The Catch-22 with Accepting Credit Cards

Summary: The Internet is a unique beast when it comes to payment transactions. You need to accept credit cards on your site, but there is a problem given the nature of credit card protection.

The Internet is a unique beast when it comes to payment transactions. You need to accept credit cards on your site, but there is a problem given the nature of credit card protection. The Catch-22 with Accepting Credit Cards The number one method of payment in transactions on the net is credit card payment. You must accept credit cards or you will get nowhere with your site. While this sounds like an obvious statement, accepting credit cards raises a host of issues. The first issue to consider with credit cards is security. Unless you have been living under a rock, you know identity theft is a major problem. Your potential clients or customers know this as well, which means you have a problem. You must convince them that they are not risking anything by paying you with a credit card. To do this, you must use secure transaction systems or a well known online payment source that has credibility. You should also offer alternative payment methods such as mail in orders and placement of orders over the phone. An even bigger problem is the protection given by credit card companies to consumers. You have probably seen the television commercials wherein credit card companies promise zero risk transactions. This process allows consumers to dispute a charge from your site. To win the dispute, they barely have to do anything. The burden is on you to show that they received what they ordered in a timely manner. If you can't show it, the charges will be canceled, known as a "chargeback." You will learn to hate this term because not only do you lose the sale, but you also often have to pay a fine! This is simply the cost of doing business if you accept credit cards. A really nasty situation sometimes arises with less than honest credit card users. They may dispute the charges from your site for no good reason. You may have sent them the product on time and they may love it. Nonetheless, they will simply go ahead and dispute the charge because they know they can. Again, this is the cost of doing business if you accept credit cards on your site. There really isn't anything you can do about it. So, should you not accept credit cards? You have to. Consumers expect to be able to pay with plastic and you will suffer massive losses of sales if you do not offer this payment method. Put another way, you just have to grin in bare it when some scumbag issues a dispute for no reason.