Best Visa Credit Card Rules for Visa Merchants Card Acceptance and Chargeback Management Guidelines

For today’s Visa® merchant, accepting Visa payment cards has become simultaneously easier and more complex . Electronic terminals and card acceptance devices make transaction processing automatic and seemingly effortless, raising potential profitability . However, they also create increased possibilities for processing mistakes and fraudulent transactions that can result in copy requests and chargebacks.

In addition, the walls between card-present and card-not-present transactions have become less obvious as growing numbers of traditional “brick and mortar” merchants launch e-commerce web sites, transforming themselves into “click and mortar” businesses . Such merchants must, in effect, be “bilingual,” familiar with both card-present and card-not-present procedures . Rules for Visa Merchants—Card Acceptance and Chargeback Management Guidelines is a comprehensive manual for all businesses that accept Visa transactions . The purpose of this guide is to provide merchants and their sales staffs with accurate, up-to-date information on processing Visa transactions, while minimizing risk of loss from fraud and chargebacks . The book is targeted at both card-present and card-not-present merchants and their employees, and includes requirements and best practices for doing business on the Internet . It also contains detailed informa- tion on the most common types of chargebacks merchants receive and what you can do to remedy or prevent them .

S e C T I o N o N e : I N T R o D u C T I o N Rules for Visa Merchants—Card Acceptance and Chargeback Management Guidelines ©2007 Visa U.S.A. Inc., all rights reserved, to be used solely for the purpose of providing Visa Card acceptance services as authorized pursuant to agreement with a Visa member financial institution. Contents Rules for Visa Merchants—Card Acceptance and Chargeback Management Guidelines is organized to allow users to find the information they need quickly and easily . The table of contents serves as an index of the topics and material covered .
Topics covered include:
Section 1: Getting Down to Basics: An overview of the how Visa transac- tions are processed, from point of transaction to clearing and settlement . A list of key Visa policies for merchants is also included .
Section 2: Card-Present Transactions: Requirements and best practices for processing card-present transactions at the point of sale, including how to minimize key-entered transactions and ensure legible sales receipts . Suspicious transactions, Code 10 calls, and card recovery procedures are
also discussed .
Section 3: Card-Not-Present Transactions: Requirements and best practices for processing card-not-present transactions, including mail order, tele-phone order, and Internet sales . Visa fraud prevention tools, like the Address Verification Service, and Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2); requirements fore-commerce web sites; and procedures for recurring transactions are also
covered