Launching a new business during a global pandemic isn’t ideal, but that’s exactly what Teri Castrop, Kansas City’s own self-professed “Caramel Lady” has done. As the founder of Kansas City Caramels, she’s had to navigate all the challenges that come with starting a small business — while juggling the shortages, supply chain disruptions, and general chaos that COVID-19 has created.

Pros Supports all-in-one payments Bluetooth connection Solid design Charging dock available Cons Expensive compared to other options Overview in February 2018, PayPal introduced two new (and affordable) readers to its lineup of PayPal Here-compatible hardware: its entry-level Chip and Swipe Reader and the full-featured Chip and Tap Reader. Both are EMV-enabled so that you can […]

Pros All-in-one payments Free mPOS app Solid web dashboard Advanced reporting tools Advanced customer database Cons iOS only Limited features Limited ecommerce support Overview Not that I want to sound like a hipster, but you probably haven’t heard of MX Merchant. It’s not exactly a well-known service. But it got on our radar because Dharma Merchant […]

We live, unfortunately, in the age of the data breach. Target. Home Depot. Sony. The IRS. ADP. Noodles & Co. Wendy’s. Yahoo. Over the past few years, all of these companies (and many, many others) have been hit with some sort of data breach that has compromised personalized data ranging from social security numbers and W2 information to credit card numbers. […]

In 2012, the PewResearch Internet Project found that 65 percent of respondents in its survey believed that by 2020, mobile payments will have almost entirely replaced the need for cash or even credit cards. And if you’re a merchant who’s not accepting mobile payments yet, you’re already behind the curve. Now is a good time to take a […]

Any online gambling site is likely familiar with the problem of the 7995 — the merchant category code (MCC) that has been associated with gambling transactions since the days when all online gambling was banned. Now, with New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware allowing it to various degrees, the lack of distinction has been a problem for […]

In May 2019, Global Payments, another very large direct processor from Georgia, announced that it was acquiring TSYS for $21.5 billion. The combined organization will operate under the Global Payments brand name, and the TSYS name will eventually disappear. However, mergers of this size take a long time to complete, and as of May 2020, TSYS still has its own website, which lists the company as ‘TSYS – A Global Payments Company.’ We haven’t received any indication of how Global Payments plans to transition existing TSYS customers into its system, but we expect that you will probably be switched over to a Global Payments contract at some point. If you’re a merchant looking for a new provider, now is not the time to sign up with TSYS.