CrossCheck Blog

It looks like 2013 will be chock full of great events for payment industry professionals, ISOs and financial services providers. We've gathered up some dates and locations for these must-attend events and hope to see you there!

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we wanted to present 5 websites that we are thankful for. These sites are valuable to the payments industry for the information and services they provide. In the ever-changing payment services industry, keeping up with the changes can be challenging.

Today's ISOs are under more pressure than ever to perform, given the increased competition in the payment processing industry and a sometimes confusing array of choices for merchants. To meet the challenges of today's payment processing marketplace, you need to be on top of your game. With that in mind, here are three helpful tips you can use right away to better manage your time and generate more sales and revenue.

Travis Powers, Vice President of ISO and Partner Relations will be at the Western States Acquirer Association Meeting this week where he's sure to be surrounded with a multitude of alternative payment applications and check processing services. He recently had a chance to see Google Wallet in action (or not) and wonders ..."will Google fix my wallet?"

Don't know your RDC from your PCI? Don't fret. Acronyms and abbreviations are SOP in the payments industry. For retail merchants, check guarantee service providers, independent sales agents and financial association members it can be downright confusing to keep track of terminology that relates to our payment systems. To make it easy to understand some of the most commonly used acronyms, we've set up a payments glossary of pertinent terminology on our website. Here are few entries that will help you sound like an expert MLS at the next ETA conference.

Changes in the way the payment services industry works are creating challenges for ISOs and affiliates who haven't kept current. In addition to the emergence of companies like PayPal and Square Inc., which offer convenient payment processing services to both individual clients as well as businesses, new payment technologies have become the norm. This threatens to replace traditional payment methods, creating problems for ISOs including reduced revenue, lost opportunity and lower rates of merchant retention.

ISOs in the payment services industry are under the gun to find new ways to boost their sales, as technological advancements are crowding out traditional approaches. Vertical markets offer an excellent opportunity to make the most of your sales potential, allowing you to establish yourself in a well-defined, specific area. This helps you build a dominating presence in a single niche rather than spreading yourself too thin across multiple markets.

Check services can be an important part of a payment provider's suite of offerings. With the availability of new check technology and guarantee services that offer convenience and cost savings, opportunities abound to provide added value to merchants today. These opportunities will be the topic of a panel discussion at the upcoming iPayment conference being held in Las Vegas on May 23 and 24. CrossCheck's Travis Powers, Vice President of Partner and ISO Relations, will be part of the panel discussion titled: Check and ACH Opportunities, Now and in the Future.