Archive for Riley Poole

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SSL Certificiates Reviewed

Over the years, I have researched, purchased, and installed over 100 digital certificates, everything from code signing to the new EV Certificates. I must say that the price, process, and procedures vary so considerably that it’s very difficult at times to tell what’s what.
With so many to choose from, where do you go?
Best Value
Rapid SSL [...]

19Jan2008 | Riley Poole | 7 comments | Continued
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Why Visa and MasterCard are Good Bets in Any Economy

As many of you may know, MasterCard (NYSE MA) is public, has been for over a year now, and has done incredibly well in the markets. Visa is expected to go public soon, I am betting some time in late April or May of this year. As the market continues to take one hit after [...]

17Jan2008 | Riley Poole | 14 comments | Continued
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Check your Interest Rates and Grace Periods “AGAIN”

I always find it interesting when banks take an old tactic that has lost steam and just propped it up again. A few years back, many banks saw consumer backlash for holding onto payments past their grace period to ultimately charge consumers those pesky late fees. They add up, too: imagine paying $100 a month [...]

17Jan2008 | Riley Poole | 10 comments | Continued
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Are Alternative Payments causing an Alternative mess?

Anyone in ecommerce for more than a few years will tell you that adding more payment options will increase your user base. However, there isn’t one specific payment solution, short of accepting credit cards, that will dramatically increase your revenue stream. Typically, depending on the site itself, adding American Express (NYSE AXP) will increase your processing by [...]

15Jan2008 | Riley Poole | 5 comments | Continued
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Did the Holiday Rush Break UPS?

It appears as the jump in holiday shipments had caught UPS (NYSE UPS) by surprise. While UPS runs one of the largest and most technologically advanced computer systems on the planet, with operations in nearly every country, real-time satellite communications and more, it seems that didn’t help with the holiday crunch.
Most of UPS systems were [...]

13Jan2008 | Riley Poole | 6 comments | Continued
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Merchants Beware

So you are a small or even medium size merchant and trying to start your business. You go looking around for a merchant account and you find someone you think you can trust. A few days later and $1,000.00 spent and that trust is gone, along with your “deposit” or “processing fee”.
Over the past week, [...]

13Jan2008 | Riley Poole | 7 comments | Continued
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Social Security Payments at Risk

In an effort to help reduce processing costs and increase efficiency, the Social Security Administration, in association with the Treasury Department, requested bids from several banks and ultimately settled on Comerica Bank (NYSE CMA) out of Texas to provide Social Security recipients with a prepaid debit card. While prepaid debit cards have become commonplace in [...]

13Jan2008 | Riley Poole | 5 comments | Continued
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Has Google Checkout Stopped Paying Its Merchants?

There have been several unconfirmed reports now that Google Checkout payments haven’t been posted for several weeks now, and support emails are going unanswered for days on end. I am sorry guys if I kept you busy with the PCI thing last week but one word of advice, the quickest way to get a bad [...]

10Jan2008 | Riley Poole | 5 comments | Continued
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Is CitiBank Ready for a Collapse?

Think a company as large as Citigroup (NYSE C) can’t fail? Only a few months ago, one of the largest online banks, NetBank, closed its doors, leaving billions of dollars in account holder funds in question. Fortunately, the FDIC stepped in and made arrangements for ING to pick up the pieces but what if it [...]

10Jan2008 | Riley Poole | 5 comments | Continued
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Update on Google Checkout and MasterCard

Google Checkout. I am happy to report that I received confirmation from Google directly that they have taken the necessary steps to complete their PCI certification. In less than a week after our post about Google not being PCI Compliant, the good people at Google quickly responded to the matter and have completed all of [...]

9Jan2008 | Riley Poole | 7 comments | Continued
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