Category: Credit Card Merchant Services

Would you like to receive the lowest possible rates on credit card processing for your store or website? Who wouldn’t? By carefully shopping for the best merchant services provider, you can ensure you’re always receiving the lowest possible rates when accepting electronic payments. Read on to learn the dos and don’ts of finding a credit card processing provider.

 

Do: Find the Most Competitive Pricing Program

With so many options for instant merchant services online, you can be picky when looking for a credit card processing provider. Before you start looking, decide what you want for your store or website. Do you need a wireless credit card machine? Do you need devoted customer service – without the automated recording every time you call? Once you have decided on your main decision points, start looking at different pricing programs. A good credit card services provider should have no problem showing you the savings you’ll experience with their company versus other processors.

 

Don’t: Pay Higher Rates than You Were Promised

It’s not unusual for a merchant service provider to quote you one price or rate, and then gradually increase your rates. They may not think you’ll notice, or maybe you’re locked into a contract. Read about the company’s track record and what their clients are saying about them. Are merchants happy with this service? Can the company honestly say they haven’t raised their rates from year to year?
Continue reading Do You Want Merchant Services at the Lowest Possible Rates?

One of the most frustrating things imaginable to businesses who utilize merchant services is when they are faced with paying a higher percentage rate on their credit card machine use than was advertised or promised. At best, this is misleading. At worst, this is a common industry bait and switch pricing tactic. Why is it that so many merchant services providers charge more than the rate promised?

 

The Steadily Upwards Creeping Introductory Rate

Many times, banks and merchant services providers quote a low introductory rate to make the initial sale with businesses, only to turn around and slightly increase rates again and again, month after month, year after year. These providers hope that either their merchants will not notice, or will not be bothered to change services once they’ve already signed up for one. This is a common occurrence, and many businesses have been victimized by this coercive business practice.

 

What to Do?

What can you do about it? Well to start, if you have been with the same merchant services provider for a few years and have noticed your prices slowly creeping up, you should contact a reputable merchant services provider and have them perform an account analysis on your most recent statement. They should be able to identify where you have been overpaying, or where your current provider’s policies have put you at a disadvantage, and should be able to help bring more bottom-line profits back to your table. It doesn’t cost anything, and you could save hundreds of dollars a year!
Continue reading Why Are You Paying MORE For Merchant Services Credit Card Processing Than The RATE Promised?

Resist the Temptation to Terminate your Credit Card Processing.

 

In this horrible marketplace every business is looking for ways to save money.  Some Merchant’s are even considering terminating their credit card processing services to save as little as two percent of those sales made by Visa, MasterCard and Discover, and three percent from American Express sales.
 

“Don’t do it!” says Gino Kauzlarich, President of MerchantService.com. “It’s a false economy.  If I agreed with that, we’d both be wrong.  People today in our communities have less cash in their wallets and money in their checking accounts than ever before, attributable most likely to the high unemployment rate gripping the nation and dried up credit markets.  Folks are much less likely today to “impulse” spend.  To turn away sales opportunities by limiting yourself to these much, much lower “cash only” amounts tight fisted mentality is simply a mistake.” Continue reading Why Accept Credit Cards? Because Merchant Services Increases Your Sales!

How the “Act” will affect your Credit Card Processing

 

On June 21, 2010 Congress approved new regulations that will change credit card processing in America as we have known it since its inception in the 1960’s. Included in the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 (the “Act”), the regulations allow the Federal Reserve to cap debit card interchange at a level that’s “reasonable and proportional” to the cost of processing debit card transactions. Before retailers can accept credit cards they must apply for a merchant account.  All Merchant accounts include contract terms which will be changed by the Act.

 

Since debit cards represent the majority of transactions in the US, the impact on merchant services via radical changes to the merchant account pricing and terms via this new government intervention is potentially significant, though difficult to predict. Continue reading Congress Approves Credit Card Processing Regulation Amendment