Cash Handling-Credit Card Procedures

Home Browse Search

Section I: Purpose The purpose of this policy is to establish guidelines to ensure safe handling and processing of debit/credit cards for security and compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). In response to increasing incidents of identity theft, the fiv e major payment card companies (American Express, Discover, JCB, Master Card, and Visa) formed the PCI Security Standards Council, an internally created organization that dictates data security standards by which merchants must adhere to when accepting credit cards . The PCI DSS was enacted to help identify and prevent theft of customer data, and is applicable to all businesses that accept payment cards to procure goods or services. Merchant compliance with this Standard is required and enforced by the payment card companies and generally, noncompliance is discovered when an organization experiences a security breach that includes cardholder data. Security breaches can result in serious consequences, including release of confidential information, damage to reputation, the asses sment of substantial fines, possible legal liability, and the potential loss of the ability to accept credit card payments. 'cclion 2: J>olicy The County has adopted the following policy and departmental procedures for all types of credit card activity transacted in-person where the County appears as the merchant. Individual departments may determine if it is necessary or feasible to accept payments via credit/debit cards by considering the volume and frequency of payments received. All transactions that involve the transfer of credit card information must be performed on systems that are hosted by a PCI compliant provider. cction 3: pccil1c Policy Provi ions 1) Types of cards accepted. Departments may only accept merchant cards from credit card associations that have agreements with the vendor(s) utilized by the County. 2) Transaction or convenience fees. A transaction fee (convenience/processing fee) shall be charged to cover the cost of permitting a person to complete a credit card transaction and is paid to the vendor, not the county. Pursuant to RCW 36.29 .190, a payer desiring to pay by a credit card, charge card, debit card, smart card, stored value card, federal wire, automatic clearinghouse system, or other electronic communication shall bear the cost of processing the transaction as a nominal fee set forth by the vendor. This fee is typically assessed as a percentage of the transaction amount. Section 4: Responsibilitie.! of Department · Departmental responsibilities in the acceptance of the credit/debit cards include the following: 1) Funding the initial equipment lease. 2) Installation of equipment and training of employees . 3) Management of the system, including the following: required receipting, procedures, reconciliation, charge- backs, and communication with the processor. 4) Credit card transactions shall only be performed by authorized staff. 5) The employee handling the credit card transaction must verify the signature on the card or observe a picture ID. 6) An authorization approval code must be obtained from the merchant card processor, with real time authorization being the preferred method or telephone authorization as an alternative . 7) If authorization is not received the card cannot be accepted and an alternative means of payment will be required. 8) If fraud is suspected the procedures in County Policy 17 Identity Theft Prevention Program shall be followed. Page 3 of 8 Pages Effective _____ . 2019