While cash discount programs have been legal in all 50 states for several years, it has not been easy for Merchants to implement such programs since the lines between cash discounting and credit card surcharging are very blurry—and, while cash discounting is legal, credit card surcharging is illegal in many states.

This has been the case in New York for some time now, but a January 2019 ruling in the New York State Court of Appeals will grant Merchants slightly more leeway with surcharging, and accordingly, cash discount programs (many restrictions do still apply, though). In this blog post, we’ll review the facts on cash discount programs and surcharges, as well as what New York-based Merchants need to know to abide with state and card-brand regulations.

In April of 2018, Visa introduced the Visa Claims Resolution (VCR) in order to streamline the chargeback dispute process and reduce errors. While the new process is beneficial for businesses overall, it’s important that Merchants familiarize themselves with the changes to avoid any fees or issues. In this blog post, we’ll review several ways in which Visa has changed their chargeback dispute process and how you can prepare accordingly.

Over the past year, Fidelity experienced unprecedented growth and advancement in terms of its overall infrastructure, proprietary technology, customer service, and lineup of products and services. We’ve enjoyed witnessing the high levels of satisfaction among our merchants, developers, employees, and stakeholders— in part due to these many changes.

Here’s a list of some of the biggest improvements, product launches, and more from the past year.

We’re excited to offer Canadian merchants one of our most popular wireless payment terminals with our U.S. merchants: the Clover Flex!

With over $14 billion spent in the U.S. alone this past Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM), it’s clear that the exponential year-by-year growth of these big spending days isn’t slowing down any time soon. But while profit margins are certainly exciting for merchants, what’s perhaps an even more amazing outcome of these two days (or more accurately, a week) is the data it reveals in terms of customer spending habits. This past Black Friday and Cyber Monday demonstrated several big trends that all fall neatly under the umbrella of omnichannel retail (a model of retail that integrates different shopping channels, i.e. in-store, online, via phone, etc.).

Fidelity Payment Services is excited to be attending Kosherfest,  the world’s largest and most attended kosher-certified products trade show, this coming November 13th and 14th. Year after year, Fidelity eagerly awaits this amazing opportunity to connect with our many existing clients in the kosher food industry and to make even more connections.

Although 3D Secure technology has been around since 1999, it has struggled to pick up steam with card-not-present merchants, especially in the U.S. But with the launch last year of 3D Secure 2.0 and the merchant liability shift for this newer version set for April of 2019, this is all about to change. Not only does 3D Secure 2.0 take into account the latest payment platforms (like mobile apps) and reduce friction at checkout, it will also provide merchants with even more chargeback protection once the liability shift goes into effect. Keep reading to learn more about 3D Secure 2.0 and how it will be of benefit for merchants.

$17 billion was lost to fraud in the last year alone. But if you’re a business owner, you probably know that even small fraud costs like chargebacks can add up quickly! Read up on these top 7 fraud schemes so you can stay informed and prevent the next fraud attack on your website:

Clover’s line of smart terminals are a favorite with merchants in every industry- and for good reason. The secure, wireless devices accept a wide variety of payment types- including EMV chip-card, EBT, and mobile payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay- and they can be customized to function as full-service point-of-sale systems with features for email marketing, employee management, inventory tracking, and much more. Plus, with advanced P2PE-certified encryption technology, merchants can speed up the PCI compliance process.

With 22 years of industry experience, Fidelity has built up an extensive array of resources to offer its merchants. Whether its assistance with PCI compliance, setting up online payments, lowering processing rates, or improving the checkout experience with an innnovative POS system, there’s a lot of reasons why merchants choose Fidelity.