Threats Topping Merchants

Online fraud prevention is becoming more and more critical for merchants all over the world. This article will help you with the right payments specialist that can help you compare merchant services so you can find the best protection from fraud.

Top Threats: Compare Merchant Services

Tech giants like Google and Amazon.com Inc. are using AI (artificial intelligence) technology to root out fraud. However, today’s cybercriminals are extremely sophisticated and are constantly working on better mimicking human behavior.

Being able to protect your online transactions exceptionally well is critical to your success. For this, all you need is to work with a reputable payment-processor comparison company in the UK. With a true payment expert, you can compare merchant services in the UK, based on the most reliable snapshot of companies at the time of writing.

Below you can find several fraud tactics that fraudsters are now deploying:

·      Scam Calls to Consumers

Consumers receive scam calls that are persuading them to buy gift cards. If consumers buy them online, merchants almost always end up with chargebacks.

·      Re-Shipping Schemes + ATO at the Issuing Bank

In this case, consumers become unintentionally recruited by fraudsters to receive packages for them through romance or work-from-home scams. Fraudsters often connect with their victims via social media platforms. Lots of retailers have already ended up with chargebacks for these orders.

·      Account Takeovers (ATO) via Credential Stuffing

Credential stuffing (OAT-008) can be defined as an automated threat. Its operation is based on malicious bots. The goal is to “stuff” known usernames and passwords (as a rule, obtained from data breaches) into online login pages to access users’ accounts.

·      Fraudsters Use Software to Mimic Real People’s Online Browsing/Shopping Habits

In this case, bad guys use fake personas who visit different websites, click on links and ads, and give 5-star reviews.

Fraud is a growing problem for business owners worldwide. Fraudulent card transactions cause lots of headaches, such as chargebacks, for merchants. Because of data breaches, customers can end up with compromised personal information, which will hurt your company’s image. So, being well aware of what fraud-prevention steps you should take is just a must.

Top Trading Mistakes and How to Avoid them

If you have decided to trade, then it is understood that some mistakes are unavoidable. Obviously, when you are new, you are bound to make mistakes and that’s how you will learn. But, this doesn’t mean that you should make a habit of them because these mistakes can be very costly. You need to learn from successful as well as unsuccessful positions. However, in order to ensure you don’t make these mistakes repeatedly, it is important to identify and understand them. Highlighted below are the top trading mistakes and how they can be avoided:

·       Not researching the markets

Some traders often open or close a position because they have received a tip or based on their gut feeling. This does yield results sometimes, but this is just a stroke of luck. You need to back these tips or feelings with market research and evidence before you commit to following up. Before opening a position, understanding a market properly is of the utmost importance. Not every market responds the same way. For instance, you cannot apply the strategies and tactics of the stock market to the crypto market as the latter is way more volatile than the former.

·       Trading without a plan

During your time in the market, the trading plan acts as a blueprint. This plan contains a strategy, amount of capital you want to invest, and time commitment. It is tempting to scrap your plan if you have had a bad day in the market, but you have to remember that a bad day doesn’t mean that there is something wrong with the plan. Stick to your trading plan in the long-term and only adjust it as per market conditions when required.

·       Not cutting your losses

It is a grave error to let losing trades continue in the hope that the market will turn. If you fail to cut your losses, it will wipe out any other profits you might have made elsewhere. This is particularly true for short-term trading or day-trading because these techniques depend on quick market movements for making a profit. While some losses are inevitable in the world of trading, you can use stops for closing a position that’s moving against the market. Likewise, you can also use a limit order for closing your trade after it has made a certain amount of profit. Brokers like Current provide their clients with different types of order to help them in minimizing their losses and maximizing profits.

·       Overexposing a position

If a trader commits too much capital to a specific market, it will be overexposed. It is natural for traders to want to increase their exposure if they believe the market will rise. However, it is important to remember that while increased exposure can give larger profits, it can also increase the inherent risk. It is an unwise trading strategy to invest in a single asset.

·       Diversify, but not over diversify

Diversifying a trading portfolio acts as a hedge in the situation where one asset’s value declines. Opening too many positions in a short amount of time is quite unwise. Diversifying a portfolio can give you higher returns, but you also have to work harder to maintain it. For instance, you will have to keep an eye on more events and news that could result in market movements. If you are just starting out, you may not want to do so. But, it shouldn’t be forgotten that a diverse portfolio can increase your exposure to any possible positive market movement. In this way, you can benefit from trends in several markets rather than depending on a single market to move favorably.

·       Not choosing the right broker or exchange

Depending on what asset you are going to trade, you have to choose a broker or exchange to do so. It is crucial for you to do your due diligence to choose the right one. The wrong one could be a fraud or scam or may simply not offer you the features or tools you need to trade profitably. There are some good ones out there, such as Currency.com exchange, which can provide you with comprehensive services. The key is to read reviews and feedback provided by others to make the right choice.

·       Not understanding leverage

Put simply, leverage is a loan given to you by a provider for opening a position. A deposit is paid by the traders, called margin, and they can get market exposure equal to as if they had opened the complete value of the position. But, it is important to remember that while leverage can boost your gains, it can also amplify your losses. Trading with leverage can seem to be quite attractive, but you need to understand its full implications before you open a position. Always weigh the pros and cons before you use leverage.

 

 

Reason to start investment and increase of your wealth

what is day trading

Do you want to know how to make earning? What is your savings for the month? Well, whenever we take any kind of things like job or business or anything else to make our life easy any interesting, so we need to update our life and by updating we will get lots of happiness that is why it is very important that we should upgrade our life towards better tomorrow and that is why most of the people run the day to night for earning money and achieve some things for their family that is why we must do any kind of work like a job.

But we know that it is very hard to fulfill our dreams by doing a job and due to this the most of the people have two choices that they either start investing money or they either live in their current condition or wait for the opportunity until they can collect the money to fulfill your dream it depends upon you. So, in today’s topic, we are going to read about how to do investment to start making money. So, we will request you to stay with us and we will hope that the content will be helpful for you.

Why investment is necessary for us?

As we know that now the world is suffering from the economic crises due to the COVID-19 which a worse disease we had ever seen from the last few decades. So, it is also affected to most of those people or industrialist which was growing well and that is why most of the people around the world had loosed their important jobs and.

That is why it is very useful for the people that they earn money and for those people who need to earn money then need to start looking for a new business or a job and that is why investment in such kind of place like NYSE: AVD  is very necessary for the people and that is why if you want to do something special then you can start making money.

So, if you start investing money then it will be beneficial for you as well as you can add your hands also behind increasing your country’s economy which is also a very necessary need for every person.

What are the benefits of investing?

There are several benefits are available for investment and those are the do investment they always look for the future because many people are needed to make lots of money for the future and the NYSE: AVD is the simplest way for investment. If you are new to the stock market and do not know what is day trading, you can check at online trading platforms.

FIVE WAYS FOR GETTING THE BEST CAR INSURANCE

Many people see car insurance as a legal requirement; premium car insurance is an investment that pays off when it is most needed. However, in addition to price, there are many factors to consider when choosing car insurance.

Car insurance sales contracts, terms, and conditions may affect your insurance rate, but may also affect the assistance you receive in the event of an accident. While you shouldn’t opt ​​for the cheapest car insurance plan, it’s worth it.

Here are five different ways to get insurance for your car without paying a leg or arm.

1.      Get covered your Bodily Liability

Liability for personal injury insurance includes provisions for other injuries. This means that if you are responsible for other injuries in an accident, the cost will be borne by your car insurance company. Not all car insurance plans are covered by liability insurance, but it is always advisable to choose a plan which will cover the basic requirements of region or province.

2.      Get covered your property damage

In any case, if you damage the property of any individual with your car so you will be liable if your car insurance system is unable to provide compensation. For example, if you have an accident in a residential region and land in someone’s letterbox, you will be happy to receive property insurance. However, this also includes damage to the car caused by your careless collision.

3.      Check out all available discounts

The companies of auto insurance have been known to take advantage of a variety of unique discounts. Ask for any discounts available and also confirm the discount you received. Some of the discounts that must be claimed include full payment discounts, homeowner discounts, and brilliant student discounts. Thus, you can be entitled to an offer or discount if you are on a protective car course and some insurance companies offer a discount on getting married, living in a retirement communal over 55, or online bill payment instead of paper bills.

However, regardless of the discount the company is offering, the final price is important so that it does not just concern the discount.

4.      Determine if damage and collisions are needed

In many cases, you have the chance to save money by giving up completely and reverse coverage. When buying insurance, you are required a different insurance type to cover the various damages type. In the event of a car accident involving another object (such as building, another car, hail or animal), extensive collision protection (often referred to as compensation and collision) can compensate you for the damage caused by the car. It also covers damage caused by flood, vandalism or fire and pays you compensation if your car was stolen.

If the car is stolen or the insurance company decides to fix it, Comp and Collision will only pay the recent market price of the car. Compare whether the cost of paying this insurance outweighs the value of changing a car. This usually happens when you are driving an old car model or if your car is miles long and no longer has a high resale price.

5.      Get proper coverage

The insurance you get is a personal choice. Find the value of your car and offset the new price with the total shipping cost. Be wise; get it if you don’t start one of them.

If you leave your car for more than 30 days, you can reduce your insurance costs by collision insurance and avoiding liability, as these costs can be paid for while driving. Collision insurance is available to prevent damage, theft, fire or natural tragedies.

If you want to stop the insurance completely, the insurance coverage is not stolen or damaged; there are gaps in your insurance coverage that may cost you more in the future; if your car has financed so the lender can ask you to get complete coverage of insurance, whether or not car is parked 24 hours a day. If you do not understand the whole discussion, contact an experienced representative.

What if you are still not satisfied with the cost of your car insurance after having evaluated all these steps? Continuous management and improvement of credit ratings and driving history can increase car insurance charges over time. If your credit rating improves or if violations of traffic rules falling your record, it’s time to buy a new policy.

You need to check every few years again to get the cheapest car insurance. Car insurance is always altering according to your past or future needs. Contact your insurance agent to review the policies or if you are not satisfied with results, ask for a quote for evaluation.

Final words

The best car insurance plans will strike a balance between price and coverage. Find out what is being covered or whatnot and compare it with online comparison techniques. So that you can see the plans of several car insurance companies at once, which can save a lot of time. Also, you should work hard to improve your creditworthiness to gradually lower your interest rate and consider attaining a full coverage for all the losses.

Best Apps That Can Help You Save Money on Groceries

You might be spending a lot of money on your food bills which can have a negative impact on your budget. How about using an app that can help you save money on your groceries and even earn money and rewards for shopping? There are different iOS apps that you can download on your iPhone for free.

Doing so can help you save a few dollars in your bank account during the current global economic crisis.

You can get the latest updates from the world of business, technology, and other walks of life using the news channels offered by WOW Cable TV. WOW offers WOW TV Guide for its cable TV users throughout America and keeps you entertained and informed in the best way. For now, let’s have a look at the different apps that can help you save and earn money when you buy your groceries:

Ibotta

This is an amazing app that can help you earn cashback when you purchase something online or from a store. You have to check out the app before you travel, dine out, shop online, or purchase something from a store. Even if you buy something using the app, you get cashback for yourself. You can find almost all the leading brands working with the app including brands and retailers like Best Buy, eBay, Safeway, etc.

The best thing about the app is that you do not have to go through the hassle of using coupons or promo codes. You can use the app to redeem offers and save a good amount when you use services like Uber, Groupon, etc.

App Store Rating: 4.8

Shopkick

The app provides users with a great way to earn rewards and gifts. You can earn rewards by scanning your receipts on different deals in the easiest way imaginable. There are multiple ways to earn reward points that are termed “kicks”. Some of them include:

You walk inside the stores and earn kicks at the entrance of selected stores.

You scan barcodes of selected products using an in-app scanner and find the right products.

You can purchase different goods and services and submit the receipt using the app.

You can earn kicks for every dollar that you spend at the partner stores with a linked credit card and earn points for shopping.

People who love to shop products and services online can also earn kicks.

You can watch videos just by staying in your room.

You can invite your friends to join this crazy app.

You can use the app to discover new products, plan your shopping trips and earn considerable rewards online. The app partners with different brands and retailers like Amazon Walmart, Starbucks, Lowe’s, Nike, Sephora, Game Stop, etc.

App Store Rating: 4.6

Fetch Rewards

This app offers a fun way to turn your receipts into gifts and cashback when you buy from your favorite retailers. All you need to do is scan your receipts or e-receipts that you get from a store or a restaurant and redeem the points earned to get gift cards. You can also make donations, enter sweepstakes, etc. If you want to earn more points, you can shop and scan receipts of featured brands, and use special offers and referrals.

You can save and earn a good amount of money by redeeming rewards from brands and stores like Home Depot, Starbucks, Chipotle, CVS, etc.

App Store Rating: 4.8

Checkout 51

This is one of the best cashback apps that can help you save a lot of money when you purchase your favorite brands, groceries, and other items. You can find different grocery offers, cashback, fuel rewards, and coupons. There are weekly deals that you can avail of on everyday items that can be used in all your favorite stores. The app can help earn cashback on gas stations like Chevron, Shell, BP, Mobile, Exxon, and many others.

There are different cashback offers that are easy to redeem by snapping a photo of your receipts and earning cashback rewards. The app uses your location in the background to deliver in-store offers at the right time. Make sure you do not use the GPS continuously as it can decrease your battery life.

App Store Rating: 4.1

Conclusion

In the end, one can say that there are so many apps and ways to save money. You can use these apps to earn rewards by referring the apps to your friends, taking snaps of the receipts, or just walking inside the store. Saving money using an app is now a reality.

How to Become an Energy Audit Certified Professional

How to Choose Energy Training Courses

Becoming an energy audit professional will position you in the job market, for the coming explosion in different energy technologies. You’ll be able to learn about different areas specializing in various types of testing equipment that should include carbon monoxide analyzers, specialized equipment for testing blower doors, and combustion gas testers.

You’ll be able to choose a course that offers professional certification from the Building Performance Institute or the Residential Energy Services Network, and you should be aware of any prerequisites before signing up for a course. Both BPI and RESNET are leading organizations for certification for home performance energy experts and certification helps in any job search or promotion.

Types of courses that a “professional organization” will offer should include the BPI Building Analyst Professional, BPI Insulation and Air Sealing Technician, BPI Envelope Professional, BPI Multifamily Building Analyst Professional, BPI Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Professional, BPI Heating Professional, RESNET HERS Rater and the NATE Certification course.

Below is a general outline of what to expect in each course, and will ensure you are making the best choice in the energy school you choose. BPI Building Analyst Professional Built around BPI standards, this course involves energy auditing, and will give you instruction on how to analyze energy efficiency, using the approach of a house as a system. This course should provide you with the necessary knowledge, that will allow you to give homeowners a comprehensive overview of their current energy consumption, and offer options that will allow the homeowner different ways to save money through energy conservation and efficiency.

BPI Insulation and Air Sealing Technician

This course should provide you with the necessary skill set to be able to insulate a home properly, and ensure it has the necessary air seal. Learning the weatherization steps, that need to be used to fully protect a home or large building structure from outside elements, is an important part of this course. Taking sunlight, wind and different types of precipitation into account, and looking at how to effectively weatherize a structure against these, will offer homeowners and building owners significant cost savings. You should receive hands on training in this type of course, in order to be certified by the Building Performance Institute.

BPI Envelope Professional

In order to take this course, most institutions will ask you to first complete the BPI Building Analyst Professional certification course, as part of your admission to this course. Students who complete this short course will have enhanced skills, that will help both you and your company to stay in front of the competition. This course usually requires 24 hours of training, and should be set in a classroom and in field training. This course specializes in residential buildings, and should focus on enhancing the pressure and thermal envelope’s boundaries, by the use of air sealing.

BPI Multifamily Building Analyst Professional

This course offers training for you to learn how to conduct energy audits for buildings that are deemed to be multifamily housing. This is an advanced course, and will teach students the fundamentals of what building science is, and then teach them how to apply those concepts to the uniqueness they’ll find in multifamily housing in residential areas. Schools offering this course should require that you have a certification from the BPI Building Analyst program and be experienced in HVAC systems. You should be able to choose either in-class courses or webinar courses. Final testing will be conducted in a classroom environment.

Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Professional

This course will ensure that as a technician you will be able to demonstrate competency, knowledge, and the skills that are needed, to ensure energy performance is at its peak in any HVAC system. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to understand the different systems inside a home, and should be able to diagnose problems, and correct them so that the homeowner can achieve peak performance in their energy systems. You should look for a course that will include health and safety, service and repair, installation, and diagnostic testing, that include heat pump configurations and air conditioning configurations. When completed you should be able understand how systems need to be designed, maintained and serviced.

BPI Heating Professional

If you’re considering this course you should ensure that the school you choose, insists that students have first taken the BPI Building Analyst Certification, and have experience with HVAC systems. This is an intensive course and you should ensure that it includes both field training and classroom instruction, with testing in both areas. You’ll want a course that covers ventilation, system sizing, installation, system diagnostics, and the science of heating systems.

RESNET HERS Rater

RESNET is the Residential Energy Services Network, that is a system for inspecting and calculating the energy performance in a residential home. Recognized nationally RESNET created the Home Energy Rating System, and when certified by them, you’ll be considered a Home Rater, who has been trained to perform home evaluations as well as calculating energy scores for the home. Energy ratings are important to residential homes, as it’s an indication of the how well the home is rated, and offers a way for homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their dwelling, thereby offering energy cost savings. When you’ve completing this course you will hold a national designation, and will be able to offer homeowners and home construction developers, professional advice on ways to improve their rankings.

You should be taught strategies that will allow you to give professional advice to architects and builders to improve a home’s energy efficiency rating. This course has no prerequisites and participants range from the average homeowner to the energy professional.

NATE Certification

This short course will allow students to become certified in NATE Core Services, NATE Gas Furnace Service, and NATE Air to Air Heat Pumps. NATE, the North American Technician Excellence is the largest organization for certification in ventilation, air conditioning, and heating. This is a governed body and is supported by the HVAC industry. The prerequisite for this course is the Core Service test and will include a specialty exam in gas furnaces or air to air heat pumps.

The above will guide you in choosing energy courses offered by schools in your area and online. You can also look at the courses offered online by Everblue, a leading name in Energy Certification courses. They offer a wide range of courses that also include new solar technology, sustainability management, green building and LEED Certification courses.

Technician Incentive Plans

Benefits of a well designed plan

If you don’t have an effective Technician Incentive Plan in place you are missing out on one of the most powerful tools in your management arsenal to drive a high performance service department. Technician Incentive Plans, or TIPs for short, can be so powerful they can drive behavior far beyond what you might expect from an incentive plan.
And if you already have one, maybe it is time for a tune-up to make sure your TIP is driving the behavior you need to develop a profitable service department and accurately reflect your dealership’s current priorities and initiatives. Incentive plans have a shelf life and need to be kept fresh to remain effective. Just because it worked last year, or five years ago, doesn’t mean it will work this year or next.

Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of a well designed and executed TIP. First of all, and maybe the most important, is to reward your best technicians. Let’s face it, top technicians are in high demand and you can probably ill afford to lose one who already knows your product and your customers. Your TIP should reward top techs so that they will be “appreciated” and not be looking for jobs with your competition. If your TIP only does that one thing, it will probably be successful. But a good TIP will go far beyond that initiative.

One sign that we often see in a struggling service department is a high turnover of technicians. This affects the quality of work being performed and increases training costs and lowers technician efficiency. A good TIP will give techs a reason to stay, not just your top techs, but your mid-level techs as well. Retention will improve with an effective TIP.
When recruiting new technicians, a TIP can give you an edge that your competitors may not be able to offer. Highly qualified recruits, no matter what the experience level, are always impressed by and attracted to a company that offers an incentive for doing good work. And that is usually the type of new hire you want anyway.

For any service department to be profitable they must pay attention to and drive a high revenue recovery. That is they must be charging out a high percentage of their labor hours. A TIP can be a useful tool in driving a high revenue recovery. If an element of the TIP drives billable hours, you will find that non revenue hours will be minimized and thus your margins and profits will improve.

Another side benefit of a TIP is that it can provide an objective evaluation and measurement of your technicians. Too often when it comes time for a personnel review for techs we depend on subjective observations. Your Human Relations Manager will appreciate the objective nature of your technician review. A TIP, if consistently executed, will give you the data to evaluate technicians on the criteria that is being measured and monitored.

Training your technicians is absolutely vital in retaining techs and making sure that they are keeping up to date with the newest technology. If you don’t train them someone else might. Many TIPs make it easier to spot the areas that a particular technician might need more schooling. TIPs can provide the structure for evaluating the types of jobs that a technician usually does well at and the ones that he seems to struggle with. Those struggling areas need training and schooling and both the technician and department will reap the rewards if you invest in training for those areas. By determining your training needs based on known deficiencies you will be able to maximize the impact of your training dollars.

In short, TIP benefits are so numerous and potentially profitable that they should be considered by every management team. And a good TIP that is properly designed and consistently implemented will more than pay for itself, it will improve your service profitability. It should pay for itself many times over.

TIPs will promote Happier Technicians and Happier Technicians will result in Happier Customers. Happier Customers will drive service revenues and profits.

Elements of an effective plan

The most important element of any incentive program, especially one for technicians is to have 100% support and buy-in by all levels of dealership management, even at the very top. If there is any doubt about this support it is unlikely that the program will be long-lived and successful. There will definitely be times that the plan will be challenged and tested. It will be those times that this upper level support will ensure the TIP is kept intact and becomes an established program at your dealership.

Technician Incentive Plans can take the form and shape of virtually any element of the dealership that is important to management. They will promote and encourage any behavior you desire to focus on, or any combination of behaviors. What are your departmental weaknesses, your opportunities to improve? Is it Revenue Recovery? Gross Margin? Revenue? Training? Safety? Cleanliness? Teamwork and co-operation? Quality of work? An effective TIP can promote any of these and many more. But it won’t and shouldn’t do them all.

A TIP should be focused and not try to cover everything or it will not be effective. Pick no more than three areas to focus on; more will start to dilute the program. Keep people focused on these areas which will have the greatest impact. Remember, you can always change the program in the future to reflect other priorities as they become important.
No two TIPs are likely to be the same; they must reflect the differences and variations in each and every dealership. What works at one dealership may not be affective at all in another; in fact it could be counter-productive. And what works this year, may not be the right program next year. Personnel, management, the economy and goals all change on a regular basis.

Keep your TIP simple. If it is hard to understand, hard to explain or difficult to monitor, its chance of success is doubtful. If your mid level managers and technicians don’t have a full understanding and confident that it will be administered fairly and consistently it will not drive the behavior you desire. And if you have to run complicated programs or design spreadsheets that need massive input just to monitor your TIP, you are adding unnecessary burden to your staff. They probably are already busy and won’t see this as a benefit to them. By keeping it simple you have a greater chance of success. Try to use the existing data and programs from your business system if at all possible.

The execution of your TIP is critical to its eventual success. Fairness and consistency are a must. If a technician, in fact any employee, thinks that the data being collected is not accurate they will quickly loose interest in your program and the damage can be long lasting. Keep it as visible as you are comfortable with; open communication builds trust and confidence. You don’t want to take a chance that the results can be manipulated.
No matter how hard you try to design the program to be fair and drive good behavior there will be those who will try to “beat the system”. Consider the consequences of your TIP in advance. First of all try to anticipate these eventualities and keep them at a minimum. And secondly, be prepared to face them when they occur. Do not let the effectiveness of the whole program to be jeopardized by the few.

The best TIPs reward individuals, not groups. If you are trying to motivate and reward your best employees does it make sense to share the rewards with all equally. The argument can be made that a program can encourage team work, and if that is the goal, a portion of the reward can go to the group, but it should not be exclusive. A TIP should reward exceptional behavior and exceptional employees.

Some of the many areas you can measure and reward are: revenue recovery, re-do times, training levels, technician efficiency, customer satisfaction index, safety compliance and records, billable hours, response times, upsales and others as well. Just make sure the information you are gathering is easy to gather and is accurate.

If your business system does not support segmentation and your vendor does not support a standardized labor times, you might be able to get the necessary information from payroll and accounting to implement your TIP.

And when it is all working and you are having some successes make sure you celebrate them. Your TIP has achieved its goals and now it is time to enjoy it and be happy about the technicians who have achieved their goals. Share the good news.