work with your Gift Card service provider, or purchase a new solution which will.

However, like I first mentioned, not all terminals are the same and different merchants will require different functions out of their terminals. If you want to learn more about how to accept Gift Cards, Debit, or even simply credit card transactions and want to know what POS solution will best suit your needs, give a call to Merchant Warehouse and allow one of our friendly and knowledgeable Account Representatives to assist you. They can help you figure out what kind of merchant account you will need and what POS Solution will best fit your business. Check back for my next blog which will discuss POS Solution connectivity.

Joseph Fitzgibbons – Senior Support Specialist

There are many types of credit card terminals out there and many times a particular terminal may not be the right stuff for a merchant and their business. Finding the correct POS solution isn’t very hard, as long as the merchant knows what they need to be looking for. I’d like to impart some advice, some general guidelines to search by for the merchants out there who believe it is upgrade time or just need to replace an existing solution.

I’ve been around the POS block long enough for it to become clear to me that there are three important things to be looking for when purchasing POS equipment. I’ve never been in the merchant’s situation of needing to find the best solution for my business, but if I was and had thought about what kind of functionality I needed to get out of my POS equipment, how I would fit this technology into my current business environment in terms of connectivity, and where I could find the best deal on this POS equipment, I would be ahead of the game and would probably be setting myself up for smooth sailing when it comes to accepting all sorts of electronic payments.

To explain a tiny bit more what it is the merchant should consider heavily, they should know
A) The types of payments they want to accept be they Credit, Debit, Gift Cards, or Checks;
B) What kind of telephone or Internet services they have (usually both nowadays, but sometimes there is neither!) which the POS equipment would work on so that transactions can take place; and lastly
C) Where to find the best prices for these solutions.

This does not really paint the entire picture of the landscape a merchant must take a good look at and think on. It’s only exposing the outlines which need to be filled in with accurate information in order for a merchant to make sense out the whole thing and to come up with the best POS equipment for their business. In forthcoming blogs, I will be explaining this further and hopefully helping merchants choose wisely and make informed decisions concerning the technology they’ll use to accept electronic. This should make business for the merchant much easier and hopefully even much more successful in the long term. Stay logged on!

Joseph Fitzgibbons – Senior Support Specialist

However, there is a lack of education for small merchants about data security and compliance issues.  According to Visa and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), 57 percent of small
businesses do not view securing customer data as something that requires formal planning, and 39 percent say they rely on ‘common sense’ to keep their data safe. What these businesses must realize is that common sense is simply not enough to comply with the payment card industry data security standards (PCI DSS), which must be met by any merchant accepting credit card payments. And as more and more of the larger merchants become compliant and the high-profile breaches slow, industry attention will turn to the small merchant.

PCI DSS compliance can be costly; large companies are spending millions on complex technologies to protect cardholder data. But there is good news for small merchants: depending on the method of
processing and transaction volume, compliance can be achieved relatively easily and quite affordably. Here are several steps small businesses can take to work towards the safety and security of customer’s
data and that can also aid in becoming PCI compliant:

- View compliance as a necessity, not an inconvenience. Merchants should view compliance as an opportunity to improve and verify the security of their customers’ card data.

- Educate yourself on PCI. Research the recent data losses and the growing acronym PCI DSS. Additional information can be found at https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/tech/saq.htm.

- Keep yourself up-to-date on compliance. Requirements and timelines for compliance are continually amended; small businesses need to ensure they are armed with the most up-to-date knowledge and
equipment. This is especially important for those considering opening their own establishment, since new Level 4 merchants must be compliant by October 1, 2008. There are merchant education strategies for those independent merchants seeking reliable direction in addressing PCI DSS.

- Opt for services that ease the burden of PCI compliance. When implementing your POS system; look for solutions that simplify PCI compliance by choosing a solution that encrypts card data at the ‘read
head’ such as the MerchantWARE solution from Merchant Warehouse – to ensure sensitive customer data is never exposed. With no access to consumer credit card data or personal information businesses will automatically meet five of the twelve PCI DSS security standards, including the most intensive and costly.

While adhering to these tips will not guarantee compliance or that a business will not be hacked, they can help forge a path towards better safety and security for customer data, while building a solid foundation for mandatory compliance requirements. And just as important is the invaluable asset of customer trust; putting customers’ minds at ease by informing them their data is safe and secure will only contribute to their ongoing loyalty and keep business growing.

Henry Helgeson – President

While researching merchant account services providers and equipment you must certainly have seen offers for free terminal deals. But before you walk into a trap, ask yourself the following questions:

What is the contract or termination fee? Always ask for the schedule of fees and the program guide to make sure that neither the provider nor the back end processor has a contract or termination fee. When you’re locked into a contract, you might be paying for that “free” credit card terminal with increased rates every three months or a surprise “added” annual fee. Merchant Warehouse has no contract or termination fee, which means that A) We have every incentive to keep you happy and processing with us for a very long time, and B) We can’t arbitrarily raise our rates or provide lousy customer support, since it is so easy for you to leave us.

What kind of terminal are they giving me for “free”?  Our site is a good point of reference for you. Since we buy all of our equipment wholesale, we can offer credit card terminals at guaranteed lowest prices. So, if you are a new business being promised a “free” terminal that is worth hundreds of dollars on our website, that should raise a red flag. If you own a fine dining establishment, would you run a promotion where you’re giving away free lobster tail and filet mignon?

What happens if the terminal breaks? If you read the terms and conditions, you may find a hidden clause that states if the terminal breaks you have to wait weeks while it’s being repaired. Merchant Warehouse’s free terminal program includes overnight replacement insurance. If you drop the terminal, spill something on it, or it’s struck by lightning, we overnight you a replacement, no questions asked.

What is the condition of the equipment you are purchasing?
Is it new or used? Merchant Warehouse only sends out new units for our free terminal program that are programmed and tested in house before it gets to your door.

So remember, if a deal seems too good to be true, it is. Make sure you are getting the best package deal, because when you think about it, if you walk into a car dealership and try to get something for free or with no strings attached, you’re likely to end up with a piece of junk that breaks down on the highway.

Shannon Andrade – Account Executive

Merchant Warehouse’s new credit card processing cost reduction tool, the BINsmart Interchange Manager^TM for MerchantWARE, was unveiled back in July, and the response has been overwhelming. Various trade publications covered the release, and both Merchant Warehouse and MerchantWARE have been featured in articles related to electronic payment systems and credit card fraud issues. Here is some of what they had to say:

ISO&Agent Weekly
On July 24, 2008, ISO&Agent Weekly announced the release of Merchant Warehouse’s BINsmart Interchange Manager, the latest addition to the MerchantWARE payment gateway.

BINsmart determines whether a card used is credit, debit, or a corporate card by reading the first 6 digits (called the Bank Identification Number, or “BIN”). 

“If the system identifies the card as a debit card, it will send back a response to the point of sale system to prompt for a PIN number”, said Henry Helgeson, President and Co-CEO of Merchant Warehouse.

BINsmart complies with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard for payment applications because it does not store credit card number.  BINsmart is also free to developers that add Merchant Warehouse’s payment gateway. 

Merchants could benefit from lower interchange fees for debit transactions as their system can identify card type.

Cardline
On July 25, 2008, cardline announced the release of Merchant Warehouse’s BINsmart Interchange Manager. 

Currently working with integrated point of sale systems, BINsmart enables systems to prompt for a PIN number when a card is determined as ‘debit’. 
 
BINsmart complies with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard for payment applications because it does not store credit card number.  BINsmart is also free to developers that add Merchant Warehouse’s payment gateway. 

Merchants could benefit from lower interchange fees for debit transactions as their system can identify card type.

Transaction World
In the August, 2008 issue of Transaction World, Jim Romeo looks into the effects of electronic payment systems and interchange fees on the current state of the U.S. economy.  Henry Helgeson, President and Co-CEO of Merchant Warehouse, discusses the potential affect of the Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008 and how important it is to capture the attention of legislators and educate them on the how interchange fees are established.

Beverage Media Group
In the August, 2008 edition of Beverage Media Group, Ian Griffith discusses the rise of credit card fraud over the past three years in the U.S. and how compliance with PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) can help.  PCI DSS represents a methodology with 12 requirements to help increase card data protection.

Although very few wine stores process over 6 million credit card transactions per year, stores below this threshold qualify for conducting a self-assessment questionnaire along with a quarterly network scan conducted by a third party. 

Henry Helgeson discusses a new product released by Merchant Warehouse called “MerchantWARE”, which encrypts card information at the point of swipe.

RIS – Retail Info Systems News
On August 7, 2008, RIS Online announced that Merchant Warehouse released a new tool to help small and mid-sized merchants reduce their overall processing costs. 

The solution, called the BINsmart Interchange Manager, allows retailers to identify card type (credit, debit, or corporate card) at the swipe by reading the first 6 digits (called the Bank Identification Number, or “BIN”). 

All have their advantages, but selecting the right credit card processing software for your business is very important. Before making a decision merchants should ask themselves a few questions:

Will you be accepting credit cards over the Internet?

• If so, merchants should lean towards using an online payment gateway in conjunction with their shopping cart. Payment gateways are a type of credit card processing software which is hosted by a third party on a server outside of your business. Your shopping cart, or other payment software, communicates with the payment gateway via the internet and it manages the actual transactions. Merchant Warehouse sells several payment gateways including: Authorize.net, VeriSign, and LinkPoint. We also offer our own product, MerchantWare Payment Gateway, which has all the features, flexibility and compatibility standard to these products.

How many credit card transactions will you need to handle at any one time?

• For most merchants the answer is usually only one, but some merchants who have more than one user or customer running transactions at the same time will need a more robust credit card processing software solution. If there are multiple internal users and they are on a network you can use PC Charge Pro. If the users are not on a network, then a merchant can use a virtual terminal such as the one offered by of Authorize.Net. This virtual terminal will allow users to log in using their web browsers and charge cards from anywhere they have Internet access. Transaction information is centrally located and can be accessed from anywhere.

Will you be charging the same customer’s cards on a regular basis?

• Merchants whose customers are frequently reordering or those who bill their customers on a monthly basis may wish to use credit card processing software that stores credit card information and can charge customers at specified intervals. PC Charge Pro has this feature built in and makes it easy to manage charging customers.

If you have any further questions regarding credit card processing software, please feel free to contact our sales team for information and advice on selecting software by calling the number at the top of your screen.