Category Archives: Card Features

Optimum billing practices with Intevacon

The Intevacon fleet card system is unique in that our petroleum marketers have a direct relationship with their cardholders, and each parameter of our system is customizable according to our individual petroleum marketer’s business rules.  The Intevacon system is a reflection of years of experience in this industry, plus the expert feedback from our customers.

Intevacon is successful when our customers are successful, and we know that tightening the window of receivables can help keep your fleet business growing and profitable.

Below are four areas that can be controlled for optimum billing practices.

  • Billing cycle: a shorter billing cycle keeps total receivables at a manageable number and decreases risk
  • Payment Terms: shorter payment terms ensure that you are paid quickly and that your receivables are kept in check
  • Finance Charges: for payments that are not made in a timely manner, you can set the finance charge rate, and apply it to delinquent customers
  • Credit Limits: set credit limits on all of your customers, or on select customers to ensure that charges remain within a comfortable threshold

Intevacon petroleum marketers may choose to provide fleet card services to all different types of accounts: commercial, consumer, government, etc.–and each of these customer types presents different needs, credit risks, and business rules.  With Intevacon, you can provide the best in fleet card services while also protecting your bottom line and growing your business.

The average fleet card purchase with Intevacon is 3-4 times greater than a general non-fleet card purchase.  Take advantage of this huge customer base by offering a fleet card through Intevacon’s online system.  To find out more about our services, contact us at 678-739-4450 or moreinfo@intevacon.com.

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The Solution is Transparent

According to NACS, transparency is the new cultural cool. Yep, we agree that transparency is theshutterstock_48834 way to do business, but it’s nothing new to us. We conduct business with our customers with total transparency, and we’ve created a system that allows our petroleum marketers to do the same with their fueling customers. “Nearly five in 10 millennials say they return to brands they trust, according to a Concentric Marketing survey. Then, if they trust the product they bought and like it—more than eight in 10 say they’ll tell their friends about it […],” says the NACS article titled Crystal Clear.

According to an article recently written by Shane Dyer of Fuel Marketer News, fees have been increasing for many fleet card users due to fleet card processors buffering their pockets for the expected decline in fuel prices. Intevacon has maintained the same monthly access fee schedule since it was started in 2010.  There are no additional interchange fees, site fees, or any other type of fee imposed on our customers to process transactions.  Intevacon respects our customers, and we operate with integrity and transparency, regardless of fuel prices.

The way that Intevacon can help petroleum marketers enhance transparency is through the tools available in our system. Petroleum marketers are able to offer their fueling fleet customers with detailed reports, both on their invoices and through other special reports. Fleet customers have access to prompts that make transaction details clear as to which vehicle and driver was involved in a transaction, as well as odometer readings and product restrictions. What is more, online user access means that petroleum marketers can provide real time transaction information to their fleet customers, as well as the tools to update driver and vehicle information in real time.

When business owners are able to see clearly how their drivers are fueling their vehicles, they are more confident in their relationship with the petroleum marketer. “Instead of being scared by transparency, businesses should embrace it as way to improve service and increase customer loyalty,” says Entrepreneur.com in an article that also describes how employees are happier when businesses operate daily operations with transparency.

If you are looking to automate your house charges or switch fleet card providers, we’d love to talk to you about the Intevacon system at 678-739-4450 or moreinfo@intevacon.com.

Respond instead of being Re:swiped

registerSwipe fees recently made another public appearance in the news. Retailers have petitioned the high court to reconsider its March 2014 decision, which upheld debit card swipe fees at 21 cents per transaction as reasonable. This has been a hot topic for all retailers, with NACS being a large player representing the convenience store sector in this battle. Petroleum marketers want the limit lower than 21 cents for obvious reasons. Swipe fees—credit card and debit card—are reported as the second largest operating cost for petroleum marketers, just behind the cost of labor.1

The legal battle with swipe fees has been centered on the Dodd-Frank law passed in 2010 regarding debit card fees. The overall battle with swipe fees, however, encompasses more than just debit card swipe fees. Credit card fees were about 7 cents per gallon in 2011, averaging about 2% per transaction.1 PayPal has an even higher rate starting at 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.2

Margins on petroleum in this industry are already small, so any percentage “swiped” by credit card processors has a big impact to petroleum marketer operations. Mastercard and Visa have been named in the current swipe fee lawsuit, but they are by no means the only card processors in the gouging game. Nearly three quarters of all transactions made at the pump are made with plastic—think about how that equates in total swipe fees.3

Intevacon is a proprietary card processor but we offer more services to the petroleum marketer than the standard credit card company. More important to your bottom line, our pricing lets the petroleum marketer keep his/her margins. Convert one of your current Mastercard or Visa customers to a local house account and automate the process through Intevacon.  We offer an online system that empowers the petroleum marketer with all of the controls needed to manage and grow his/her fleet accounts. We also provide the petroleum marketer an advantage to capture loyal fleet accounts by offering the option of online access to the cardholder. Intevacon succeeds when our customers succeed.

Converting cardholders who currently pay with a standard credit card or debit card to the Intevacon fleet card or prepaid card reaps huge savings every month. If a petroleum marketer converted $1.5 million of his current monthly business to the Intevacon fleet card, the savings from a standard credit card transaction fee of 2% would be approximately $340,200 a year or $1.36 million over four years. The higher the dollar volume on the Intevacon fleet card, the greater the savings from swipe fees. Supplement the fleet card with the prepaid card to get even higher returns and increase cash flow.table

Swipe fees may be a necessary evil for a certain percentage of fueling customers, but there is a large cohort of cardholders who would benefit from the advantages of carrying a fleet card. Get to know your customer base and grow your business with Intevacon.

 

  1. “Credit and Debit Card Fees.” NACS. Web. April 2014. http://www.nacsonline.com/Research/FactSheets/IndustryIssues/Pages/CreditCardFeesaGrowingChallengeforConvenienceStores.aspx
  2. Paypal. Web. June 2014.  https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees
  3. “2013 Retail Fuels Report.” NACS. 2013. Web. May 2014. http://www.nacsonline.com/YourBusiness/FuelsReports/GasPrices_2013/Documents/CFR2013_FullReport.pdf

Payment Card Security

 The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.  Henry Ford

While Henry Ford’s quote is true, we’d like to suggest that there are a few other ways to be secure.  Payment solutions have long been a target for security fraud, but with the right precautions, your fleet anStateLibQld_1_114904_Doctor_and_Mrs_David_Hardie_in_their_Model_T_Ford_automobile,_ca__1913d prepaid users can protect themselves and build trust with your brand and your processes.  Because our fleet and prepaid cards connect to our host for processing, all cards issued by our marketers must be used at a recognized site associated with the card issuer.  This adds an additional layer of exclusion for any inappropriate card activity.  In addition, the Intevacon Fleet Card and Prepaid Card can be restricted with a unique PIN number to help protect card users from fraud. 

Card fraud can occur in many different ways.  The biggest way that marketers can protect their cardholders is to enforce PINs for each card.  The approach for security between fleet cards and prepaid cards differs due to the nature of the relationship between the marketer and the card user.  Fleet Card account holders can manage their accounts and create PINs for fleet card users within the Intevacon system by assigning either an explicit PIN for the card or a driver PIN for the driver.  In addition, fleet cardholders can work with card issuers to apply restrictions based on the transactions that are expected on the card.  Purchase limits also ensure that a dollar amount never exceeds the expected value for the account. 

Prepaid Cards, however, involve an anonymous relationship with the card user, and therefore, it is important to order prepaid cards with PINs already assigned.  While PINs are not required for Prepaid Cards, we highly recommend this additional layer of protection.  Each Prepaid card number is provided to the marketer with both a PIN and a reference number—both of these numbers are important for card users who need to report a card as missing or stolen.    We recommend that Marketers order cards with a key tag that includes a scratch off of the PIN and reference number.  An example of this design can be found here.  Aside from protecting the integrity of the card, PINs also instill confidence with card users and therefore encourage use of the card.  Confidence is important for fleet users, but we find it to be a critical element for Prepaid users.  It is also a critical element in protecting cashiers from the temptation or the accusation of fraudulently accessing funds or loading funds onto the Prepaid Card.  Remember, the Prepaid Card functions as cash, so without the restriction of a PIN, anyone is able to make purchases with the card.

While proprietary fleet and prepaid cards are not usual targets for fraud, the statistics of card fraud in general should give card users caution.  According to the Nilson report, issuers, merchants, and acquirers of credit, debit, and prepaid general purpose and private label payment cards worldwide experienced gross fraud losses of $11.27 billion in 2012, an increase of 14.6% from the previous year.1  Another universal method of protection includes concealing the card number and PIN from observation—when typing the PIN number at the register or at the pump, suggest that your card users cover the keypad to block any viewers or cameras from capturing the PIN.  Skimmers and video cameras have been cited as methods that criminals use to capture card information.2  Lastly, partner with your card users to monitor card transactions for any unusual activity.  Fleet cardholders can access transactions in real time through our system, and Prepaid users can view transactions at this website as long as they have a PIN.  By keeping an eye on reports, card users will be able to detect unusual activity and inactivate cards in real time.

While we continue to have faith in humanity, we cannot help but advise that marketers and card users protect themselves with the easy and available methods of protection offered through the Intevacon System.