Manually Imprinting Cards Can Help You Avoid Fraudulent-Transaction Chargebacks
By John Moretti, Executive Director and Service Quality Team Member
Heartland Payment Systems
Manual card imprinters may seem like “technology of the past” especially with today’s point-of-sale (POS) systems and terminals. But don’t discount your imprinter. If you’re a retailer who performs face-to-face transactions, a manual card imprint can help you avoid fraudulent-transaction chargebacks credit card transactions that eventually get “charged back” to you by customers who claim they did not authorize them.
To respond to a fraudulent-transaction chargeback, you need to prove to the card-issuing bank that the customer’s card was present at your business during the transaction. The fact that your POS system or electronic terminal produced a printed receipt and you obtained the customer’s signature on the receipt is NOT proof the card was physically present, according to the Visa® and MasterCard® rules. Only an electronic swipe of the card’s magnetic stripe or a physical imprint of the card are accepted as proof of card presence in a fraudulent-transaction dispute.
Be sure to keep your manual imprinter near your POS or terminal so it’s readily accessible in case your electronic card reader malfunctions. If you need to key-in your customer’s card information because the card’s magnetic stripe can’t be read, always produce a manual imprint of the card in addition to the electronic receipt. A manual imprinter is also essential if your POS device doesn’t have an electronic receipt printer or if you’re working off-site without an electronic POS device.
Remember, in the eyes of Visa and MasterCard, if the card isn’t electronically read or manually imprinted at the point of sale, the cardholder’s claim that he/she wasn’t present to make the purchase will stand even if an electronic receipt is produced and a signature was obtained. Always swipe the card through your electronic POS device so its magnetic stripe is read, and whenever that’s not possible, have your manual imprinter handy along with an adequate supply of sales drafts the two-page forms used to record manual transactions. Proving the card was present will level the playing field in any fraudulent-transaction dispute.
John Moretti is an executive director and service quality team member at Heartland Payment Systems. Heartland, a NYSE company trading under the symbol HPY, delivers credit/debit/prepaid card processing, payroll, check management and payment solutions to more than 250,000 business locations nationwide.
Heartland is the founding supporter of The Merchant Bill of Rights, a public advocacy initiative that educates merchants about fair credit and debit card processing practices. For more information, contact Heartland Payment Systems at 866.941.1HPS (1477), or visit www.HeartlandPaymentSystems.com and www.MerchantBillOfRights.com .