To help combat the increasing incidence of credit card fraud that is impacting the profits of retailers, Credit Reporting Agency has added the National Chargeback Register to its online commercial credit reporting services.
Chargebacks happen when a card user asks the card issuer to refund a transaction because they claim their card has been lost or stolen. Originally designed to help protect the consumer, chargebacks are increasingly being used by fraudsters and are having a serious impact on retailer profits. Transactions over the internet, by telephone and mail order are particularly vulnerable, where the retailer has no ability to challenge the dispute, even if it is clearly fraudulent.
"For most retailers, chargebacks are a growing problem" confirmed Tom Telford of Credit Reporting Agency. "Goods are sold and dispatched after being purchased by credit card. Then, often without warning, the transaction is reversed because the cardholder denies using the card, or denies receiving the goods.
"By sharing information about chargebacks, for the first time retailers can check to see whether a card has a history of charging back. This will enable them to make a more informed decision on whether or not to accept the card for payment. If fraudulent chargebacks can be detected, the losses incurred will no longer have to be passed on to genuine consumers, and that can only be a good thing, not only for retailers but also for the man in the street".
To use the service, retailers just log-on to www.creditreporting.co.uk to register their details. After passing a security check they can then search a wide variety of databases for commercial credit reports. Searches of the National Chargeback Register are free, providing the retailer logs details of its own chargebacks. If they don't want to log their own chargebacks they can still have access to the register, at a cost of 25p per search.
Delivery of information is online and is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Credit Reporting Agency's commercial services have been developed in response to the needs of smaller businesses for an Internet based commercial credit reporting service. This includes the ability to search individuals, sole traders, partnerships and limited companies from the same website.
Says Tom Telford: "Credit Reporting Agency is already the established market leader in the provision of online reports to consumers, through its website checkmyfile.com. By adding free services such as the National Chargeback Register to our existing commercial services, we are demonstrating similar market innovation and are able to provide our customers with inexpensive, comprehensive and easily accessible information to help them manage risk.
"The new National Chargeback Register service also gives welcome protection for consumers" adds Telford. "The real casualty of fraudulent chargebacks is always the genuine consumer, as inevitably the cost is added to retail prices."