Merchant Account Payment Gatways
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PCI DSS Compliance For Small Businesses
Going shopping using real money would seem to be dying out. Increasingly, we are paying for goods with debit or credit cards. In fact, there are stores in the USA which are quite unable to process cash at all.
Although we take this payment method for granted, there is constant concern about the safety of the data on our cards. It is to ensure the safety of credit card data and avoid fraud, that the PCI DSS was set up. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard applies to all businesses which transmit, process or store payment card data.
PCI DSS Compliance for small businesses is slightly simpler than for larger ones. The definition of a small business is decided, in this case, by the number of card transactions the company handles each year. There are 4 levels:
6 million or more transaction each year.
1 to 6 million transactions each year.
20,000 to 6 million transactions each year.
Less than 20,000 transactions each year.
It is probable that most small businesses will fall into category 4. However, the quantities are the transactions for each payment band. So, if a company accepts both Visa and Mastercard payments, the number applies separately for each provider.
The standard covers data protection and encryption, computer access ID and regular testing of the company’s systems and processes. For a small business, it will require an annual internal check, using the standard questionnaire (larger businesses must have this carried out by an independent assessor).
There are slight variations in the requirements of the major card companies. Any small business who uses card payments or is planning to, will need to contact the appropriate card companies and will be issued with a full information package for compliance to PCC DSS.