Bye Bye T7Plus

It’s time to say goodbye to a beloved classic. Hypercom Corporation has announced the end of life of the popular T7Plus countertop payment terminal. Support for the T7Plus is expected to continue with most processors through July 2014, but Hypercom will no longer be manufacturing it after April 2011. To accommodate your future business needs, CCNJ will be placing a final order based on your sales needs.

Please give us a call (1-201-645-0132) as soon as possible to begin discussing your T7Plus requirements. The deadline to make the final purchase is approaching quickly. By submitting your signed order forms now, you are ensuring availability in 2011.

All purchase orders must be submitted to CCNJ by November 20th to make the Hypercom order deadline. Please contact your sales representative with any questions or concerns you may have or you can call our offices at 1-201-645-0132.

Thank you for your continued business,
Credit Cards, NJ

Guaranteed Savings!

You might be asking yourself how Credit Cards, NJ can guarantee me savings. It's really simple - we do!

CCNJ has several tools in our arsenal to help you save money. For starters, we work with you to determine where you're overspending and will then create a new account (most likely at a different processor) for you to help you pay the right amount every time. We will also work with you down the line to ensure that you are still paying the right amount and that you are not overpaying. We're only more than happy to sit down and do a statement analysis with you on an annual basis to show you we're still saving you money. To utilize this analysis service, please feel free to contact your sales agent either through our Credit Cards, NJ site or by contacting your rep directly.

We also have a tool in our arsenal for those merchants who may have recently signed up for a processing program with another provider and to whom an early termination fee would apply should you leave. This program will work with our clients and negotiate on your behalf with your current provider. The process is a really easy one - it consists of completing a two page form giving us the authority to act on your behalf and then speaking with your provider. Should we save you any money, we split the savings - you've got nothing to lose by giving us a shout!

We hope that this posting will be able to help all businesses start putting more money into their respective pockets and thereby boosting our sagging economy - call it CCNJ's economic stimulus plan!

Do you offer free terminals?

Many times we hear the question "Do you offer free terminals?" For those of you who may not be familiar with the idea behind free terminals, it may sound like a great idea - who wouldn't want to keep their up-front costs as low as possible?

I'd bet you also heard of the old adage, "there's no such thing as a free lunch!" That saying is certainly true here. If you think about it, there is a clear cost to the piece of equipment a sales force is giving away - from a small PINpad to a full Point-of-Sale (POS) system, the costs range between $100-$5,000 and more based on the configuration of the equipment. How can someone afford to give away that much money without getting something in return? The answer becomes clear now - YOU are paying for that free equipment, be it through high annual fees, higher downgrades (the rewards, and mid-qualified/non-qualified surcharges) and many other fees that can appear on your application. For all the extra expenses you'll be taking on during the life of your account with the processor who gave you free equipment, don't you think it's probably better just to buy a terminal now? Plus, the added benefit is that you will own your machine, and should you ever need to switch providers, you can take your terminal with you - don't put yourself and your business at risk.

If you have any questions on free equipment, please feel free to contact the sales people at Credit Cards, NJ - they'll be more than happy to give you all the information you need and show you why it's still better to own your equipment outright, plus with our low cost equipment, you really cannot go wrong!

Security Alert

Visa Security Alert, 8/25/2008: 'Packet Sniffing Vulnerability'

Visa released a data security alert yesterday on packet sniffers.

Computer hackers are using packet sniffers to breach data security and obtain cardholder data.

Packet sniffers are malicious software or “malware” and may be referred to as a network or protocol analyzer. The sniffers seize a stream or block of data (a packet) being transmitted or passed on a network.

Sniffers are often used for legitimate business purposes such as network analysis, monitoring of network usage or firewall testing. An increase in data security breaches from packet sniffers has prompted the alert. Investigations have shown packet sniffers capturing cardholder data on transactions passed on the compromised businesses’ computer networks.

Visa recommends the following best practices to mitigate your vulnerability to a packet sniffer attack in their alert:

“Although packet sniffing is difficult to detect, you can utilize tactics to mitigate the risk of exposure to critical systems, such as point-of-sale (POS) systems, payment processing servers, database servers or other servers where cardholder data resides. To get started, follow these best practices:

• Utilize host-based Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS)
• Monitor firewalls for suspicious traffic, particularly outbound traffic to unknown addresses
• Implement file integrity monitoring
• Secure workstations so packet sniffers or other malware cannot be installed
• Utilize encrypted protocols or encryption to protect sensitive data
• Use packet sniffers legitimately to detect network intrusion attempts or suspicious activity on a network
• Ensure that anti-virus and anti-spyware software programs are up-to-date
• Routinely examine systems and networks for newly-added hardware devices”

More information on packet sniffing is available at www.visa.com/cisp or netsecurity.about.com/cs/hackertools/a/aa121403.htm

Gift cards

Do you want more sales? Do you want to make more money? I think the answer is going to be yes! Who would ever pass up making more money or completing more sales... One would have to be at maximum capacity, and then some to ever say they would not want more business.

Let me introduce to you Credit Cards, NJ's gift card program. Using our gift card program, you will be driving more customers into your store, and many of those customers will be new ones - people who would have never stopped into your business before. Our gift card program comes in a variety of sizes and shapes, and is perfect for just about every retail business - don't pass up any more sales.

Especially at this time of year, when people will be getting ready to begin their holiday shopping, what better way of giving yourself a bonus is there? Contact Credit Cards, NJ or go to our Gift & Loyalty Card program page today for more information on our gift card program.