For businesses operating in New Jersey, there has been an announcement regarding a sales tax reduction.

Effective January 1, 2017, New Jersey’s sales tax rate will be reduced from 7 percent to 6.875 percent.

As a merchant, you will often accept payments in a foreign currency. For example, a retail store may swipe an international card if a tourist makes a purchase, or an e-commerce site may accept orders placed by a customer from another country.

Whenever a foreign transaction occurs, there is always a surcharge. The difference lies in which party is responsible for paying that fee, and that depends on the way that the merchant account was set up.

Merchants have the challenge of balancing their day-to-day business needs while simultaneously maintaining a focus on growth and expansion. The more that business owners and operators, especially those in the service and nonprofit industries, can reduce their overhead burden the more likely they are to succeed as innovators and changemakers.

While payments are no doubt central to any business, they also have the potential to take a considerable toll. Merchants need to prioritize a variety of objectives: data security, payment and billing management and fraud prevention. Merchants in the service industry will want to ensure that payments are secure while remaining convenient and low-cost.

The solution is for merchants to outsource their payments acceptance. It comes in the form of a Fidelity-hosted payment form which performs all the essential functions and more in an automated and secure fashion.

The forms have the option of being embedded on the merchant’s website or coming up as a pop-up window; both of which outperform the other solutions on the market on five fronts:

The grocery industry is seeing some pivotal changes of late. No doubt about it, 2017 is going to be a defining year as consumers seek both convenience and speed in the shopping experience. They expect to be able to find what they’re looking for easily and to get in and out quickly.

When it comes down to it, aside from product placement and selection, payment plays a  pivotal role in providing the ideal experience consumers will come to expect.

The top innovators in the grocery industry have demonstrated that a speedy checkout process has been the key to their success.

Over the next few years, the mag stripe is likely to disappear from credit cards entirely. This is due to an influx of fraud on non-chip transactions and the security gap that swiped transactions leave, as evidenced by several massive data breaches famously affecting large corporations.

Most recently, it was discovered that Madison Square Garden had been hacked for an entire year and that perpetrators gained access to tens of thousands of credit card numbers before the problem was discovered.

Visa announced on Thursday (Dec. 1) that the EMV liability shift for AFDs, automated fuel dispensers and pumps, is being delayed for another three years.  The deadline for merchants to upgrade to EMV technology at the pump is now October 1, 2020 instead of October 1, 2017.

Fidelity is grateful to our merchants and partners for being a part of our family.

To express our thanks, we’ll be open on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday to service your business needs.

We hope we’ve made buying that turkey just a little bit easier!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we conclude another year of successful merchant services, Fidelity would like to thank our customers for being a part of the family. We’ve created a wall calendar for merchants that is currently being mailed out.  If you would like to receive one, please fill out the form below.

Wishing you luck as you chart out another profitable year!

If you’re in the e-commerce industry, brace yourself for some serious fraud this holiday season.  With Black Friday coming up soon, the holiday shopping rush is just beginning and it’s the prime time of attack for online fraudsters and chargebacks.

ACI Worldwide predicts that US retailers will see a 43 percent increase in online fraud this holiday season, compared to last year.

American Express has its Small Business Saturday Program scheduled for this Saturday, November 26th. It is a great opportunity for businesses to promote themselves and encourage customers to spend since they are being rewarded with double points this year.

Fidelity Merchant Support talked to American Express to determine the requirements for this year’s program to pass them onto our merchants.

Fidelity Payment Services has been a fixture at Kosherfest, the largest annual Kosher food show, as the prime payment processor for the vast majority of the Kosher industry.  We take the opportunity to connect with our merchants face-to-face, advising them on the latest news in the payments industry and even offering them a complimentary shoe shine!

Kosherfest is also a prime opportunity to hear direct feedback from our merchant on the services that we provide.  Agents spoke to their merchants over the course of the two-day show and received a tremendous response from owners of businesses large and small.