What Is a Card-Not-Present (CNP) Transaction and Why Does It Costs More

In today’s digital world, if a customer doesn’t have a form of payment in hand, they can still make purchases. How? Making a purchase without being physically present is called a card-not-present (CNP) transaction.

What is a card-not-present transaction?

A card-not-present (CNP) transaction occurs when neither the cardholder nor the credit card is physically present at the time of the transaction. It’s most common for orders that happen remotely — over the phone or by fax, internet, or mail.

A transaction is only considered to be “card present” if payment details are captured in person, at the time of the sale.

Examples of card not present transactions

There are a number of CNP transactions that you probably come across everyday. They include:

• Online purchases, when a customer buys goods on the internet or through an e-commerce transaction.
• Phone orders, when a customer provides the credit card information over the phone to your business.
• Recurring payments that are set up to bill automatically.
• Invoices that are paid online.
• Card on File Payments, when a customer has provided a continuous authorization on a credit card

How much does it cost to process credit cards remotely?

Just like processing credit cards in person, your business will have to pay to process CNP payments. As a refresher, the three types of credit card processing fees that make up your rate are interchange fees, assessment fees (charged by card brands like Visa and Mastercard), and your payment provider’s markup.

Generally, interchange fees are higher for CNP transactions because the chance of fraud and chargebacks is higher without the card present. These higher processing costs are then passed down to the merchant, which is why card-not-present transactions are usually more expensive than card-present transactions.

In 2015, CNP transactions accounted for 76 percent of all fraud in Canada. Payments experts expect this number to gradually increase with the growth and adoption of e-commerce.

Understanding card-not-present fraud and how to prevent it

Card-not-present fraud is a type of credit card scam in which a defrauder uses someone else’s compromised card information to make a remote purchase. Because both the card and cardholder aren’t physically present (and fraudsters often steal complementary information like the CVV and billing address), it can be difficult for merchants to verify the purchaser’s identity.

When CNP fraud occurs, the merchant generally bears the loss. And the costs can be staggering. It’s important to take proactive steps to stop credit card fraud — especially with CNP transactions.

According to a 2015 Merchant Risk Council (MRC) Global Fraud Survey, the two best, most commonly used methods for authenticating online transactions are card verification numbers (CVN) — the three or four digits on the back of the card — and negative lists, also known as blacklists.

The address verification system (AVS) is also a effective way to verify the address of the person claiming to own the credit card. The system checks the billing address of the credit card provided by the customer with the address on file at the credit card company. This is why most payment processors, including Square, will ask you to verify your customer’s billing address before authorizing a CNP charge.

The MRC report indicates up-and-coming tools to authenticate payments will be 3DS and device fingerprinting (like your iPhone’s home button or Face ID). To learn more about some of the CNP fraud detection tools available to you, check out this one-sheet from American Express.

Three easy ways to accept and process CNP cards with Square

With Square, there’s no need to sign up for a separate card-not-present merchant account to process online payments. Here are some of the affordable ways to process CNP transactions with Square.

• Utilize Invoices. Invoices are free to send — pay only 2.9% + 30 cents for each invoice paid. Invoices are a strong option for customers who don’t feel comfortable disclosing their payment details over the phone.
• Use Square Virtual Terminal (learn more below). This is ideal for orders taken remotely or over the phone. Transactions processed through Virtual Terminal are charged at the same rate as manually keyed-in transactions, 3.4% +$0.15 cents per transaction.
• Implement Square’s e-commerce API, which allows you to process payments with Square on your own website. A fee of 2.9% +$0.30 is applied to payments processed through Square’s E-Commerce API.

Process a card-not-present transaction with Square Virtual Terminal

Square Virtual Terminal is a free product offered by Square that lets you safely process credit cards over the phone, by fax, or by mail. Simply open your Dashboard and turn any computer into a virtual POS system — no card reader or software needed.

Here are the steps to process a CNP transaction on Virtual Terminal:

1. Sign up for your free Square account.
2. On your Dashboard screen in the left side panel, click on Virtual Terminal.
3. Click Take a Payment.
4. Enter the credit card details for the transaction. You will need to enter the final order amount along with the customer’s credit card number, expiration date, CVV, and billing postal code. The optional note field is great for leaving a personal thank you or to detail items.
5. Click Charge.