When it comes to credit card transactions or other transactions that involves the use of some third party payment methods a lot of policies are really questionable especially in an environment victimized by a lot of fraudulent activities. Why raise the issue? You might ask, it’s not something worth talking about you might emphasize. But I would say why not raise it? Nigerians are going to be issued credit cards!!! Do you know what that means?

Well I am not saying that it would be that easy for you to get that credit card or they shouldn’t be issued, because i am sure the banks are working towards ensuring that those credit cards are very difficult to obtain, through some specially crafted requirements for such an environment that is Nigeria that is. But the question I would like to ask is what about the merchants? You and me? Yes the merchants!!
Are they protected the same way? How does things like verification provides a secured and safe transaction in instances where the owner still has his card and you are offering real-time services??, or in the other case you have already shipped the item after verifying the validity of the card? What about chargeback policies, how merchant friendly are they?

Now all this questions? I keep asking a lot of people, but up till now I really have not gotten a very helpful answer even from a friend that works with interswitch Nigeria! Many of Nigerians, as in the elites or even the aspiring ones who would like to use credit cards in the future for transactions tend to not understand those policies and in fact the poor Nigerian merchant that would probably be the victim?

As a merchant, why are you in trouble or likely to be a victim of great loss. One reason mainly because all your transactions are subjected to tight rules governed by chargeback policies. Ah I forgot to mention what chargeback’s are.

A Chargeback is a payment dispute initiated by the cardholder with their credit card issuing bank. The amount of the disputed transaction is immediately withdrawn from the merchant’s bank account, and the merchant can dispute the chargeback with proof of purchase, signature, proof of delivery, etc. A chargeback fee is usually assessed to the merchant on top of the actual transaction. That is actually besides the fine the Credit companies actually charge the merchant after reaching a certain limit of having chargeback’s besides even the likelihood of losing their merchant license.

Now the duration within which a chargeback can be called for is? 60 days! Surprised yes averagely 2 months, in which the cardholder can get his or her money back. And also not forgetting the 1 month after the shipment rule, which means after you have actually shipped the product, you as a merchant, have to pay back the cardholder if the product was not delivered to the card holder.

Back to the main issue in question, what is really the problem? Stolen unreported credit cards! You might say it’s the credit cards or the issuer’s problem, but the real truth is, it is your fault as a merchant!! Says the law that governs merchant accounts!

So why should I accept Nigerian issued credit cards? One thing to know is that although Nigerian Police can be very helpful, when it comes to fake shipment addresses what happens to you? And why should the merchant go through all the hassles? So can the credit card really be of much use? If you ask me for my honest opinion all i would say is “Lets just stick to our Bank-In or Bank Transfer Method” or maybe merchants can use the “Ship Only to Billing Address”, that is minimizing the usage of the card itself. But apart from that i would say I leave it to you guys to answer.