4 Reasons Why a Knuckle-Buster Should be a Last Resort

It’s hard to believe with all the technology available today,  I found a merchant who travels around the country on three week tours, using only a knuckle-buster to capture credit card data so he can process the transactions when he returns home.

Many merchants operate their businesses from offsite locations such as trade shows, swap meets, at the customer’s home, or other places that don’t have the ability to connect a credit card terminal to either a power source, telephone line, or internet connection.  No big deal.

The best solution right now to capture credit card transactions in this environment is to use your smart phone with an accompanying magnetic swipe device.  Simply stated, anywhere you can get a mobile data connection or even a WI-FI connection, you can process a transaction.   

Here are 4 reasons why a knuckle-buster should be a last resort, not a go-to device:

#1 Credit card companies are now issuing cards that will no longer have embossed numbers.  Once the flat card becomes the norm, the knuckle-buster is obsolete

#2  Imprinting a credit card slip doesn’t really prevent chargebacks. The majority of chargebacks aren’t fraud based, it’s the client claiming goods never arrived, he was billed twice, etc.  A knuckle buster doesn’t safeguard anything when this happens.

#3 You might lose the credit card slips. When I found out this merchant wasn’t returning to his home for three weeks and that my credit card information would travel with him in his car, to his hotel room, to a restaurant and/or bar, or wherever he chose to go, I decided to pay in cash.  It was easy to imagine the nightmare I would have trying to clear up an avoidable mess.

#4 You Might Not Get Paid.  Even though this is not the main concern, it is still true.  All you are essentially doing is making a carbon copy of someone’s credit card and hoping that it’s legit.  There is not much technology involved here and you are setting yourself up for the card being denied or maybe not even being an actual credit card at all.  How would you know?

If you have a smart phone and want a reliable solution with no upfront cost, contact Mark Tannen at (408) 888-9663.