Using PCI Compliance to Secure Credit Card Transactions
Using PCI Compliance to Secure Credit Card Transactions
The PCI compliance or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is considered as the foundation of electronic payments worldwide. This is the basis for merchant acceptance of cards as well as for identification of card-holders through their identity cards.
Card-based electronic transaction are more secure when done with the use of electronic money issued by a bank that is stored in the merchant’s account. This would give him/her complete assurance that money is being taken only for the intended transaction. The other benefits are reduced fraud and chance of theft of valuable personal information and other sensitive data.
A debit card can be used to make electronic payment to a customer or merchant. It is used for making and receiving credit and debit card payments. Electronic payments made by debit cards have high chances of exceeding the limit allowed on a credit card.
The data security of a merchant is dependent on the level of PCI compliance. Hence, a customer who has made a debit card payment through his/her debit card should be very careful not to lose the information. In the event of losing the information, the merchant would no longer be able to make the transaction as the same would go to the hands of fraudsters and have no effect whatsoever on the merchant’s financial statement.
How will this information be lost? It will be lost due to theft, leakage, damage, etc. As a result, there are two options available for the card-holder. These options are firstly taking the PCI compliance mandatory backup solution and secondly using a credit card remittance system or a money transmission service.
However, it must be remembered that these are not only an effective preventive measure but also useful for financial reporting. This is to highlight the fact that even though these solutions provide a step up in security by having a back up system, it will not take care of the complete loss of information. Thisis because there is no information about any merchant from which a transaction was made.
Due to the increased prevalence of fraud and criminal activities, banks and other financial institutions have begun to invest in their own backups as well as purchase the services of specialized software providers to save the information of clients. However, the aforementioned precautions should still be taken by card-holders.
Any time information related to a credit card transaction is lost due to the actions of a fraudulent entity, the card-holder must contact the bank and inform them of the lost data so that appropriate action can be taken. It is advised that the card-holder should also inform his bank about any fraudulent transactions immediately.
It is therefore obvious that any person who takes a transaction for a value over $2020 must have both hard copy and electronic copies of all the details involved in the transaction. To have a copy of the transaction, the user must keep a copy of the card and the user’s credit card statement together with all the other important data that the bank holds on the card-holder.
Since all the card details are vital, it is recommended that the user should not store them on the computer hard drive of the computer. This is to avoid losing any of the data stored on the computer. The information, however, should be kept in the safe-deposit box at the bank.
This is because no bank can be deemed completely safe if there is any kind of loss in the process of processing credit card transactions. The loss of data at a bank or any other financial institution will eventually result in losses to the lender itself. The whole bank business can be endangered if a single trace of the unauthorized transactions is lost.
Hence, in the event of any information being lost at a card-related establishment, the customer should make sure that the lost information cannot be traced back to him. Furthermore, the cardholder should do all possible tonot loss any of the information relating to the transaction. If the loss is just from one transaction, it is better that the card-holder only take the next step if he/she is still satisfied with the service provided by the bank.
