Customers making use of the Quick Pay option to pay an outstanding/full amount towards a reservation, will be presented with terms and conditions that are to be accepted. Customers need then only enter the Reservation Number and their Client Code to retrieve their reservation and make payment towards it.

By implementing the Quick Pay option, SANParks is to become PCI DSS compliant with regards to all our payment procedures.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of security standards designed to ensure that all companies that accept, process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.

“Quick Pay is a simple, clear, and convenient portal for clients to settle outstanding fees for bookings they made via more traditional channels such as the Reservations call centre, email requests, etc. There is no trail of credit card information which reassures protection, as SANParks E-Commerce is fully PCI DSS compliant. We do still wish to encourage our clients to conduct their booking experience via the main Online Bookings portal where they can build their itineraries and pay in less than 10 minutes – at their own convenience” says Nedret Saidova, Senior Manager: E-Business at SANParks.

For more details click here

According to SANParks Chief Information Officer Kamal Pillay, the move strives to limit any exposure to risk and minimise potential losses incurred from compromised cardholder account information.

According to Pillay, global cybersecurity experts, Foregenix based in the UK granted SANParks E-Commerce an official certificate of compliance to PCI Data Security Standards in June this year. The SANParks website www.sanparks.org processes almost 40% of all reservations. “We are happy and proud about this achievement and would like to reassure our clients that their credit card information is safe, secure and protected when they book via the website, as according to conducted research 80% of online businesses in the world do not comply with PCI Data Security Standards.”

Pillay stated that the next big step in this regard is to implement compliance within all other booking channels – call centre, satellite offices, Wild Card, etc. He added that in order to effectively conduct this process, certain mandatory requirements will have to be followed. These include international credit card refunds that are only to be conducted through a secure environment to reduce fraud.

Where a credit card is not present as is the case for Call Centre payments, the following will be implemented:

• All payments for reservations and Wild Card where the customer is not present with their credit card will be suspended as from 02 October 2017.
• Customers will still be able to make a reservation through the Call Centres, but will be referred to alternative payment methods for payment such as a ‘Quick Payment Portal’ on our website which was released on 5 September.

Pillay said the aim of this particular portal is to assist customers to make credit card payments on specific reservations without having to go through the process of registering for ‘Online Bookings’. New Terms and Conditions (T&C) were published with this portal and we encourage customers to familiarise themselves with these T&C’s.

The portal will only require the client to enter their ‘Client Code’ and ‘Reservation Number’ in order to make a payment. “Clients are requested to note that this payment option for Wild Card will be available before the end of September 2017.”

Further to this, SANParks is also in the process of investigating Instant EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer)/SID (Secure Instant Deposit) as a payment method. This payment method will link SANParks customers directly to their Internet Banking, pre-populating the payment details and directing them back to our Website.