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No customer appreciates the embarrassment or wasted time when having a credit card transaction rejected. If there’s a genuine risk, then obviously the customer is at fault and should not have attempted the transaction in the first place. But too often, the transaction is, in fact, clearly legitimate, and only the bank’s automated, algorithmic analysis … Read more

“An auctioneer is a man who proclaims with a hammer that he has picked a pocket with his tongue.” That satirical definition by Ambrose Bierce is based on the perception that there’s something inherently “wrong” with the concept of an auction. Either the property owner earns substantially more than an item’s actual value because of … Read more

Online merchants suffer from three maddening realities when it comes to credit card charges declined by the issuers they work with. And no, we can’t list them in order of severity or frustration because they all deserve to appear at the top of the list: 1) It’s not their call. Merchants invest heavily in the … Read more

Say you’re an online merchant who’s done everything right at each step of the funnel: Ubiquitous branding. Targeted advertising. Fluid user experience on the site with a crack team of customer support agents to help when trouble or questions arise. In short, each department (marketing in particular) has done its job well and brought the … Read more

Offering Upside is Great. Introducing Risk? Not so Much. When B2C companies create products, they have the luxury of testing technologies gradually, adding and tweaking features over time, and deciding on priorities based on user feedback. That’s because they can usually depend on feedback from a broad pool of early adopters who have little or … Read more

There are plenty of ways for credit card issuers to attract new clients: Point programs, cashback, eliminating monthly fees, attractive payment plans, and more. And yes, all these tactics have a cost: they take time, money, planning, and some serious human resources to manage. And acquisition is only the first step. Next, you need to … Read more