FAQs

PCI DSS is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and is a set of standards in place to ensure the correct and secure handling of card details.

Any Merchant, Financial Institute or Entity who stores, processed, or transmits cardholder data should comply with the appropriate certification.

The accreditation required to be PCI DSS certified depends on a number of factors, such as the services you provide, the reasons for handling cardholder details and the volume of transactions you process in a year.

You can find more information and guidance on the PCI DSS Website, but you should always consult a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) if in any doubt around your conformance to the PCI Standard.

The BIN, which is used to identify the institution that issued the card, has traditionally composed the first six digits of the Primary Account Number (PAN). The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard1 that specifies how PANs are structured now also defines a format for the use of 8-digit BINs as an alternative to 6-digit BINs. Some payment brands have already started using the first eight digits as the BIN instead of the first six.

Read more on the PCI Blog.

3D Secure provides extra fraud protection, requiring cardholders to complete an additional verification step with the card issuer, when using an ecommerce solution.

SCA or Strong Customer Authentication implements a stronger form of authentication which consists of more than just a static password. An example of an SCA authentication could be a One Time Passcode being sent to a user’s device for them use as authentication for their online purchase.

Whilst both versions will provide extra fraud prevention, 3D Secure Version 2 is an enhanced version which will take additional card holder data into account when deciding what level of authentication should be used and if Strong Customer Authentication is needed?

All ITS payment solutions have the ability to process Amex, Visa and Mastercard transactions, although you may require an additional MID.

Contact Us to find out how to start accepting all card schemes in your business.

Indeed, you can. Once you have applied for and received the new Merchant ID (MID) from your new acquirer, please forward it on to our Client Services team via client.services@paya.group stating the details below. Our team will then agree a date/time for the switch with you.

• Username
• Old Merchant Number
• New Merchant Number

N.B Please see below the list of acquirers that we currently work with. This information can also be found on our website www.interactivets.com.

• AIB
• Barclaycard
• American Express CPC
• American Express Retail
• Firstdata (Lloyds)
• Globalpay (HSBC)
• Bank of Scotland
• Worldpay

A Merchant may wish to store card details for subsequent transactions.

Every business that accepts card payments is required to meet certain data security standards, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), in order to protect the card data of customers and to reduce the risk of a data security breach. By complying with these data security standards, you help protect your business and your customers.

Conformance to the PCI Standard ensures that merchants meet minimum levels of security when storing, processing and transmitting cardholder data.

To help reduce your PCI scope, card details can be stored in the ITS PCI DSS certified secure environment and assigned with a Card Alias Name for use with future transaction against that card.

No. When utilising the ITS eCommerce PayPage solution, 3D Secure will also be included at no extra charge.

For Virtual Terminal, on the first screen just under where you add the Card Number, you will see Sale and Refund. The system automatically defaults to Sale, so you need to change that to Refund.

If you click on Refund, you may be prompted for a Refund Password. If you cannot remember this, please contact us on 0333 123 1248. You will be asked for your Username and your Merchant number. Please ensure you have your Merchant ID (MID) as we will be unable to provide your password without it.

Settlement normally takes approximately four working days from submission to the banking authority but may vary for certain retail solutions.

Our standalone solutions are typically delivered within two to five working days.

Due to the nature of our integrated solutions, the standard delivery is anywhere between four to twelve weeks depending on your in-house IT skills. You must ensure that you are set up with a merchant ID (MID) with an acquiring bank before placing an order.

All the Acquiring banks do random checks on the system and you will need to contact them with your Merchant Id (MID) and they will provide you with an authorisation code to enter into the box that appears on your screen. The contact numbers for the Acquiring Banks are:

• AIB - 0345 6005 204
• American Express - 0208 5511 111
• Bank of Scotland - 0844 2579 400
• Barclaycard - 0844 8222 000
• FirstData - 01268 278 278
• Global Payments (Credit/Debit Cards) - 0845 7700 600
• Global Payments (Purchasing Cards) - 0845 6090 911
• Ulster Bank (ROI) - 001 800 700 300
• Ulster Bank (UK/NI) - 0289 0898 01 (Option 4)
• WorldPay - 0345 7616 263

If you are unsure who your Acquiring Bank is, please contact us either by email client.services@paya.group or by telephone 0333 123 1248 and we will be able to advise.

ITS work with all major Acquirers in the UK and France, many of which offer ability to accept a wide range of currencies;

• UK: AIB, Amex, Barclaycard, Clover/Fiserv (formally FirstData), Global Payments, Lloyds Cardnet, RBS, WorldPay (FIS).
• France: Amex, BNP Paribas, Caisse D’Epargne, Crédit Mutuel.

All our products have the ability to process Visa, Mastercard & Amex schemes (both Retail & Purchasing Card). Please contact our Client Services on client.services@paya.group for more information.

Unfortunately, we at ITS, do not see the reason for the decline. We advise you to contact your customer (cardholder) so they can obtain the reason for the decline from their bank, or for you to obtain another card number or an alternative means of payment.

This is the status of the transaction. Please note that depending on which of our products you are using, you may not see all of the below statuses:

• Awaiting Settlement – This means the transaction authorised and is awaiting settlement
• Referred – The bank is unable to provide an authorisation code for the transaction, the merchant must contact their acquiring bank for an authorisation code
• Declined – The transaction has been declined by the bank and not been authorised
• Matchhold – The transaction is set to a status of 'Matchhold' and is awaiting Level 3 data to be settled
• Settled – The transaction has been settled and is now awaiting submission to the bank
• Submitted to Acquirer – The transaction has been submitted to the bank for processing
• Cancelled – The transaction has been cancelled and will not be submitted to the bank
• Settlement Failed – The transaction has failed settlement
• On Hold – The transaction has been put on hold
• Reversed – The transaction has been reversed. This can happen when you do not accept the authorisation.

Please note: There are two parts to the transaction, the Authorisation and the Settlement. The Authorisation, where the transaction is approved or declined by the card issuer or an acquirer - Typically to ensure funds are available. And the Settlement, where the transaction is 'completed' and will therefore be submitted to the bank. This will in turn action the exchange of funds.

A Purchasing Card (sometimes referred to as a P-Card, Procurement Card or Corporate Purchasing Card) is a type of business credit or charge card that allows organisations to pay for their business-to-business purchases electronically.

An ordinary credit card statement contains only very simple information. This level of detail may not be enough for business purchases and so invoices are typically also required when a standard business credit card is used. Purchasing Card statements, however, contain the line-item/invoice detail (known as Level 3 payment data) that would typically be included on an invoice (including description of goods, quantity, unit cost etc). This enables businesses to make greater use of the card statement and do away with the need to receive separate invoices.

Using Purchasing Cards offers businesses a way of significantly reducing the administrative cost of purchasing goods and services.

Merchants that accept purchasing cards as payment may not be required to issue VAT invoices to their customers. Instead, the invoicing is carried out by the customer’s card company, or bank, on the suppliers’ behalf, using transaction information (including the Level 3 Payment Data) which has been transmitted through the purchasing card system.

In the UK (and some other markets in Europe), the cards are designed to be fully compatible with VAT accounting requirements. HMRC publishes guidance on their website regarding how to account for VAT if you accept Purchasing Cards.

A corporate card is a broader description of a business card and can be a Credit, Debit or Purchasing Card. For a definition of a Purchasing Card please see 'What is a Purchasing Card' above.

Level 3 Line Item Detail is simply invoice data that you will have in your ERP/order processing system.

To be able to capture and process a Level 3 transaction you will need the ability to extract the Invoice details that would already exist in your ERP or back-office system.

For simple solutions such as Virtual Terminal this could be a manual process of copying details across. For more integrated solutions this typically involves the submission of a CSV or XML file which includes this additional Level 3 data.

There are 3 types of payment data;

• Level 1: which includes basic transaction details such as total value and merchant name.
• Level 2: which includes basic transaction data + Summary VAT.
• Level 3: which includes basic transaction data + full Invoice Line Item Detail and in many cases can replace a conventional paper invoice.

Level 3 payment data (sometimes referred to as Line Item Detail or Addendum Data) is full invoice data that flows with a Level 3 Purchasing Card payment. Whereas a Level 1 transaction only provides basic transaction data (i.e. transaction amount and Merchant details), a Level 2 transaction only provides Summary VAT, and a Level 3 transaction allows Merchants to flow full invoice detail, including individual line detail such as Product Description and VAT Rate which will be accessible by the Buyer/Card Holder through their statement and/or reporting tools provided by their card Issuer as an HMRC approved Invoice.