Is there an acceptable third party software or other acceptable methods to retain customers credit card information?
What are others doing to retain credit card information for recurring non standard charges from customers?
Answers
Anon
There are some legal requirements, some contractual requirements and some customer reputation factors to comply with.
Look up https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pci_security/completing_self_assessment for starters.
What accounting/ecommerce system are you using? What card processor does it work with? They know how to be PCI DSS compliant.
Where are you storing credit card info today? Is the data encrytped?
If customers are concerned about how well you secure their information, or you suffer a data breach/hack and they incur unauthorized charges, it may harm your business.
If you need more info, I can introduce you to a professional colleague who is well experiences in this area.
Regards
The top banks should allow you to use their payment gateways online. Two of the gateways I know are Paymentech and Cybersource. They allow businesses to store credit card information online in a legal, secure way, and set up recurring automatic payments.
You can also ask your credit card processor for a tokenization solution, Here is a good introduction to credit card tokenization
https://www.3dsi.com/blog/credit-card-tokenization-101