Best Practices for Accepting eGift Card Sales Online
With eGift Cards sales, the customer doesn’t have to be physically present. Since you can’t physically verify that the person making the transaction is the cardholder, we recommend taking the steps listed below to minimise the risk of payment disputes.
Know Your Customer
If an eGift Card purchase is made for a larger amount than you’re used to, you can email the buyer to confirm the purchase. You can find the email address of the buyer (not the recipient) on the receipt in the Transactions section of your Square Dashboard.
Switch off your eGift Card site when not in use
If you don’t want to accept online orders for eGift Cards, you can easily switch this site off temporarily. To do so:
Go to Gift Card in your online Square Dashboard.
Select eGift Cards > Configure.
Toggle off Sell eGift Cards Online.
Note: You can head back to your online Square Dashboard to toggle it back on when you’re ready. You are also able to toggle the ability to turn on Bulk eGift Card ordering on/off here.
Multiple Transactions
You can limit the maximum load amount on gift cards, however if you notice a higher amount of eGift Card sales than you’re used to, you can contact the buyers and confirm their purchases. If you can’t confirm the purchase, or if you receive an unusual response, you might consider refunding the payment and clearing the gift card from your online Square Dashboard or Square POS app. Remember, you are able to configure a maximum amount to be loaded on your gift cards on your Gift-Card Settings page in your Square Dashboard.
Payment Disputes
Although following these guidelines can reduce your chances of facing a dispute, there is always a potential risk when accepting debit or credit card payments. If a customer does dispute a payment, Square will represent you in the dispute process free of charge, and our team of specialists will use their expertise to help you along the way. Learn more about the disputes process. We also suggest that you familiarise yourself with how to protect yourself from scams and fraud.
Risk Manager
Square’s Risk Manager feature is a tool that helps you spot and manage potential fraud from online payments you process with Square, including purchases of eGift Cards online. You can create rules in Square Dashboard to trigger your own fraud alerts or to automatically decline suspicious payments. When you set up risk alerts, you can view additional details about suspicious payments, as well as options to issue a refund, block the payment card or dismiss the alert.
Risk Manager is currently in beta testing. If you’d like to participate or learn more, please email the Beta Team on [email protected] to let us know.
Note: Although this article is designed to help prevent payment disputes, the risk of a payment dispute is present with all card payments. Sellers will continue to be liable for all payments they accept and the disputes they receive. Square is not assuming liability for payments, regardless of the risk evaluation that is delivered. Please see our Terms of Service for further information.