Why You Can’t Afford to Skip PCI Compliance? – Most retail merchants don’t think about PCI compliance when running their businesses. But PCI compliance standards are among the most critical ones for any business to follow. They entail protecting everyone’s credit card data and ensuring that no one will risk losing their data because of any card details being mishandled or otherwise used differently from what one should manage.

The risks of not being compliant with Payment Card Industry standards can be devastating. You could lose significant amounts of money, plus your reputation might be in jeopardy. You may also lose much of the data you might try to manage when getting your content under control.

You can still fix your PCI compliance issues if you look at how your business operates and what fixes need to occur. You can review what an audit says and fix the problems surrounding what you find to prevent those concerns from becoming worse.

What Liabilities Can Occur?

You could be held liable for various legal issues if you fail to attain PCI compliance. An independent auditor can complete regular reviews of your business to determine if you comply with PCI rules. You may be reported as failing to meet PCI standards if you don’t pass the audit.

This point makes you legally liable for damages caused by data losses or fraud. You are being interpreted as being unable to protect customers’ data and content while online. You could lose money if you are sued for data breaches or other issues where customers’ data was lost.

Loss of Reputation

You will lose your reputation if you fail to meet PCI compliance standards. You may be interpreted as being careless or unable to consider your customers’ security needs. The issue can lead to a loss of customers if you aren’t careful.

Any business could be in jeopardy of financial harm if it doesn’t handle customers’ accounts the right way. The Target department store lost a sizable amount of business following a credit card data breach a few years back. The store chain lost business due to people being concerned about sharing their card information with Target. The issue caused the company to lose millions of dollars in a legal settlement surrounding the problem.

Unable to Find Data

You’ll need to keep enough data on your customers intact to ensure you can handle various activities. These include points like managing recurring billing efforts, contacting customers about new promotions, and offering reminders for any existing services they use. You can lose all that data if you don’t keep your PCI standards up and running. You could lose control over all your communications if you don’t manage your content well and keep everything under control well enough.

PCI standards entail managing your data and keeping everything under control. This work includes ensuring you never worry about how much money you’re handling and that you have your customer data in check. Failing to meet these standards can be a problem if you don’t manage your data well enough.

Additional Fees For Not Being Compliant

Failing to be PCI compliant can also result in you paying additional fees for not meeting these rules. Many retail merchants services can charge an annual PCI compliance fee to confirm that you meet these PCI rules. The fee pays for the cost associated with managing an audit and in inspecting different points to confirm your work.

A non-compliance fee may be higher in value and could be charged each month. An auditor will demand you pay this fee each month until you fix the issues and officially become compliant.

A non-compliance fee can be at least $5,000 per month, but it could be up to $100,000 per month if the business is more active and handles a more massive volume of transactions. The immense value may be difficult for a traditional retailer to handle.

PCI compliance is not something you should ignore. Be certain when handling your merchant account that you’re meeting all PCI rules before you become at risk of various problems surrounding not handling PCI standards the right way. You must keep everything safe to prevent any further problems from developing when managing whatever content you want to use.