Commonly Asked Questions

• What is a Gateway?
  A card-processing Gateway is a web site that takes a TCP card transaction from your web site, adds a fee, and forwards it to the merchant processor. dgCharge communicates directly with the merchant processor and thus bypasses the Gateway and the additional fees. Some popular Gateways are: Authorize.net , E-Commerce Exchange, Epoch, EProcessing Network, GoRealTime, Ibill, Netbilling, Paycom.net, Payready.net, Planet Payment, PSIGate, Skipjack, Verisign.
  
  
• How do I obtain a merchant account?
  Contact a merchant account provider, such as NOVA Information Systems, Inc. (201- 246-0534). The merchant account provider will need to know what you plan to sell, how you will process the transactions (card-swipe or non-swipe), average sale amount, number of transactions and monthly volume.
  
  
• What is a discount rate?
  A fee the merchant is charged for processing a transaction. This discount rate is a percentage multiplied by the gross dollar amount of the transactions for a billing period (month). The merchant account is debited once per month for both the discount rate fee and the transaction fee.
  
  
• What is the per transaction fee?
  Normally the merchant is also charged a fee for each transaction. This transaction fee can range between 5 cents and $1. The lower the transaction fee, the higher the discount fee. Therefore, if a merchant processor does not charge a transaction fee, you can count on the discount fee being high. Like the discount fee, the transaction fee is deducted from the merchant's account once per month.
  
  
• What determines the Fees that a Merchant Account Provider Charges?
  Type of business. Type of transaction. Type of card. Security data such as address verification and CVV2 data collected by the merchant.
  
  
• How can I get the lowest rates?
  Require the CVV2 security code found on Visa and MasterCard, Discover, and American Express cards when processing charges. Enable address verification in your card processing software. AVS verifies if the address provided by the cardholder matches the address associated with the card. Work with your customers and merchant account provider to reduce chargebacks. Join DevGuru's E-Commerce Association. The DevGuru E-Commerce Association has negotiated preferred card processing rates for its members through NOVA Information Systems. Click here for rates.
  
  
• What is the difference between a "swiped" transaction and a "non-swiped" transaction?
  A swiped transaction means the credit card was present at the time of the sale and was run through a card swipe machine or imprinter. A non-swiped transaction means the card was not present for the sale, as is the case in Telephone/Mail Order or online transactions. Swiped transactions typically incur lower card processing fees (discount rates) for the merchant.
  
  
• What is the difference between manual and automatic settlement?
  Manual settlement requires the merchant to actively perform the settlement process each day or to write a script that periodically performs this settlement. When the merchant performs manual settlement, he can choose to settle all outstanding transactions or only selected transactions. With automatic settlement, all pending credit card transactions are settled once per day without any action from the merchant.

  Manual settlement is the only option for merchants that are setup for Terminal based processing. Host based merchants can settle either manually or automatically, however the account cannot switch back and forth between automatic and manual. Be sure when you are setting up or adding additional merchants that the settlement type is set the same as it is with NOVA.

• When trying to process a charge why do I get the following message? "Charge cannot be processed because you have reached your maximum monthly volume"
  When your merchant account is setup, the merchant account provider will look at your company's monthly and annual financial statements and determine the amount of sales volume supported by your historical sales. If your business is seasonal and you are processing a disproportionate volume of transactions or money through your account, the merchant account provider's system security alerts are triggered. This is usually quickly corrected with a phone call and explanation to your merchant account provider.

• Why are the American Express and Discover deposits into my bank account less than what I actually charged on those card types?
  American Express and Discover subtract their discount percentage prior to depositing each settled batch into your bank account. Visa and Mastercard deposit the gross batch amount into your account, and then deduct their discount and transaction fees at the end of each billing period.

• What is a chargeback?
  A credit card charge dispute procedure initiated by the credit cardholder or issuer bank. Merchants can reduce the number of chargebacks by making sure their customers are clearly informed about how the charge will appear on their monthly credit card statement. Merchants should try to avoid chargebacks as much as possible for two reasons: 1) to maintain good standing with the merchant account provider and 2) because each instance of a chargeback incurs a non-refundable fee (anywhere from $10-$30 each).

• What discount rate will I be charged if I process a credit transaction?
  Typically, there is no discount rate associated with a credit transaction. You will, however, be charged a transaction fee. In addition, you are not credited back the original discount fee that was charged for the original purchase.

• What is the CVV number?
  CVV stands for Card Verification Value. It is a 3 or 4 digit security code that appears only on the credit card. Its primary purpose is to verify that the user of the card actually has the card present. Transactions using the CVV2 number and Address verification will be charged lower discount fees.

• What is the fee charged for Pre-Authorization of a potential sale?
  Most merchant processors will charge either a transaction fee and/or a percentage fee for Pre-Authorization transactions. If you are a member of the DevGuru E-Commerce Association you will not be charged for Pre-Authorizations.

• Can you give me some tips for lowering my processing fee?
  The best tip is to purchase dgCharge in order to bypass the Gateway fees and to join the DevGuru E-Commerce Association in order to get the lowest possible rates. Once you have done that you should concentrate on the following:
  
  * Use card swipes if the card is present.
  * Use Address Verification.
  * Use CVV2.
  * Settle transactions within 24 hours: The longer you wait the higher the   processing fee.
  * Corporate Cards have higher processing fees.
  * Avoid Chargebacks. Good communication with the consumer will reduce your   number of chargebacks.
  

If you would like more information or if you have questions about dgCharge, please contact DevGuru.