SAQs, Levels & Scope
3 tools, 9 guides
Before anything else, three questions decide how much PCI work a shop has: which self-assessment questionnaire fits the way you take cards, which merchant level your acquirer puts you in, and which of your devices, people and systems the standard reaches. Get those right and the rest of the year is smaller.
The tools here walk each question with plain answers about your counter, your website and your phone. The guides explain the questionnaires one by one, and why tokenization, P2PE and a hosted checkout change the answer.
Tools
SAQ Type Finder
Plain questions about how you take cards, walked to the one SAQ that fits, with the reasons.
- Card terminaltype
- Website checkoutmethod
- Phone ordersyes or no
ResultSAQ type
Merchant Level Calculator
Your yearly transactions by card brand and channel, turned into a level and what it must validate.
- Transactionsper year
- Card brandeach
- Channelonline or in person
ResultLevel
PCI Scope Checker
List what touches card data and see what is in scope, connected or out, with a way to shrink each.
- Deviceslist
- Peoplelist
- Systemslist
ResultScope
Guides
- What Is PCI Compliance?15 min
Who writes the rule, who enforces it, and what a shop owner actually does about it each year.
- How to Become PCI Compliant18 min
The yearly loop step by step: level, questionnaire, gaps, scans, and the attestation you send.
- PCI SAQ Types Explained20 min
One receipt per self-assessment questionnaire: who it fits and how it differs from the next.
- Tokenization vs Encryption17 min
Which of the two takes your systems out of PCI scope and which does not, told for a merchant.
- PCI DSS 4.0.1 Requirements for Small Merchants20 min
The twelve requirements in plain words, then what changed for small merchants under v4.0.1.
- What Is P2PE?17 min
A validated point-to-point encryption solution versus an encrypted reader, and why the list matters.
- Payment Tokenization16 min
What a payment token is, where it comes from, and what it changes about the card data you hold.
- PCI SAQ A18 min
The shortest questionnaire for online shops: who qualifies, and what the latest revision changed.
- PCI SAQ D17 min
The full questionnaire: why a merchant lands on it, and the setups that move you to a shorter one.
Guides9