News from the Wire

Total Merchant Services terminals now certified for EMV tip adjust

Tuesday, June 28, 2016 — 18:25:43 (EDT)

Woodland Hills, Calif., June 28, 2016 – Total Merchant Services, a leader in payment services and solutions, today announced its Verifone VX 520 terminals and VX 805 pin pads are certified for EMV tip adjust. This new feature enables consumers to leave a tip separately from the total purchase price after an EMV transaction has been completed, thereby alleviating an EMV pain point for restaurants and other service providers.

As of October 1, 2015, merchants are required to accept EMV cards or face liability for fraudulent transactions. For many retailers, the transition to EMV simply involves getting a compliant terminal and then reminding customers to “dip” the chip card into the front of the terminal. The settled amount is the same as the authorization amount, and the sale carries on like normal.

However, restaurants and other service businesses often settle transactions at differing amounts than their authorization amounts due to tips. This causes problems from an EMV perspective in that some customers could dispute the conflicting amounts on their credit card bills, resulting in chargebacks. To date, the workaround had been for servers to ask customers if they wanted to leave tips upfront and then have those tips added to the total bill for authorization. The tip adjust feature eliminates the need for the awkward workaround by allowing customers to leave tips separately from the other items purchased, with the intent of the additional charge made clear on a separate tip line.

“We recognized that an important group of our merchant customers needed a better way to account for tips as part of EMV transactions,” said Joe Kaplan, CEO of Total Merchant Services. “Our tip adjust feature eliminates the need for businesses to ask a customer for a tip upfront while also helping them avoid unnecessary chargebacks.”

Total Merchant Services is one of just a few providers currently offering the EMV tip adjust capability with free terminal placement.

About Total Merchant Services Founded in 1996, Total Merchant Services has helped more than 500,000 businesses with their payment processing needs and currently processes more than $12 Billion in credit and debit card transactions annually. The company is committed to providing small businesses with easy and affordable payment processing solutions. For more information, call: 747-888-9000 or visit: www.totalmerchantservices.com .

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Source: Company press release.