credit cards

For decades, most credit card merchant agreements prevented businesses from adding a surcharge to bills paid by credit card. In addition, a number of states passed laws that prevented vendors, other than state and local governments, from adding a surcharge to a credit card transaction. That’s all changed or is changing, beginning with the outcomes from several antitrust lawsuits involving the major credit card providers and, more recently, court cases that have overturned state statutes that prevented the surcharges.

Credit card information breaches number among a long list of things to be afraid of, not only at Halloween, but all year. So how do you take the fear out of accepting credit card payments? it begins by ensuring compliance with the practices required by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. And to be really vigilant, companies must treat compliance with these rules as part of a broader focus on data security practices.

Credit cards may be a useful way for media companies to obtain prepayment for advertising fees and collecting on sales efforts. But they have a way of eating into the bottom line, and processing the charges can be time consuming. Raycom Media found a way to reduce its interchange transaction fee charges by providing its credit card companies with additional data about its customers.