here is something I found interesting:
I've been doing some research on credit-cards-over-the-Internet. If you are like me, you get these annoying e-mails all the time offering instant approval and all kinds of other stuff.
I found out that some of these companies sell their lists. It can happen that "mistakes" can be made with people's credit cards, and people can be charged for goods or services that these same people claim they never ordered.
It can happen that when these people call the company that made this possibly incorrect charge, they are happily received and told it was a simple administrative error and the charge will be erased.
It makes me wonder that if companies do this, how many of these "mistakes" go unnoticed? How is it that my credit card can get a charge against it by some company I never heard of and never ordered anything from? How did that company get my credit card number in the first place?
Interesting, is it not?
So I don't think it is a good idea to do business with these "instant approval" credit card deals unless you really know all about them.
What is the alternative you ax? That was my next question, too.
I called my bank, and I said, "Suppose I have an Internet site and I want to take credit card payments. How can I get set up to do that with you?"
They said, "We don't do that. Call National Data Corporation at the following number..."
So I did. The young woman that took my call explained that to get my business set up to take credit card payments over the Internet, I needed a software program called 'Cybercash' which they (NDC) sell for $495.00. But I don't need to pay that right away. What they (NDC) will do is send me an application and I fill it out and send it back in with a check for $125.00, and they process my application.
Turns out that what she is talking about is a credit app. She said that there are risks involved with credit cards over the Internet. NDC decides if my business is a good risk, and then if they approve me, they will take out the $495.00 for the Cybercash software, plus a five dollar monthly fee, plus they take a percentage of the charge that Visa or Mastercard takes from my Internet customers for each credit card transaction, which is roughly 7%.
SEVEN PERCENT.
So if somebody orders something from my business over the Internet, and I am set up with NDC, the buyer pays around 7% of their purchase price to Visa/Mastercard/NDC.
She would not tell me what NDC's cut was exactly.
Now, I'm thinking out loud here, that this seems like a pretty good deal here, for NDC, eh?
Eh?
My bank referred me directly to NDC!
So theoretically, I call them, I fill out an app, and I get approved, (theoretically), and then NDC takes credit app fee of $125.00 (win lose or draw), a monthly charge if I get approved, and a little slice of each Visa/MC charge, and they also sell me some Cybercash software for five hundred bucks (in three easy installments, just to make it less painful for me, their new customer).
Here is what I found very interesting: NDC is a publicly traded company on the NYSE, NDC.
Now, I have a few more questions, the main one being who is competing with NDC for my money? And is this the same Cybercash as CYCH? I think maybe it is!
But I'll tell you what, my first thought is that I wouldn't mind owning a business that gets referrals from banks for business lines of credit to start taking credit card action on the Internet.
NYSE:NDC |
