learning to handle finances after a divorce

Posted on: 23 June 2016

If you are a merchant that primarily sells your good online, you are likely accustomed to the sheer amount of credit card solutions and problems that you have to deal with on a daily basis. One of the most common problems that you might have to deal with is a chargeback, or what happens when a customer disputes a transaction on his or her credit card bill and the credit card company demands that you credit the cost back to the customer's account. Here are some tips for avoiding chargebacks so that you can avoid shipping merchandise but losing money.

1. Make Sure Your Company's Name is Clear on Credit Card Statements

Your first step is to make sure that your name is extremely clear on credit card statements. Simply having the transaction ID or some other obscure name for your company that shows up on the credit card statement is a great way to increase your number of chargebacks, since the customer won't know what the charge is for and assume that it isn't valid. If you make your name clear, the customer can simply look at his or her credit card bill, identify the charge that you have caused, and not worry that it is fraudulent since he or she will clearly remember it. Talk to your credit card processing companies about your billing descriptor.

2. If You Have a Subscription Based Company, Make Cancellation Easy

You want to be sure that you keep as much of the money that you are sent by your customers. If you have a subscription based company, it might seem silly to allow your customers to cancel at any time and have you refund most of the month because you will have to give a ton of money back. However, refunding your customer's unused portion of the subscription is much cheaper than having to deal with chargebacks that the credit card companies demand should your customer not be able to cancel to his or her satisfaction. Make cancellation easy and refund whatever the customer has not used. This will reduce chargebacks and increase overall customer satisfaction.

3. Make Sure You Require Explicit Agreement to Terms and Conditions of Sale

Finally, make sure that you include the terms and agreements of the sale so that they are easy to find by any customer. Also be sure that you require your customers to at least acknowledge them before checking out. This will allow you to make your case to the credit card company.

For more information, talk to a company that specializes in merchant solutions, such as Midwest Payment Processing.