New CyberSource Recurring Billing Service Targets Revenue Leaks, Identity Theft

The resulting subscription relationships can yield a higher lifetime value per customer, a lower cost of sales, lower payment risk, more predictable revenue streams, and in some cases, lower banking costs. But recurring billing systems do present challenges to merchants in the form of payment failures and security risks, two areas specifically targeted by the new CyberSource service and its TotalCollect payment technology. Current recurring billing systems can cause revenue loss when subscriptions needlessly terminate mid-term due to temporary payment failures such as expired credit cards and authorization problems. CyberSource data indicate that, left unmanaged, up to 10% of a merchants annual subscription base can be affected by this problem. The CyberSource solution combats this problem with new TotalCollect payment technology. This new system draws upon the companys years of payment data experience to automatically initiate actions to re-capture failed payments with the minimum number of authorization requests. It can automatically fix problems associated with expiration dates and authorization failures, and flags transactions as recurring to ensure merchants receive the best possible processing rate. The result -- fewer payment failures, lower costs, and more revenue captured and kept by merchants. Self-built recurring billing systems, common in the industry, require merchants to store and manage their own customer data, including card numbers and other sensitive payment data. Companies using such systems run serious risk of exposing their customers data to illegal use. Merchants employing the CyberSource solution have their cardholder data securely stored for them at CyberSource. CyberSource is fully compliant with the industrys most stringent payment security requirement, the VISA Cardholder Information Security Program (CISP). More information on VISA CISP can be found at www.visa.com/cisp. New CyberSource Enterprise Business Center The Recurring Billing Service is being introduced as an integrated component of CyberSources new Enterprise Business Center (EBC). The EBC presents an easy-to-use management dashboard that allows CyberSource merchants a far easier method of configuring and self-managing their payment processing. EBC tools and resources include a virtual terminal (which merchants can use to enter orders received via customer service call centers or via mail order departments), transaction search and reporting screens, user administration and account configuration tools. All of these are supported via an easily accessible self-help support knowledge base. CyberSource Recurring Billing Service details -- Supports subscription and installment payments in multiple currencies made with Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, electronic checks, and some country-specific cards. -- Offers a full spectrum of payment schedule options including weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-weekly, quarterly, twice-yearly, and yearly. -- Allows merchants to establish and manage accounts via CyberSources standard application programming interface or the new CyberSource Enterprise Business Centers Web-based interface. -- Offers administration and reporting capability. -- Gives merchants a single source for all their payment needs (Recurring Billing Service is part of a complete suite of integrated services for payment, risk and compliance management). More information on CyberSource Recurring Billing Service can be found at (http://www.cybersource.com/recurring_billing).