Accepting cards for online payment of your products or services is quite a responsibility because you will be handling sensitive credit card information. In other words, if you’re going to add e-commerce functionality to your website, it must come with an assurance that your customers’ data will be kept secure. Remember that typical online payment processing entails multiple transfers of your client’s credit details, which means there are multiple opportunities that a hacker might steal that information. If you want to keep your customers, don’t expose them to this type of risk by employing proper security measures every step along the way.

While you can go on accepting credit cards on your own, you will not be able to protect your customers’ interests unless you partner with a reputable processing company that is capable of providing the required level of security. Because customer information travels between computers to and fro, you need to provide an assurance that this information will be encrypted every step of the way, meaning, coded so that even if a hacker intercepts it, he won’t be able to use it.

The fact that you’ve brought your business to the Internet must indicate that you are aware of the threats that could compromise the safety of both your clients’ interests and your own. Therefore, it is essential that you implement security measures that ensure maximum credit card protection during processing.

One such measure being used these days is address verification in which a customer will be asked for his address and the credit card processor checks if this matches that which is on the card holder’s merchant account records. Although a match is not specifically required for the customer to make a purchase, it helps a merchant decide whether or not he will accept or deny the sale.

Another method used is card verification value which is a four digit number printed only at the back of a card and not anywhere else. When a customer is asked for this value,the merchant an be assured that he, the client, actually has the card with him. Because most fraudulent credit card use stems from information left on receipts and bank statements, the CCV becomes a strong indication that the buyer actually has the card with him and is most probably the owner, unless the card itself had been stolen.

The threat of Internet theft has never been this real and it is completely up to the merchant as to the methods he wants to use in order to protect his clients. A responsible businessman, however, will always see to it that all security measures are in place to ensure that his customers are receiving best quality products and services as well as protection for their information.