Angela Margolit, President, Bluebird Auto Rental Systems
Element removes some of the guesswork, with CardSense™, an innovative, PCI DSS compliant payment processing technology, which allows independent software vendors (ISVs) to provide customers with the ability to identify a cardholder’s payment card type prior to processing a transaction. Based on this information, merchants can make informed decisions on how to handle payments resulting in risk reduction, lower transaction fees and improved overall operational costs. Industries that require and/or could benefit from card type identification include, but are not limited to, car rental, lodging, healthcare and retail.
How it Works
After an ISV’s business management software is integrated to Element’s Express Processing Platform to support CardSense™, merchants simply swipe or manually key a customer’s card as normal. Your software application then receives an identifier that allows the merchant to distinguish between a PIN debit, prepaid debit or a healthcare card. This information can then help determine how to proceed with processing the payment transaction.
CardSense™ works by evaluating Bank Identification Numbers (BINs), a six-digit number identifying the financial institution issuing the card. BINs are issued by Visa and MasterCard to bank card issuers. BINs are part of any Visa and MasterCard card number. In addition to the BINs, Visa and MasterCard reserve a portion of the card account number to identify the type of card, i.e. credit card ranges and PIN-debit card ranges. Visa and MasterCard make these ranges available to their member financial institutions in the form of BIN range tables. Element’s CardSense™ is a hosted, server-based, BIN management service, which allows merchants to differentiate between PIN-debit, prepaid, and FSA/HSA cards.
CardSense™ does not require additional hardware to utilize and is designed to be fully integrated with your point-of-sale (POS) application. And, incorporating CardSense™ into your software application is easy. Simply complete integration and certification to Element Express (which include CardSense™) and begin offering this PCI DSS compliant solution to your customers.
To get started with CardSense™, email or call an Element Payment Services customer service representative at 1.866.435.3636.