PCI Compliant

FastCasual.com has a good article on “PCI Compliance”

“The credit-card industry including Visa USA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover are cracking down on restaurants and merchants in an effort to better protect cardholder data.”

PCI compliance is being enforced vigorously. Many chains have taken an aggressive stance because they realize that a breach at any one of their locations puts the entire system at risk. The risk of course is non participation in the credit card payment system. That would be a death knell for any business in the 21^st Century as customers are making $0.36 purchases with debit or credit cards. Single unit operators must be certain that there stand alone credit card machines are compliant.

The industry has come a long way from the messy carbon copies and we still have a ways to go because customers are vigilant about their accounts. The ability to view transactions online has helped and hindered. Customers do not understand the concept that the issuers have of holding an account after authorization has been given. Many a restaurant accountant has had to explain to an angry guest, that their card was charged the correct amount by the restaurant and it’s the credit card issuer who has added additional amounts to the hold waiting for the batch from the restaurant.

It is very important that you as a restaurateur make certain your establishment is PCI Compliant!