Tag Archives: add discover on discover

Discover “On Us” Program

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Today The Official Merchant Services Blog  will focus on an exclusive deal offered to merchants by Host Merchant Services, a second year of the Discover “On Us” plan, formerly the Add Discover On Discover promotion. This plan comes at just the right time for merchants as holiday shopping will increase their traffic and sales. This offer from Discover, through Host Merchant Services is bold and exciting. It essentially gives qualifying merchants a year of being able to process Discover payments at no cost. Discover “On Us” gives the merchants no fees when their customers swipe a Discover card. And they have this benefit for an entire year.

The Details of the Plan

To qualify for the Discover “On Us” program from Host Merchant Services, you must have not processed any Discover cards in the past six months of doing business. Discover card processing includes Discover, Diners Club International, BCcard, China Union Pay, JCB and DinaCard. That’s it. That’s all you need to qualify. Once you qualify it’s a series of easy steps to get the program started:

  1. Enroll in the program anytime before December 31st, 2013.
  2. Confirm your enrollment with a required test transaction.
  3. Update signage at your retail store (or on your website if you are an e-commerce only merchant).
  4. Inform your employees and actively promote Discover to your customers to start reaping the savings.

 

Once you’ve been verified you will receive written notice from Discover. Within 10 business days of your acceptance you’ll receive a welcome letter with free Discover signage and tips for increasing your sales with Discover.

Benefits of the Plan

This plan is really good for merchants that haven’t been accepting Discover cards. Every Discover transaction you process for 12 full months will cost you nothing  –– no limits, no exceptions. Coming right at the end of the year, this plan is the type of holiday shopping incentive that is extremely lucrative for merchants.

Durbin Amendment Works For This Too

In fact, one of the features of the Durbin Amendment can help Discover get added hype and promotional assistance from this Discover “On Us” plan. As Host Merchant Services pointed out in their Durbin Amendment analysis earlier this year, one of the key pieces of the legislation focuses on competition within the payment processing industry: “[The Durbin Amendment] seeks to stop major credit and debit card networks from imposing penalties on small businesses, merchants and government agencies. The law applies to banks with over $10 billion in assets and restricts these large banks and credit card companies from using their dominant market power to force merchants to accept anti-competitive restrictions. To put it simply, large credit card companies are no longer able to punish merchants for offering discounts to customers for using another card network; or discounts for using cash, check, debit card or gift card and loyalty cards; or set a minimum or maximum transaction amount for payment by card.”

So what this means is Discover can usher in this program –– which offers no transaction fees for a year –– to attract merchants, and those merchants seeing how much more of a savings this can provide them over other options can freely promote Discover over the competition, with no fear of punishment or penalty. Durbin lets a merchant promote the better deal for their business.

For More Information

This landmark offer lasts until December 31, 2013. The Discover “On Us” Program will extend 12 months of free Discover processing to merchants who qualify, even if implemented on December 31st, 2013, the merchant would be able to utilize the program through December 31st, 2014. If you are interested in finding out more about it, feel free to Contact Host Merchant Services.

Discover To Pay $200 Million For Deceptive Practices

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Today the Official Merchant Services Blog will investigate the more than $200 million dollar fine that the U.S. Government issued on Discover Bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) have ordered Discover to refund approximately $200 million to more than 3.5 million of its customers, as well as pay a $14 million civil penalty to the government. The order comes after the FDIC began investigating Discover last year for deceptive telemarketing practices and sales tactics used to sell consumers various credit card products, such as payment protection, credit score tracking, identity theft and wallet protection.

Consumers reported that these telemarketers would downplay key words during the calls and also used scripts that misled the customer about whether they would actually be paying for the product.  Some Discover customers thought the products were free because of the use of such words as “benefits.”

Some consumers asked for reading material on the products before purchasing them, however they found themselves being billed for the products before receiving the materials.  Some customers were even fully enrolled in the programs without permission, according to the FDIC and the CFPB.

The telemarketers also did not disclose eligibility requirements for certain payment protection benefits, such as exclusions for pre-existing medical conditions and certain employment limitations. Discover is not only required to pay the refunds and civil penalty, but also must make changes to its telemarketing strategies for the products involved.  The company must submit a compliance plan to the CFPB and FDIC for approval.

“Discover has worked hard over the past decade or so to reinvent its brand into one of a first class credit card,” David Johnson, principal with Strategic Vision, (Discover’s PR Company) told CRM Buyer. “This is not something consumers are likely to forget. It will become part of the Discover narrative.”

Unfortunately for Discover, I’m inclined to agree. This is not a story that is going to go away any time soon and we will be on top of any updates or appeals. While on the topic of Discover however, I find it necessary to remind our reader base and all merchants that the ‘Add Discover On Discover’ program is ending in the coming months, and you should know when you will start being charged for the service.  The program started back in 2011, and offered free Discover card processing to customers who could show they had not taken Discover cards for at least six months.  In this way, the program really targeted non-Discover Card merchants and was a strong effort to increase the usage of Discover in retail outlets.

Here’s a quick reference chart for the schedule:

Host Merchant Services continues to adhere to its customer service philosophy of transparency and education. We do not want any merchants confused or unaware of the fees they are charged on their statements. If you have any questions about this program or Interchange and its rates, please contact us.

Merchant Services: Discover on Discover

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A previous post by The Official Merchant Services Blog featured a story about what credit card companies are doing to make themselves the more alluring choice instead of debit during this holiday shopping season. Today’s post is a bit of a follow up to that, with a specific program that one credit card company is offering to merchants that will take things up a notch significantly.

Host Merchant Services is able to offer an exclusive deal to its merchants with the new Add Discover on Discover plan. This plan comes at just the right time for merchants as holiday shopping will increase their traffic and sales. This offer from Discover, through Host Merchant Services is bold. It essentially gives qualifying merchants a year of being able to process Discover payments at no cost. Add Discover on Discover gives the merchants no fees when their customers swipe a Discover card. And they have this benefit for an entire year.

The Details of the Plan

To qualify for the Add Discover on Discover program from Host Merchant Services, you must have not processed any Discover cards in the past six months of doing business. Discover card processing includes Discover, Diners Club International, BCcard, China Union Pay, JCB and DinaCard. That’s it. That’s all you need to qualify. Once you qualify it’s a series of easy steps to get the program started:

  1. Enroll in the program by December 31, 2011.
  2. Confirm your enrollment with a required test transaction.
  3. Update signage at your place of business (or on your website if you are an e-commerce only merchant).
  4. Inform your employees and actively promote Discover to your customers to start reaping the savings.

Once you’ve been verified you will receive written notice from Discover. Within 10 business days of your acceptance you’ll receive a welcome letter with free Discover signage and tips for increasing your sales with Discover.

Benefits of the Plan

This plan is really good for merchants that haven’t been accepting Discover cards. Every Discover transaction you process for 12 full months will cost you nothing  –– no limits, no exceptions. Coming right at the end of the year, this plan is the type of holiday shopping incentive that is extremely lucrative for merchants. Discover makes a big push to get merchants to promote using their cards at a time when the interchange fees on debit card usage got hard capped by the Durbin Amendment.

Durbin Amendment Works For This Too

In fact, one of the other features of the Durbin Amendment can help Discover get added hype and promotional assistance from this Add Discover on Discover plan. As Host Merchant Services pointed out in their Dubin Amendment analysis earlier this year, one of the key pieces of the legislation focuses on competition within the payment processing industry: “[The Durbin Amendment] seeks to stop major credit and debit card networks from imposing penalties on small businesses, merchants and government agencies. The law applies to banks with over $10 billion in assets and restricts these large banks and credit card companies from using their dominant market power to force merchants to accept anti-competitive restrictions. To put it simply, large credit card companies are no longer able to punish merchants for offering discounts to customers for using another card network; or discounts for using cash, check, debit card or gift card and loyalty cards; or set a minimum or maximum transaction amount for payment by card.”

So what this means is Discover can usher in this new program –– which offers no transaction fees for a year –– to attract merchants, and those merchants seeing how much more of a savings this can provide them over other options can freely promote Discover over the competition, with no fear of punishment or penalty. Durbin lets a merchant promote the better deal for their business.

For More Information

This landmark offer only lasts until December 31, 2011. If you are interested in finding out more about it, feel free to Contact Host Merchant Services.

You can also read more about the offer by downloading one of the two PDFs Host Merchant Services provides on its resource page:

Discover on Discover For Merchants

Discover on Discover Sales Aid