by Jason Collazo
On Friday,The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it would be refunding $350,000 to American small business merchants who became the victims of a credit and debit card scam.
On Friday,The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it would be refunding $350,000 to American small business merchants who became the victims of a credit and debit card scam.
The scam had several firms falsely promoting that they could save small businesses credit and debit processing fees by giving them rates lower than other credit and debit card processing services. But these companies did not inform small business owners of the fees that would be charged and withheld many pages of the contract, until after small business owners signed up. Small business owners should be wary of phone calls from these companies— Direct Merchant Processing Inc., Vequity Financial Group Inc., Merchant Processing Inc., and PPI Services Inc., as they were identified by the FTC as participating in the scam. Other names involved in the scam are Karely McCarthy, Karly Speelman and Aaron Lee Rian. Rian and McCarthy have been caught by the FDIC and are no longer allowed to market credit and debit card processing services. Some of the two’s assets had to be sold to refund victims of the scheme. Affected small business owners will receive refunds anywhere from $100 to $25,000, depending on what the victim paid.While most agencies focus on personal credit card and debit card fraud, small business fraud is alive and well. As supported by the evidence above, small business owners are also subject to the same types of credit card scams and fraudulent behavior as the typical credit card user. When small business owners apply for credit cards, it’s important to do research to find the best credit card, since small business credit cards are underrepresented in our credit market. A good small business credit card should include at least rewards, fraud protection and introductory zero percent APR offers. If you are looking for a good rewards card, try one of the Bank of America business credit cards. They are some of the best on the market, and they keep interest rates low for consumers by only applying extra interest to existing balances that are 60 days or more past due. Wells Fargo has the worst business card— the Wells Fargo Business Platinum Credit Card doesn’t offer any rewards and has an APR of 9.24-18.24% depending on your credit score. There is no introductory offer with the Wells Fargo Business Platinum Card. The Cash Rewards for Business Visa is a good card for small business owners, as it has zero percent APR for the first nine months of opening the card, three percent cash back on office supply store purchases, computer network services, and gas station purchases. The card also offers one percent cash back on all other purchases.
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