Card Acceptance – Card payments are taken at your

own risk. By following the instructions in this guide and

your Terminal User Manual, the risk may be reduced, but

it is important to understand that card payments are not

guaranteed and can be charged back if disputed at a

later date.

Use of your Terminal - You must only process

transactions (purchases and refunds) that relate to the

sale of goods or services provided by your business:

• Do not process transactions on your own card(s) or on

• Do not transmit or accept for payment any

transaction that was not originated directly between

your business and the cardholder.

• Do not initiate a credit transaction (refund) without

there being sufficient funds in the settlement

account or merchant bank account to meet the debit.

• Do not process a transaction in exchange for

providing a cardholder with cash, unless this has been

specifically approved as part of your payment

services application.

the provision of goods or services.

Authorisation – Authorisation of a transaction is not a

guarantee of payment. It means that at the time of the

authorisation request, the card has not been blocked

and that there are sufficient funds available on the

card/card account at the time of the request to meet

the purchase. Do not obtain authorisation for the

purpose of setting aside a cardholder’s credit line for

use in future sales.

Nature of Goods/Services - If you change the nature of

in your business, such as a change in the type of legal

entity, a change in ownership, directors or partners, a

change of address/contact details or a change in bank

account details. You must also inform us of any

insolvency event (or impending insolvency event) or any

actual or impending sale or other disposal of all or any

material part of your business.

Submission of Transactions - Please note that the end-

your terminal every day on which transactions are

General guidelines for card acceptance are detailed

below, but when carrying out a sale or refund using your

terminal please refer to the Terminal User. Either your

terminal or Terminal User Manual will advise you

whether you or your customer inserts the card into the

terminal or PIN Entry Device (PED).

In normal circumstances, card acceptance will be via

Chip and PIN (personal identification number).

However, some cardholders may still need to provide

authorisation by way of signature. You must not refuse

to accept these cards.

A customer must never disclose their PIN to you and

they should be encouraged to shield the PIN Pad when

it and the cardholder in sight throughout the

transaction process.

• The terminal should then request the cardholder to

enter their PIN. If it does not, follow the terminal

prompts.

• Ask the cardholder to enter their PIN after they have

checked the transaction amount is correct.

automatically, however if it does not, follow the

terminal prompts.

or PED and give them their copy of the receipt along

they should be advised to contact their Card Issuer.

Faulty card: A terminal will usually attempt to read the

data on a chip three times. If unsuccessful after three

attempts, the terminal may default to a magnetic stripe

transaction.

Only use a signature to verify a transaction when

absolutely necessary. This occurs primarily when the

card does not support Chip and PIN authentication or

the cardholder is unable to use PIN verification. The

If we offer E-commerce in your market and you wish to

• Card issue number (if applicable).

• Cardholder name as it appears on the card.

• Terms of Business – Clear details that establish what

• Return/Exchange/Refund Policy – the rules by which

appears on their billing statement.

• Shipping/delivery address if different from the billing

address.

• The three-digit Card Security Code (CSC) also known

as the CVV2, which appears at the end of the

signature strip (if your terminal is capable of checking

CVV2 data).

You should then refer to your Terminal User Manual and

The CVV2 is a three-digit number printed on credit and

AVS checks the registered billing address given by the

cardholder against the address held by the card issuer.

This is undertaken by way of the numeric within the

postal address e.g. house number and numbers within

the postal code.

Please note that it may not be possible to undertake AVS

checks on all addresses e.g. some overseas and even if

CVV2 and AVS checks are unmatched, the transaction

may still be authorised. It is your decision to accept or

decline a transaction and even if a full match is given, this

securely as possible - Chip and PIN if the cardholder is

present, or in the case of MOTO with CVV2 verification,

you must not keep the CVV2 to process future

payments.

You must not offer recurring transactions to your

customers unless this has been specifically approved

as part of your payment services application.

You must obtain written cardholder permission allowing

you to take regular payments from their card and this

should always be kept on file for the duration of the

upon request. The information contained within the

written authority, which must include a statement to

• Card number.

• Payment pattern.

Note: Please remember that if you collect personal data

case they wish to cancel a recurring transaction and:

• Check for receipt of requests for cancellation or non-

renewal of services paid for with a recurring

transaction each day;

• If you receive a cancellation request too late to

Please refer to your Terminal User Manual for guidance

on how to process refunds as this will depend upon the

type of terminal you have, however please be aware of

• Only process a refund to the card on which the original

transaction took place;

original purchase by matching the last four digits of

the card number to those printed on the original

terminal receipt;

refund a card where the original payment was by

other means e.g. cash or cheque; and

Know your staff – Obtain and check references for all

staff hired, including temporary and short-term cover.

Ensure your staff have the appropriate authority to

undertake transactions, including sales, reversals

and refunds.

Training - You must provide appropriate training for

staff so they are able to recognise suspicious

cardholder activity and/or orders – they are your first

line of defence against fraud. You should adopt in-

house procedures so that staff know what to do if any

or its partner, a sales agent representing Planet or your

terminal supplier, never allow them access to your

terminal without having independently validated who

they are, by for example, contacting us using a phone

number or e-mail address already known to you and not

one provided by the individual.

If you receive an unsolicited phone call (or visit from any

individual) asking that you call a specific phone number

Fraudsters are known to use these tactics in order to

obtain card information.

Do not act upon any phone instructions that ask you to

process “test” transactions, specifically refunds, which

are claimed to be required to resolve an alleged issue

with the terminal that is unknown to you. If you process

a refund of this nature the funds will be paid to the card

and debited from your bank account.

• Make sure surfaces around the till area are clear so

that any unauthorised attachments or recording

devices can be easily identified, including mobile

phones.

• Complete regular checks on all equipment to ensure

that no tampering has taken place.

Always use Chip and PIN authentication whenever

possible as this is the most secure way for you to accept

transactions. Never process a transaction by swiping

transaction is being undertaken, especially during the

• If an authorisation code has been manually entered

into the terminal, it will state that on the receipt. If you

has been entered, you must cancel the transaction

and complete a new transaction.

• Be aware of ‘out of the ordinary’ purchases e.g.

the bulk purchase of random goods or of clothes in

varying sizes. Most customers take care when making

a purchase and try clothing on, whilst a fraudster is

more likely to be careless and hasty and will look to

buy goods that they can easily re-sell.

If transactions are undertaken by way of magnetic strip

and signature or PKE make sure that:

appears on the strip, it may indicate that the original

signature has been removed. If the signature is in felt-

tip pen it may be over-writing the original, which

should be in ballpoint pen;

• The cardholder’s signature matches that on the card;

match those on the front of the card.

Given the increased risk posed by CNP transactions, you

and your staff should be aware of the warning signs that

may indicate that a transaction or transactions may be

• Unmatched CVV2 and/or AVS data - consider

undertaking additional checks to verify the

transaction and/or rejection of it;

• Multiple orders on the same or different card numbers

from the same customer;

equipment (televisions, computers, mobile phones),

• A request for urgent delivery when any additional

• Orders where the cardholder billing country, IP

country and card issuer country do not match;

CVV2 and AVS checking and for E-commerce

You may also wish to consider screening your

Alternatively, your PSP may offer a fraud screening

service or you may wish to consider using third party

transaction screening tools.

decides that they want to collect the goods from your

business, they must attend in person and produce the

payment card. You should then reverse, cancel or

• A chargeback for ‘credit not processed’ will be raised

by the customer and you will usually be unable to

card cannot be read and/or the magnetic stripe is

damaged.

• The customer will then suggest you manually enter

the card number into your terminal. This may either

be taken from the front of the card or may be given

to you by the customer themselves.

the card and suggest the customer speaks to their card

issuer to obtain a replacement card.

for your own business’ operations. Another common

fraud type is as follows:

process transactions on behalf of a third party

reclaim funds on behalf of a cardholder in respect of a

transaction that has been processed by a merchant.

This may occur if the cardholder or card issuer disputes

the validity of a transaction. When a transaction is

disputed the card issuer and Planet operate to clearly

defined Card Scheme regulated procedures

to manage the dispute and establish whether funds

should be retained by the merchant or returned to

the cardholder.

fraudulently, without their knowledge or without their

specific authority;

• The original transaction required authorisation but

this was not obtained;

• The cardholder does not recognise the transaction

from the information on their statement, such as the

amount, the merchant ‘doing business as’ name or the

location;

• A service or recurring transaction authority has not

been cancelled, despite the cardholder’s request to

transaction; or

expected service has not been supplied or the quality

of the goods/service is different to that advertised.

You have the right to dispute a chargeback and to do so

you will need to supply us with information and evidence

to prove that the transaction was authentic, authorised

and undertaken by the genuine cardholder. We will

consider any information you supply and attempt to

dispute the chargeback when appropriate, but cannot

guarantee this will be successful and will ultimately

depend on whether the evidence provided meets the

A Chargeback or Copy/Retrieval Request (also known

as a Request for Information or RFI), is a request for

the Copy/Retrieval Request notice and ten days to

respond to the Chargeback notice. If the Copy/Retrieval

Request is not acted upon within this period, the issuer

can raise a Chargeback and your account will be debited

for the disputed transaction amount.

In response to a Chargeback or Copy/Retrieval Request,

you must send a legible copy of the requested receipt or

file along with any other transaction information you

have to your local Planet office. If Copy/Retrieval

Requests are incompletely fulfilled or not fulfilled within

documentation should contain all the information

available about the transaction, such as, but not limited

• Card number (the first 6 and last 4 digits only).

• Card expiry date.

• Authorisation code.

• Merchant name.

• Description of the goods or services/merchandise or

services sold.

• Merchant contact information/Merchant Location

(On Line Address).

• Cardholder name and address (primarily for MOTO and

E-commerce transactions).

• Billing address.

• Shipping address.

• Address verification response code.

• Cardholder telephone number or email address.