Payment card industry data security standards
All merchants that store, process or transmit cardholder data MUST be PCI DSS compliant (Payment card industry data security standards).
However you trade, each transaction you process involves sensitive cardholder information which must be processed, stored and transmitted securely to protect your customers and your business, from the increasing threat of card fraud.
If you or your business are one of the many merchants that have not completed a self assessment form then it is vitally important that you complete this ASAP to avoid unnecessary non-compliance charges.
Your acquiring bank should be keeping you up to date on how to fill in these forms but unfortunately many do not.
You will need to contact them and ask for their guidance as each bank operates different self assessment sites. Generally this is a tick box questionnaire.
The SAQ is primarily aimed at small to medium businesses and is a self validation tool for merchants and service providers that are not required to undergo an on-site data security assessment by a QSA
Each acquiring bank has different non-compliance charges, and a few are set out below.
You will notice on your card statement a non pci compliance fee or if you are a Global Payments customer this will be on your statement under non vat applicable charges: listed as NON PCI GF
Lets start with some examples from acquiring banks, and remember these are for each MID you have for your business.
Global payments: £50.00 per month
Worldpay: £9.99 per month
Barclaycard: 0.3% of your monthly transactions per month ( I have a client that was paying an average of £103.00 per month… He’s not anymore.)
Elavon: £17.00 per month
Can you or your business actually afford to disregard these charges?
As a rule of thumb, around 80% of clients I speak to are not aware of the PCI DSS regulations, and since some of them have heeded our advice they, have reduced their costs considerably.
Further information is available on the Business Sense website.
By Robert Groom, Business Sense, Bridgend