Time to Get PCI-Compliant!

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We’ve received communications from CardConnect alerting us that several of our customers are presently not PCI compliant. If you aren’t in compliance, you likely got an email from CardConnect (usually every 2 weeks if you’re out of compliance and have not resolved it) with a message like this:

COMPLIANCE STATUS: INCOMPLETE
Your annual PCI compliance status requires attention!

It is important that you fix this compliance issue as soon as possible. Here, we explain the process, the importance of resolving the compliance issue, and answer a few common questions.

What email??

We suspect that those of you who did not respond or take action to the CardConnect email about resolving your PCI compliance status, it could be because:

  • You are not aware of the implications/risks of being noncompliant, and therefore have not chosen to take action.
  • You chose to not respond to the email (or may even have moved it to your junk folder) because you didn’t know who CardConnect is.
  • Your email program may have wrongly identified the email from CardConnect as junk mail, and so you would not have seen the message at all unless you regularly check your junk mail folder.

If you think it’s possible that it could have ended up in your junk mail folder, do a search in your email program’s junk folder for donotreply@cardpointe.com, which is the name of the sender.

But who is CardConnect anyway?

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CardConnect is a provider of payment processing and technology services. It is one of the companies we use to handle credit and debit card payment processing when you sign up for and use ClassJuggler merchant processing services.

In other words, even if you don’t know it, you are a CardConnect customer if you use our merchant processing services.

PCI Compliance FAQ

Why do I need to pay attention to the email?

As a class-based business owner, you probably get 200 emails a day and feel overwhelmed because you are busy teaching several classes of students at your business every day! We get that. In fact, our experience tells us that most merchants have no idea what PCI compliance is or why they need to be compliant. But PCI compliance is critical because, as a CardConnect merchant, you are required to complete an annual Payment Card Industry self-assessment to ensure your business is following the guidelines that all merchants who accept credit and debit payments must comply with.  This is a once-a-year assessment. Failure to maintain PCI compliance can result in a monthly penalty fee or suspension of your merchant account.

How do I fix my noncompliance status?

If you are reluctant to click on a link within an email of a company that you are not thoroughly familiar with, there is another way to check your PCI compliance status and to take the steps necessary to become compliant if you are not.

  1. Log into your CardPointe® merchant portal, or go to www.pci.trustwave.com/cardconnect to register directly on the Trustwave site and begin the Self-Assessment Questionnaire and/or PCI scans.
  2. On your dashboard page (the page you land on after login) you should be able to see on that screen whether or not you are currently compliant.
  3. If you are compliant, go take a coffee break — you are set! If your status shows as COMPLIANCE STATUS: INCOMPLETE, then click on the BEGIN button on the dashboard page to complete your PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire online.  

TIP: Use ClassJuggler’s step-by-step guide to filling out the questionnaire, which you can find on your ClassJuggler HOME BASE screen to help you whiz through the self-assessment questions.

You get a 3-month grace period once “onboarded” to get your compliance in order. CardConnect can assist you through their Merchant Support number: 877-828-0720.

Alternatively, you can email merchantsolutions@cardconnect.com for support.  Their associates can also assist with Trustwave registration and user settings, password resets, linking of multiple locations for the same merchant, and uploading compliance certificates.

Who is ClassJuggler?

If you are not currently a ClassJuggler customer, and you own or operate a class-based business, here is how you can find out more about ClassJuggler’s online software solutions dedicated to class-based businesses: