My Merchant Account Blog

Standards for Country Codes

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Most of the electronic payment gateways and Internet Payment Service Providers (IPSP) / Third Party Payor (3PP) rely on a two alpha characters to distinguish the country, rather than use the entire country.

Country Names	ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 code
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A	top
Afghanistan	AF
Åland Islands	AX
Albania	AL
Algeria	DZ
American Samoa	AS
Andorra	AD
Anguilla	AI
Antarctica	AQ
Antigua and Barbuda	AG
Argentina	AR
Armenia	AM
Aruba	AW
Australia	AU
Austria	AT
Azerbaijan	AZ
B	top
Bahamas	BS
Bahrain	BH
Bangladesh	BD
Barbados	BB
Belarus	BY
Belgium	BE
Belize	BZ
Benin	BJ
Bermuda	BM
Bhutan	BT
Bolivia	BO
Bosnia and Herzegovina	BA
Botswana	BW
Bouvet Island	BV
Brazil	BR
British Indian Ocean Territory	IO
Brunei Darussalam	BN
Bulgaria	BG
Burkina Faso	BF
Burundi	BI
C	top
Cambodia	KH
Cameroon	CM
Canada	CA
Cape Verde	CV
Cayman Islands	KY
Central Africa Republic	CF
Chad	TD
Chile	CL
China	CN
Christmas Island	CX
Cocos (Keeling) Islands	CC
Colombia	CO
Comoros	KM
Congo	CG
Congo, The Democratic Republic of	CD
Cook Islands	CK
Costa Rica	CR
Côtoe D'Ivroire	CI
Croatia	HR
Cuba	CU
Cyprus	CY
Czech Republic	CZ
D	top
Denmark	DK
Djibouti	DJ
Dominica	DM
Dominican Republic	DO
E	top
Ecuador	EC
Egypt	EG
El Salvador	SV
Equatorial Guinea	GQ
Eritrea	ER
Estonia	EE
Ethiopia	ET
F	top
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	FK
Faroe Islands	FO
Fiji	FJ
Finland	FI
France	FR
French Guiana	GF
French Polynesia	PF
French Southern Territories	TF
G	top
Gabon	GA
Gambia	GM
Georgia	GE
Germany	DE
Ghana	GH
Gibraltar	GI
Greece	GR
Greenland	GL
Grenada	GD
Guadeloupe	GP
Guam	GU
Guatemala	GT
Guernsey	GG
Guinea	GN
Guinea-Bissau	GW
Guyana	GY
H	top
Haiti	HT
Heard Islands and McDonald Islands	HM
Holy See (Vatican City State)	VA
Honduras	HN
Hong Kong	HK
Hungary	HU
I	top
Iceland	IS
India	IN
Indonesia	ID
Iran, Islamic Republic of	IR
Iraq	IQ
Ireland	IE
Isle of Man	IM
Israel	IL
Italy	IT
J	top
Jamaica	JM
Japan	JP
Jersey	JE
Jordan	JO
K	top
Kazakhstan	KZ
Kenya	KE
Kiribati	KI
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of	KP
Korea, Republic of	KR
Kuwait	KW
Kyrgyzstan	KG
L	top
Lao People's Democratic Republic	LA
Latvia	LV
Lebanon	LB
Lesotho	LS
Liberia	LR
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya	LY
Liechtenstein	LI
Lithuania	LT
Luxembourg	LU
M	top
Macao	MO
Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of	MK
Madagascar	MG
Malawi	MW
Malaysia	MY
Maldives	MV
Mali	ML
Malta	MT
Marshall Islands	MH
Martinique	MQ
Mauritania	MR
Mauritius	MU
Mayotte	YT
Mexico	MX
Micronesia, Federated States of	FM
Moldova, Republic of	MD
Monaco	MC
Mongolia	MN
Montenegro	ME
Montserrat	MS
Morocco	MA
Mozambique	MZ
Myanmar	MM
N	top
Nambia	NA
Nauru	NR
Nepal	NP
Netherlands	NL
Netherlands Antilles	AN
New Caledonia	NC
New Zealand	NZ
Nicaragua	NI
Niger	NE
Nigeria	NG
Niue	NU
Norfolk Island	NF
Northern Mariana Islands	MP
Norway	NO
O	top
Oman	OM
P	top
Pakistan	PK
Palau	PW
Palestinian Territory, Occupied	PS
Panama	PA
Papau New Guinea	PG
Paraguay	PY
Peru	PE
Philippines	PH
Pitcairn	PN
Poland	PL
Portugal	PT
Puerto Rico	PR
Q	top
Qatar	QA
R	top
Réunion	RE
Romania	RO
Russian Federation	RU
Rwanda	RW
S	top
Saint Barthélemy	BL
Saint Helena	SH
Saint Kitts and Nevis	KN
Saint Lucia	LC
Saint Martin	MF
Saint Pierre and Miquelon	PM
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	VC
Samoa	WS
San Marino	SM
Sao Tome and Principe	ST
Saudi Arabia	SA
Senegal	SN
Serbia	RS
Seychelles	SC
Sierra Leone	SL
Singapore	SG
Slovakia	SK
Slovenia	SI
Solomon Islands	SB
Somalia	SO
South Africa	ZA
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	GS
Spain	ES
Sri Lanka	LK
Sudan	SD
Suriname	SR
Svalbard and Jan Mayen	SJ
Swaziland	SZ
Sweden	SE
Switzerland	CH
Syrian Arab Republic	SY
T	top
Taiwan, Province of China	TW
Tajikistan	TJ
Tanzania, United Republic of	TZ
Thailand	TH
Timor-Leste	TL
Togo	TG
Tokelau	TK
Tonga	TO
Trinidad and Tobago	TT
Tunisia	TN
Turkey	TR
Turkmenistan	TM
Turks and Caicos Islands	TC
Tuvala	TV
U	top
Uganda	UG
Ukraine	UA
United Arab Emirates	AE
United Kingdom	UK
United States	US
United States Minor Outlying Islands	UM
Uruguay	UY
Uzbekistan	UZ
V	top
Vanuata	VU
Vatican City State	see Holy See
Venezuala, Bolvarian Republic of	VE
Vietnam	VN
Virgin Islands, British	VG
Virgin Islands, U.S.	VI
W	top
Wallis and Futuna	WF
Western Sahara	EH
Y	top
Yemen	YE
Z	top
Zambia	ZM
Zimbabwe	ZW

If needed, you can download a text file (3683 bytes) or a zipped file (2030 bytes) of the country codes.

Relying on Recurring Billing

Friday, April 17, 2009

A recurring monthly payment from customers can be a good source of income.  There are thousands of businesses that could thrive on using an electronic payment gateway to do recurring billing for them.  The electronic payment gateway would store the consumer's credit card number for you and complete the transaction at a set interval that you determine.

LinkPoint / First Data Global Gateway

The LinkPoint Gateway (also known as YourPay, but now known as the First Data Global Gateway) has their feature that is called periodic billing.  Through their API, you can set up a recurring monthly payment.  By doing this, you do not need to worry about storing credit card numbers and a possible breach.  You also save the Address Verification Service (AVS) fee on each recurring transaction, since the gateway has performed the service already. 

The LinkPoint Gateway however is somewhat limiting on its features.  For example, if the recurring transaction fails the next month, you are sent an email.  Unfortunately, it is then up to you to either contact the consumer to get a new credit card and possibly suspend the consumer's account.  However, you can also set up the recurring transaction to try for a couple of days - just in case the consumer was close to his limit and a payment was received to the card association.  Keep in mind though, each transaction will cost - a transaction fee, and this is usually $.15 - $.30, depending on your monthly volume and transactions.  On the plus side, the periodic billing feature is free and is available to all merchants that use the LinkPoint / First Data Global Gateway.

Quantum Gateway

The Quantum Electronic Payment Gateway is a fairly new product from CDG Commerce.  The gateway seems to pick up where a lot of the electronic payment gateways stop when it comes to recurring billing.  With their API, you can store the customer's credit card number on Quantum's secure web server and bill the credit card at a later time.  This comes as the e-commerce industry is trying to be more secure.

Developers can also apply for a test account to help mimic real world transactions.  For any new business that is considering a safe and secure method for securing credit card numbers, they should look at the Quantum Gateway.  However, this does not make you exempt from the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).  With the API from the Quantum Gateway, there is no need for merchants to store the credit card number on their web server - all the information needed for the transaction is stored securely in the Quantum Vault.

The other electronic payment gateways and Internet Payment Service Providers (IPSPs) all offer some version of recurring billing but I don't think you will find one that is comparable to the Quantum Gateway.  As the Internet grows and more business models are online, most of the electronic payment gateways have grown stagnant as far as development.

IRS Seeks Data from Payment Processor

Thursday, April 16, 2009

U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn granted a request from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on April 15, 2009.  In this request, the IRS is seeking records as part of investigation of taxpayers whose businesses directly deposit income from credit, debit, and other payment cards into foreign accounts to avoid paying U.S. taxes.  I have not had a chance to read the court documents, but right now it looks like the IRS is targeting merchants who have the payment processor deposit funds into an offshore account.  This comes as the Swiss banking giant UBS agreed to turn over dozens of names suspected of concealing income from the IRS a couple of months ago.

I imagine though that other payment processors that support these types of accounts will be next, i.e. Paypal.  You can always at least find a few messages a week in the message boards asking if Paypal (or other payment processors) report the earnings to the IRS.  And most of these posters tend to have their website in their signature.  Now to me, this just seems to invite the IRS to review your business and personal income tax reporting - but I could be wrong.  Of course, if you are reporting everything to the IRS, you have nothing to worry about. 

Usually we see a lot of merchants that are not based in the United States and they are wanting a merchant account from a U.S. transaction processor.  Most transaction processors in the United States can only support U.S. based merchants due to their underwriters and policies.

So, if you are a United States merchant with a bank account not located in the United States - be warned, especially if you are using Cardservice International (dba First Data Independent Sales) - the IRS is looking for monies owed.

Using and Accepting Gift Cards

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Just a few years ago, you bought a gift card for a specific company, i.e. BlockBuster, Best Buy, even Wal-Mart.  Then the card associations allowed issuing banks to issue gift cards with the card association logos on them.  this allowed the person who was receiving the gift to use the card almost anywhere. 

Let's say you received a gift card that had the American Express logo on it.  This means that you could use the gift card anywhere that was displaying the American Expression logo - from buying groceries at your favorite shopping market or buying music from the online e-commerce store.  This made it easier on the giver - he / she could easily buy a gift card with a card association logo on it, eliminating the need to force the recipient to go to a specific location.

Using the Gift Card as a Consumer

These gift cards though do come with some more responsibility though.  On the back of the card, you should find a toll free number.  For American Express gift cards, the toll free number (in the United States) is 877-297-4438.  Once you enter the 15-digit credit card number, along with the 4-digit Card Identification Number (CID) found in the upper right corner on the front of the card, you will be told your balance.

After you are told the balance, listen for the other information.  Option 5 should be for all other questions.  This will direct you to a customer service representative.  At this point, you can give the representative your name and address.  This will then help you use the card on websites that use Address Verification Service (AVS) as a starting point as a way to prevent online fraud.  Merchants rely on AVS to help check the validity of the transaction.

The next thing, you as the consumer needs to know, is the balance on the gift card.  If your balance is $9.81 but you are at the store buying goods that total $18.76, you need to let the cashier know to authorize $9.81 on the card.  Once that sale is complete, the cashier will then ask you for $8.95 - which you should be able to pay with cash, a credit card, or another gift card.

Accepting the Gift Card as a Merchant

As a merchant, you should not need to do too much to accept the gift card from from one of the card associations.  Your shopping cart should allow the option for the consumer to enter an amount to authorize.  If this amount is lower than the total, that amount should be displayed once the first amount is authorized, allowing the consumer to complete the sale.

If you rely on AVS as a stepping stone to help prevent online fraud, you might want to contact your electronic payment gateway and merchant account provider to see what they support.  I know that I have always stressed using AVS as the first step to help prevent online fraud, unfortunately though, unless the consumer has registered the gift card with the issuing bank, you might be unable to rely on this service.