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Discover “On Us” Program Update

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Last fall we wrote about the new Discover “On Us” Program that allows merchants that are new to accepting Discover to defer the cost for a whole year. For many businesses the summer months are their “busy season” and as such this program could add up to great savings all summer long. The “On Us” program offered from discovered is brought to merchants through Host Merchant services. When a customer uses a Discover card at checkout, merchants will not be charged any fees or interchange rates, so all the revenue stays in the businesses pocket.

More Details

First, to qualify for the program, merchants must not have accepted Discover cards in the last six months or be entirely new to accepting the following cards: Discover, Diners Club International, BCcard, China Union Pay, JCB, and DinaCard. To enroll in the program there are just four simple steps merchants must do:

  1. Apply before the deadline of December 31, 2013 (the sooner you apply the more you’ll save)
  2. Confirm your enrollment with a special test transaction
  3. Update signage in your brick and mortal retail store and/or update your website for ecommerce merchants
  4. Provide training on how to communicate the benefits of using Discover to pay for transactions

 

Voila. Once Discover has verified that your business qualifies you will receive written notice and within 10 business days a welcome packet with free signage and tips on how to increase sales by accepting Discover.

 

Test Transaction Instructions

You can use the following instructions to see if your terminal is currently set up to accept Discover cards.

Test your terminal using these simple steps:

  • Prompt your terminal or point-of-sale device for a manual sales transaction.
  • For BCcard, JCB, China UnionPay, DinaCard, and Rupay enter the following test card information:

Test card account: 6555 9000 0015 9720*
Expiration date: 09/14
Transaction amount: $1.00
CID: 458
Zip code (if necessary): 43054

  • For Discover and Diners Club International cards, enter the following test card information:

Test card account: 6011 2023 0029 5223**
Expiration date: 07/14
Transaction amount: $1.00
CID: 045
Zip code (if necessary): 43054

  • A “decline” status means the test was successful and your terminal is ready.

 

Benefits of the Program

While on the “On Us” program, every time you accept a Discover brand card, you will not have to pay the normal interchange rates and fees thus keeping more of the money from the sale in your pocket. Your customers also get the freedom of being able to choose their favorite card and possibly earning cash rewards or points. Host Merchant Services can even provide you with Discover signage to increase awareness that your business now accept Discover cards as payment.

Next Steps

This incredible offer only lasts until December 31, 2013. Pick up the phone right now and give us a call at 877-517-4678 to talk to one of our knowledgeable payment experts or fill out our quick sign up form and someone will be in touch with you shortly. The Discover “On Us” program, a quick easy way for your business to save more on credit card processing.

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