Merchant Services works with more than 140 MIT-based merchants to ensure that credit card use complies with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). For this team, security is job one.
Departments at MIT collect payments with credit cards in several ways: secure web pages, point of sale (POS) devices, and virtual terminals. Merchant Services provides online training to the community, and helps departments understand the requirements and responsibilities that come with being a merchant, as well as best practices to protect a cardholder’s personal information. They provide support for annual certification and update the community as requirements change.
The volume of payments to MIT via credit cards increases every year. Some of the major uses of credit cards are donations made to MIT via the Alumni Association/Annual Fund, co-payments to MIT Medical and the MIT Pharmacy, fees collected by the Parking Office for parking stickers, and parents and students adding cash to a TechCASH card.
Merchant Services can lend POS devices to departments holding one-time events. Once the event is over and the machine returned to VPF, all revenue collected and associated fees flow directly to the DLC's cost object for that event.
As MIT moves toward more cashless transactions, the Merchant Services team strives to provide the community with as many payment collection options as possible, while underscoring and enforcing strict security measures on these transactions.