Faqs

• Question: Who is descomm?
  Answer: descomm is a sales organization which markets financial services since 20XX. descomm is a fully operating division of Charity One Payments, Inc., an Ohio based Corporation.
• Question: What is Interchange?
  Answer: MasterCard, VISA and Discover have several hundred types of credit cards out into the market place today. Each credit card has special criteria for processing and carries many different rate structures. To simplify the processing, many processors use the following basic categories for merchants; Qualified Transactions, MID Qualified Transactions, NON Qualified Transactions.
• Question: What is a Qualified Transaction?
  Answer: This is the lowest charge type when the card is present and is swiped through a credit card terminal or reader device. A customer signature is obtained at the time of the sale.
• Question: What is a MID Qualified Transaction?
  Answer: There are many answers to this but the most common is when a transaction is KEYED IN or has special consumer based perks or rewards associated to them. Since these card transactions require additional handling or reporting, an additional fee is assessed to the merchant. Another answer would be is when a set of transaction is not settled or batched out within the proper timeframe (24 hours); they are imposed with a higher settlement fee.
• Question: What is a NON Qualified Transaction?
  Answer: These are normal higher end business based card types which require extra special reporting including rewards or perks programs. If a set of transactions are not settled or batched out with 48 hours, an additional fee is charged.
• Question: What is a transaction fee?
  Answer: A transaction fee consists of communication costs and the buy rates from the Trade Associations for processing a sale.
• Question: What is a Batch Fee?
  Answer: When there are transactions or sales taken through your terminal or solution of choice, you must transmit them to receive your funds. This is called settlement or batching out. This fee is for the communication cost of the group of transaction(s) submitted. You do not have to batch out after each transaction but should batch out nightly to avoid higher fees.
• Question: What is Auto Close?
  Answer: This is a service we offer to keep your processing expense lower. If you have transactions stored in your terminal, you must batch out that day or a surcharge will be impose for those transactions. descomm will set up a nightly closing of your terminal to avoid this surcharge.
• Question: What is AVS?
  Answer: Address Verification Services is prompted when a credit card sales in KEYED- IN manually. The terminal screen will prompt you to ask your customer what is the street address where their bill is sent, zip code and the 3 digit code on the back of the card. A response will be generated indicating a MATCH which means the person placing the order is the cardholder. If NO MATCH appears it means you may have a fraudulent order and you should ask the cardholder for the information again. If you decide NOT TO VERIFY THE INFORMATION, you will be at risk for this transaction and will be impose a higher rate (NON QUAILFIED).
• Question: Do you charge an ANNUAL FEE, SETUP FEE, INSTALLATION FEE, APPLICATION FEE or ANY OTHER FEE NOT LSITED ON THE RATES AND FEES SECTION OF THE PROCESSING AGREEMENT?
  Answer: We do not charge any of the above fees! If it is not on the Rates and Fee Schedule of your Processing Agreement, you will not be charged. NO SURPRISES!
• Question: Why am I being charged a PCI Compliance Fee?
  Answer: Since there has been an excessive amount of fraudulent transaction or breaches from the merchant location or processing facility, a solution has been created to protect the merchant against possible chargebacks due to possible fraud from employees or the mishandling of these transactions. This fee protects you against chargebacks up to $75,000 per occurrence. If you require additional insurance, please contact a sales representative at 1-855-des-comm (337-2666).
• Question: Merchant Do' and Don'ts
  Answer: If you are a merchant accepting MasterCard® and Visa®, there are a few basic card acceptance guidelines you must follow. By following these guidelines, you will maintain higher customer satisfaction and avoid the risk of non-compliance. The following are some of the guidelines outlined in the Visa and MasterCard manuals:
  
  Card Logos & Acceptance: The merchant must display the appropriate card logos for any card types that they accept and advise your customers of their payment options. The merchant must honor all categories of cards (credit, debit, rewards etc.) within each card type that they accept.
  Dollar Minimums and Maximums: The merchant cannot impose a minimum or maximum amount for any transactions.
  Surcharges: All credit card transactions must be treated like any other transactions. You may not impose any surcharge on a transaction because your customer is using a credit card.
  Laundering: A merchant may only process transactions for their own business. Processing transactions for a business that does not have a valid merchant agreement is called laundering and is considered a form of fraud.