PARK CITY, UT--( April 22, 2008) - The Aegenis Group and Vantage Card Services have partnered to provide data security eLearning to merchants. The partnership leverages The Aegenis Group’s eLearning materials and data security expertise and combines it with the unique, high-touch approach to merchant services offered by Vantage Card.

“In partnering with The Aegenis Group, we are able to provide our merchants a quality educational experience that is in keeping with our dedication to servicing the merchant,” said Ty Hardison Vice President of Business Development at Vantage Card Services. “We are excited about being able to offer our merchants education that will enable them to increase the security of their customer data.”

Chris Mark, CEO and co-Founder of The Aegenis Group, added, “Vantage Card Services is at the forefront of a growing movement in the industry to empower merchants with respect to data security. By offering their merchants the opportunity to learn more about data security and its impact on the industry as whole, including the consumer, Vantage is enabling their merchants to better their data security measures and The Aegenis Group is very excited to be a part of it.”

The partnership, which launches this week, will allow Vantage Card Services to send their merchants to a unique portal (http://training.vantagecard.com) in which merchants will be able to access eLearning courses and reference material.

About The Aegenis Group

The Aegenis Group is a regulatory compliance and risk management consulting organization specializing in strategic consulting, training, and market development assistance for companies in and around the payment card industry. The Aegenis Group is the worldwide QSA trainer and is contracted with a major card brand to conduct merchant and acquirer PCI DSS training. For more information about The Aegenis Group please contact us at info@aegenis.com.

About Vantage Card Services

Vantage Card Services, Inc., was established in February of 1996 to market and manage card processing services and payment systems for merchants, businesses and banks. Vantage provides clients with payment processing consulting to address specific interchange pricing and regulations in all types of industries. Vantage caters to clients that require value, expertise and personal attention, with a core philosophy focused on merchant education. For more information about Vantage Card Services please contact us at www.vantagecard.com.

Vantage Card Services, is pleased to announce that we now offer Discover Network card acceptance as an integrated processing solution to merchants, which includes one source for settlement on a single statement as well as one source of customer service for your authorization, chargeback processing and risk management needs. Check your Discover rates at MerchantRates.com now.

Tax Bill Could Be Greater Threat Than Interchange Proposal...
Digital Transactions

A proposal, which is still being refined in House and Senate iterations, would force “qualified payment facilitators” to disclose information (file forms similar to current 1099 income forms) about each of their merchant clients’ receipts to the Internal Revenue Service for tax purposes with the idea to help identify taxable but unreported or under-reported sales. 

With this bill, merchants and businesses can simply expect more tax code complexity and higher tax compliance costs.  We would all be better off under the FairTax (www.fairtax.org)!

MerchantRates Sweepstakes

Check your merchant rates and automatically enter to win $1,000 in credit card processing. Drawing held on May 1, 2008. The number of entries received determines the odds of winning so don't miss your chance.

Charges fly over shops' credit-card fees
CNNMoney.com - USA

The public debate continues over government regulation of the card payment networks built by MasterCard and Visa. 

With more than a million new merchants signing up to accept payment cards in the past year, it is argued that the network effect balance of setting Interchange high enough to provide the banks an incentive to issue the cards, but not so high that merchants won't accept them, is working. 

A major factor behind retailers' objections is that as consumers use credit and debit cards more frequently and that the fees have also increased as the card companies have upgraded more consumers to rewards cards, which carry higher fees.

We are pleased to announce more ways for merchants to earn rewards in the Vantage Points program, a unique merchant loyalty program. Starting May '08, merchants will earn one Vantage Point for each MasterCard, Visa and Discover sales transaction processed OR one Vantage Point for every $50 in MasterCard, Visa and Discover sales dollar volume processed, whichever is Greater!

Vantage Points are redeemable for over 250 great rewards from distinguished program partners like: American Airlines, Marriott, Hyatt, Staples, The Home Depot®, Starbucks Coffee and more. In addition, Vantage Card Services has teamed up to help support the tremendous efforts of the Atlanta Community Food Bank (ACFB) with a fund raising initiative to donate a percentage of the value of each reward to the ACFB.

If you aren't receiving these benefits with your current processor, then make the easy switch and take advantage of this incentive. How much could you save while racking up the Vantage Points?

http://vantagecard.com/vantagepoints

April 2008 Interchange Overview

Visa and MasterCard have announced Interchange modifications to become effective April 2008.

Visa

Visa is implementing an International Service Assessment (ISA) fee on U.S. acquired transactions when the issuer country is foreign for both international purchase and cash advance transactions except on a U.S. military base, embassy or consulate.

Visa will modify Visa Signature Preferred card Interchange for Card Not Present (CNP), Retail and Corporate Electronic charge types as well are certain credit voucher rates.

Changes to the No Signature Required Program (US issued card transactions less than $25), which provides chargeback protection on eligible transactions for fraudulent transactions in a card present environment, is being expanded to include Supermarket Credit and Debit plus:

• hardware stores
• dairy product stores
• gift, card novelty and souvenir shops
• variety stores
• candy, nut and confection stores
• bakeries
• book stores

PIN Debit

Visa will implement changes to Interlink Supermarket and Interlink Standard rates.

Effective April 1, 2008, the following debit networks will modify their price structures as follows:

• Alaska Option will increase their transaction fee to $0.26 per transaction.
• Jeanie Debit Network will increase retail transactions to $0.20 + 0.75% per transaction, Quick Service Restaurant transactions to $0.17 per transaction, and Supermarket transactions to $0.28 per transaction.

MasterCard

MasterCard is enhancing systems to recognize Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories so transactions between merchants and cardholders will not longer be subject to cross border fees.

In an effort to penetrate growing market segments, MasterCard is introducing new incentive Interchange rates, including Core, Enhanced, World, World Elite and Debit Interchange, to apply to Insurance and Real Estate merchant categories.

To further growth in the Bill Payment market segment, MasterCard is reducing the Interchange rates associated with most consumer credit Utility transactions. Core, Enhanced and World Utilities Interchange will decrease by $0.10 and Debit Utilities will drop by $0.30.

MasterCard is requiring that Vehicle Rental transactions being submitted for Commercial T&E Rate III must include the Rental Rate with their current addendum detail.

MasterCard is requiring that transactions qualifying for Commercial Data Rate II and Commercial Face-to-Face Interchange programs include a non-zero tax amount that is within a range of 1% to 30% of the transaction amount, unless the transaction is presented as 'tax exempt' or as 'tax not collected'. Vantage will populate a 'tax exempt' indictor when tax amount is equal to zero to safe guard against potential downgrades.

Discover

Effective April 4th, Discover is reducing the timeliness for all Prime Submission Level programs by 1 day. Timeliness refers to the number of days from when a transaction is processed until it is submitted through Interchange to Discover (most industries set at 2 days). Your best practice is to settle daily.

Also effective April 4th, Discover is increasing Supermarket rates by +0.05%, decreasing Debit Express Services Interchange by -0.05%, increasing Debit Petroleum by +0.02% and Commercial Electronic by +0.04%.

Trade Credit Express is a business payment platform to outsource your accounts receivable administration and trade credit financing. With Trade Credit Express you are in a position to extend more flexible credit and longer payment terms to your buyers.

• Increase your sales by extending your customer’s trade credit terms to 60 days and beyond
• Outsource your credit administration overhead including underwriting, credit monitoring, lock-box, payment matching and collections.
• Reduce your personal risk associated with your current line of credit and reduce bad debt with payment guarantees
• Increase your cash flow by closing the gap between sale and payment to as little as 4 days

Important PCI Update

Effective January 1, 2008, Phase 1 of the Visa Payment Application Mandates stipulates that no merchant may be boarded that uses a payment application identified as storing vulnerable data. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) prohibits the storage of the full contents of any magnetic stripe, CVV2 or PIN data. Merchants are at high risk of being compromised if they use payment applications that store prohibited data or have security weaknesses. A good resource is available at www.visa.com/pabp, where you will find a list of validated payment applications (make sure your POS is on the list) and best practices. We also recommend www.pcisecuritystandards.org and www.visa.com/cisp.

Tackling PCI

The primary threat has to do with your POS system and network environment. You should upgrade your POS software version to one that does not store prohibited card holder data and is certified as listed on the Visa.com/pabp. If you are putting off upgrading your POS software due to the expense, an inexpensive alternative is to process your card payments using a credit card terminal not tied to your POS.

Stand alone credit card terminals are PCI compliant and are not at risk from a hacker. These units are small with built in thermal printers and offer high speed IP connections with dial back up. You can even tie multiple units together without a network for a single batch settlement. Separating the payment technology from the rest of your POS functionality offers a low tech way of meeting pressing security concerns. All it takes is to reconcile the POS sales report with your card terminal’s batch report, which, unlike IT, is a skill set that most of us have.

Any old data that may have been stored is at risk, so if you are using a POS, it is recommended that you delete unused stored data on your POS hard drive or install a clean hard drive. Make sure you do this regardless of the path to compliance.

MasterCard Expands QPS Program

The MasterCard Quick Payment Service (QPS) program provides chargeback protection and allows the flexibility of no signature required on qualifying transactions (under $25 except under $35 for movie theaters and under $50 for parking lots). Registration does not affect pricing; therefore merchants may qualify for small ticking pricing without registration. Twelve merchant categories are eligible to register: 5411 Grocery/Supermarkets, 5499 Food/Convenience/Markets, 5541 Service Stations, 5735 Music Stores*, 5814 Fast Food Restaurants, 5912 Drug/Pharmacies, 5942 Bookstores*, 5994 Newsstands*, 7216 Dry Cleaners*, 7523 Parking Lots, 7841 Video Stores*, 7832 Movie Theaters (* must have one check out lane accepting the contactless MasterCard PayPass).

PIN Debit

Debit networks, Shazam and ACCEL, have announced changes. Effective January 1, 2008, Shazam will add Quick Service Restaurant (QSR), Small Ticket Retailer, Petroleum, Retail Max, QSR Max charge types and increase Retail and Grocery transactions. Effective February 29, 2008, ACCEL debit network will increase their Retail Max, Grocery, QSR and QSR max fees.

Visa AFD updates

Please be advised that effective April 5, 2008, Visa is changing the chargeback protection limits for all Automatic Fuel Dispenser (AFD) transactions on Visa consumer and Visa Business products from $50 to $75 when a status check authorization is obtained. The chargeback protection for Visa Fleet cards will continue to operate at the recently revised $150 limit.

Visa Utility Registration

Visa has recently updated their Utility Interchange Reimbursement Fee (VUIRF) Program guide and registration form requirements. Merchants classified under MCC 4900 provide the generation, transmissions, and/or distribution of electric, gas, water or sanitary utility services on an ongoing basis are eligible to register for participation. To further build Visa card acceptance, registered VUIRF participants qualify at $0.75 for Visa consumer debit and consumer credit transactions and $1.50 for Visa small business products.

Discover Network Card Processing

Vantage Card Services, Inc. (“Vantage”) and Global Payments Direct, Inc. (“Global”) are pleased to inform you of a business relationship with Discover Financial Services, LLC (“Discover® Network”) whereby Global now offers Discover Network card acceptance as an integrated processing solution to merchants, which includes one source for settlement on a single statement as well as one source of customer service for your authorization, chargeback processing and risk management needs. Merchants also benefit with direct pass through of Discover Network Interchange, Dues and Assessments.