As a local, independent insurance agency, we’re committed to making certain you’re adequately protected in the event of a fire, weather disaster, liability claim or other unfortunate circumstance. Did you know that when your small or local business accepts credit cards, there are many ways it can benefit you, but there are also many risks associated as well. In order to stay free from worry, it’s best to have a commercial insurance policy in place that can properly protect you. But today, we’d like to review the risks and benefits when your business accepts credit cards.
Benefits when you Accept Credit Cards
As a small business owner, you’re always looking for proactive ways to better your business as a whole, and we understand that! If you’re learning about how to accept credit cards in your business, here are some benefits you’ll probably want to know about:
- Accepting credit cards can help increase your sales. If you choose to conduct business on a cash-only basis, you limit the amount of customers you can attract as a whole.
- Credit cards can encourage impulsive buying decisions. Shoppers like when things are quick and easy, so if you accept credit cards, their likeliness of making a purchase could greatly increase.
- If you accept credit cards, you stay on par with your competition.
- Accepting credit cards isn’t terribly expensive for your business. While credit card processing is a competitive industry, the rates for processing credit cards are pretty affordable for businesses of all sizes to embrace. You could even get started with looking at an option like Square.
- Accepting credit cards eliminates the risk of accepting a check that will bounce. Additionally, credit card transactions are all screened as they are processed, which will reduce the risk of fraud as well.
- Accepting credit cards helps to legitimize your business – once you have logos of the various credit cards next to your register or on your website, you grab cardholders’ attention and make them more willing to make a purchase.
- Accepting credit cards is crucial to your business online. If you have any sort of web based stores, this is the only way you can keep up with competition, and we understand that.
Risks when you Accept Credit Cards
Of course, with all of these great benefits for your company when you accept credit cards, you may be thinking it could be time to take the leap of faith. While we find it valuable to “keep up with the times” and provide the best possible customer experience you can, it’s also important to be aware of what risks of accepting credit cards you may face along the way. If you’re curious about how to accept credit cards in your business, here’s the risks associated:
- Risk of fraud – no matter how secure your business is, any time a payment is funded electronically, there is a risk of cyber criminals to get ahold of the information.
- You may have additional bookkeeping expenses – credit card or debit card transactions add a new layer to the auditing and bookkeeping process for any business. Unfortunately, more electronic transactions means you need to spend more time on transactions.
- You must stay updated with PCI Security Standards – this is a set of rules that make sure all companies process, store and transmit sensitive credit card information in a secure environment to protect customers as a whole.
- Data breach – this is the biggest risk of all. Now that you’ve considered the extra bookkeeping, additional electronic transactions, and so on, you must consider that your business will be storing all of this sensitive information on behalf of your customers. If your business fell victim to a cyber liability threat, that could mean the exposure of all of your clients’ or customers’ card information, and that could result in the downfall of your entire investment…
Get the Protection you Need
We would hate to see anything happen to your small or local business. As advocates of shopping small and shopping local, we want to help you succeed in any way possible. If you’re looking to review your commercial insurance policy with one of our agents to make sure you’re properly protected, give us a call at 860-684-5270 or click below to contact us today.
