Notes on payments, WooCommerce and merchant accounts.
Three subjects: setting up NMI properly, running payments day to day, and understanding what your processing actually costs. No news, no product announcements dressed as articles.
Apple Pay domain verification: every reason it fails
Why Apple Pay domain verification fails, from redirects and dot directory rules to CDN caching, plus what to check when the domain verifies and the button still will…
Read →Rolling reserves: why processors hold your money, and how to get out of one
What a rolling reserve is, what triggers one mid contract, how to get it reduced or capped, and how to model it in cash flow instead of treating…
Read →MCC codes: how your category sets your rates, your risk and your declines
What a merchant category code does, the codes online sellers usually get, what the wrong one costs, how to check yours and when to run two merchant IDs.
Read →Surcharging, cash discount and dual pricing: the rules before you switch it on
The difference between surcharging, cash discount and dual pricing, the card network requirements, how state law shapes the display, and how to implement it cleanly at checkout.
Read →PCI DSS 4.0 for online stores: SAQ A vs SAQ A-EP in plain English
The difference between SAQ A and SAQ A-EP, what PCI DSS 4.0 added for every merchant, and the checklist that keeps a WooCommerce store in the shorter questionnaire.
Read →Chargeback reason codes, and how to actually win a representment
The four families of chargeback reason codes, what evidence wins each one, what belongs in a representment packet, and which disputes are worth fighting at all.
Read →What tokenisation really is, and why the card number never touches your server
Gateway tokens against network tokens, what happens to a card at the checkout, what a token can and cannot do, and the merchant initiated flag that causes mystery…
Read →AVS and CVV response codes, and which ones are worth declining
What each AVS and CVV response code means, which ones justify a decline, which ones are silence rather than failure, and why sending both lowers your interchange.
Read →ACH return codes R01 to R29: what broke, and what to do next
A practical guide to ACH return codes: which are retryable, which are administrative, the network ratio thresholds you must stay under, and the authorisation record that defends an…
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