CrossCheck Blog

First impressions are very important. Sociologists say when we meet someone, we form an impression about them in the first eight seconds, and once that happens, it is difficult to change. It turns out that we are creatures of habit, and you could say habits rule our lives. This is probably a good thing because the habits we develop early in life give us a construct to evaluate fact from fantasy and truth from fiction. Hopefully they allow us to make rational decisions based on evidence, not emotions.

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Tags: Brandes Elitch, CrossCheck, Payments

Every April, the Electronic Transactions Association, known as the ETA, holds its annual conference. This is the Main Event for people working in the payments industry. You can see the agenda at the Transact16 conference website and register to attend. The show is typically held in Las Vegas every other year, and this year it returns to Mandalay Bay April 19-21. Last year it was in our backyard, San Francisco. It is the ultimate networking opportunity for anyone in what used to be called the credit card industry, but also has multiple seminars on current topics in “Payments,” as well as a very large trade show floor, which is challenging to cover in depth in the time available. 

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Tags: Travis Powers, Electronic Transactions Association, Brandes Elitch, Dave Siembieda, CrossCheck, Payments

CrossCheck is located in Sonoma County, California, also known as “wine country,” where we have almost 500 commercial wineries and over a thousand grape growers.

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Tags: Brandes Elitch, Multiple Check, Payments

We often hear the phrase, “the consumer is king.” It’s a pretty accurate assessment of the U.S. retail market given that two thirds of the GNP is based on consumer spending and a third of that is in retail. Consumer spending is what drives the economy, job creation, employment, productivity, innovation and more. Consumers have rights and they aren’t reluctant to use them. Sometimes they try to exercise rights they think they have, even if they don’t. Read More

Tags: Brandes Elitch, Auto Dealerships

As I discussed in my last post, in the 1980s when Roger Smith was CEO of General Motors and it was the largest industrial enterprise in the world, he made decisions so disastrous they contributed directly to the firm’s bankruptcy and will be studied in business schools for years to come.

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Tags: Brandes Elitch, Check Guarantee, Independent Sales Organization (ISO), Auto Dealerships

At the beginning of 2015 there are more important new developments in the payments industry than at any time since the inception of Electronic Ticket Capture.  It’s boiling over with venture capital.  A lot of money has been invested, and lot more waits on the sidelines to be deployed for the Next Big Thing. 

Your customers are confused, but you can’t be, so when wondering how you should spend your time and how you will bring value to your merchants, we can learn a lot from what happened to General Motors.

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Tags: Auto Sales, Brandes Elitch, RDC-Remote Deposit Capture, Check Guarantee, Hold Check, Auto Dealerships, Independent Sales Organization (ISO)

Customers and prospects ask us all the time what exactly is going on with credit cards. 

And no wonder as we approach NADA 2015 this week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California.

There is a lot of misinformation out there. For example, here are three breathless quotes from a well-known stock picking subscription service:

            “Due to recent changes in credit card liability, all merchants in America are now required to update their in-store credit card readers to a more secure standard referred to as EMV. Any merchant who does not comply will be liable for credit card fraud.  They have until October 2015.  So, in less than one year’s time, nearly every merchant in the US will have upgraded to these new readers.”

            “Every merchant in America is sure to have legions of shoppers demanding that they accept mobile payments.  Get ready for an all-out NFC frenzy!

            “With Apple getting on-board, mobile payments are now cool!”

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Tags: NADA, Auto Sales, Brandes Elitch, Check Guarantee, Hold Check, Credit Card, Auto Dealerships

The typical car dealer processes a lot of payments every day.  Between the F&I office, the cashier, the service desk, the parts counter, and perhaps a leasing or rental desk, a lot of money changes hands. 

Before electronic ticket capture for credit cards (swiping the magnetic stripe in a card reader), here’s how it worked: 

The cashier put the credit card into a big, heavy device called an imprinter, or more commonly, for obvious reasons, a “knuckle-buster.”  Then she inserted a five-part form and slid the imprinter over the card, which would imprint the raised lettering from the front of the card on the forms via carbon paper.

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Tags: Brandes Elitch, Multiple Check, Hold Check, Credit Card, Check Processing Equipment, Funeral Homes

Are ISOs facing “creative destruction” or a Golden Age? Formula One racing may provide a clue.

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Tags: Check Processing, Brandes Elitch, Independent Sales Organization (ISO)

CrossCheck will be attending the Electronic Transactions Association - Transact 14 - Annual Meeting & Expo on April 8 - 10, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada at  Booth 632.

CrossCheck attendees are Dave Siembieda - President and Chief Executive Officer, Chris Schumacher - Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Tiffany Lucas - Senior Vice President of Product Development, Travis Powers - Vice President of Partner Acquisition, Shane Miller - Vice President of Information Services, Brandes Elitch - Director of Partner Acquisitions, and Todd Little - National Sales Trainer.

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Tags: Todd Little, Travis Powers, ETA, Chris Schumacher, Brandes Elitch, RDC-Remote Deposit Capture, Check Guarantee, Dave Siembieda