MPS Inc proudly sells USAePAY!

Merchant Processing Solutions Inc. is a PROUD reseller of USAePAY. We have offered this product to many of our merchants with much success! It is one of the ONLY multiple products platforms offered. USAePAY offers:

• Retail with EMV Card Reader on PC or Mobile Phone 
• Virtual Terminal with Recurring Billing and NOW Invoicing!!!
• Website Payment Acceptance via shopping cart or "Pay Now" Button
• Database Capture
• Inventory Management
• QuickBooks Connect

Many merchants buy Points of Sale Software that is VERY EXPENSIVE and they only use a small percentage of what the software offers. We encourage our merchants to look at their business and determine exactly what they need in a software. Many find that a comprehensive gateway offers a better solution than the more expensive software. 

Even our retail customers are thrilled when they can capture not only the amount spent and the last four digits of the credit cards used BUT the name and email (for receipts) for their customers. This helps the merchants compile a list of their customers for future communications. Our merchants also like the fact that the customers can leave a SECURE WALLET with this gateway for future payments. 

If you are considering a Point of Sale Software Solution, please call us first to discuss something that might be better and MUCH more affordable.  

   

The following article is from the Merchant Services Industry eMagazine, The Green Sheet published, Friday, July 21, 2017. http://www.greensheet.com/USAePay  

Innovating The Gateway......

Today’s payments environment, and what has been an ever-changing merchant landscape in recent years, has also inspired gateway functionality to evolve. As a result, processors looking for a third-party gateway partner are now evaluating a gateway’s ability to innovate just as closely as they look at its security, compliance and usability.

“Gateway technology has been a core part of the payments ecosystem for nearly two decades now,” said Martin Drake, President of gateway provider USAePay. “While it’s true that any gateway product must diversify with the industry to stay relevant, the providers who think outside of the box and use the inherent strengths built into their technologies to solve marketplace issues, are the ones that will stand out.”

A merchant’s issues have moved beyond the day-to-day functionality of the gateway. While automated batching and reporting, encryption and real-time access to transaction data are still paramount to a merchant, their world is becoming more and more digitized by the day. They are also being faced with meeting an increasing level of compliance and security requirements that impact their bottom line and ability to become more efficient.

These merchant-level challenges, and the desire of the processors to resolve them, have inspired USAePay to further harness the power of its gateway technology to provide a new set of capabilities the merchant will benefit from at the point of purchase and beyond.

All encompassing console 

With the recent release of the newest version of the USAePay Merchant Console, merchants now have enhanced ways to manage customer orders and manage their product database. The interface is not only convenient and simple to use; it promotes productivity with its streamlined functionalities.

The updated virtual terminal features have been optimized to make managing batches, customized reports, fraud modules, and processing transactions a breeze. The interface is more intuitively designed and configured to function more like the other apps every merchant is now accustomed to using.

"The online user experience has changed drastically over the past few years. Users expect more and demand more from online interfaces. The new merchant console not only meets those demands but exceeds it. It truly is the console for today's merchant," said Ben Goretsky, CEO at USAePay.
The console has also been enhanced with two new groundbreaking features. The invoice manager enables a merchant to add or customize invoices by using built-in and template-styled functionality. A merchant can now configure invoices quickly by adding products, taxes, footer messaging, and branding all in the same environment they handle other transaction-based activities. In addition to reducing the number of places a merchant has to go to manage these activities, this feature reduces the risk of manual invoice errors, eliminates paper invoice costs and also enables a merchant to invoice digitally.

Seamless device management and compliance

The new retail device manager feature in the USAePay gateway console provides merchants with the ability to connect all of their devices to the console through a WiFi network or a Bluetooth connection while also managing those transactions online. This not only enables the merchant to handle swipe, EMV and contactless transactions all in one place from a remote or desktop computer device, it also serves as a solution for managing EMV transactions online.
Through this feature, merchants now have the ability to pair their EMV devices to the console, and use the all-in-one online interface to process every terminal-based transaction without worrying about or sacrificing compliance.

“The solution we offer is unlike any other being offered today for EMV,” said Ben Goretsky, CEO at USAePay. “Using any browser on any computer, merchants can today process EMV quickly and securely through our merchant console interface.”
The application is compatible to work with macOS and Windows-based web browsers and gives users the choice of using EMV-certified hardware solutions from Verifone, Ingenico and Castle. It not only processes EMV card transactions, it accommodates swiped transactions and accepts Apple Pay and Samsung Pay contactless transactions as well.

“This is USAePay’s fully-compliant answer for the growing number of merchants that are looking to manage their POS activity alongside the rest of their day-to-day business activity” concluded Drake. “We’re working hard to use our technology to bring efficiency and additional usability into every merchant environment, without compromising the rising need for compliance and security.”

Merchant Processing Solutions Inc. puts our MERCHANT'S NEEDS FIRST. We try to find the BEST SOLUTION to meet their need at the BEST PRICE!!!

CREATING RELATIONSHIPS NOT JUST TRANSACTIONS!

Call Us Today @ 954-938-2420

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New Chip Card Swipe

Traditional Card Swipe

Card Present 

VS 

Card Not Present

Businesses that wish to accept credit cards need to understand the nature of their business or business type to determine whether they need a Card Present payment acceptance program or a Card Not Present payment acceptance program. Do you have a store? Will you be accepting payments over the phone or online? We have seen too many times how a merchant got duped into purchasing/leasing a terminal when more than 50% of their business is Card Not Present, they never see their customer, key-enter cards - pay higher rates!!!

Card Present vs Card Not Present 

1. Understand how you will interact with your customers; in Person, Internet, Over-the-Phone and realize there are different equipment solutions and rates associated with your needs and choice.
2. Once you are set up to accept Card Present processing with a TERMINAL or a POINT OF SALE Software, you will ALWAYS want to swipe transactions via the card reader. 
3. Make sure your equipment is set up to accept the EMV (European MasterCard Visa) chip cards. When you accept cards via the "chip reader" you are helping your business against Chargebacks and Fraud. 
1. If a card is swiped instead of "chipped" and there is a Chargeback, you will NOT even be able to fight that legally. Only businesses that use the Chip Reader on transactions can fight a chargeback. Don't let yourself be vulnerable get and use a EMV Card Reader! 
4. Discount Rates or Percentages - All transactions are classified into one of three categories and is the foundation for each merchant rate charged.  
1. Qualified (Standard Cards) - A qualified discount rate applies to most swiped credit card transactions that have no consumer or corporate rewards on them. These transaction must be approved, pass address verification, and close within the daily batch.
2. Mid-Qualified - A mid-qualified discount rate is an surcharged added to the Standard Cards (Qualified Cards) that offer rewards, was key-entered instead of swiped, NOT filling in any fields on the TERMINAL when requested, or the merchant did not batch within the time required by their merchant agreement. 
3. Non-Qualified - Adds an even higher surcharge on top of Standard Cards (Qualified Cards) for key-entered into a Terminal or Point of Sale, applied to "high risk" merchants, high reward cards, Business and Corporate Cards, not batching daily and not filling in the required fields on the TERMINAL.
5. With Card Present transactions, you see the purchaser, you can check ID if you are questioning their validity, and you get a signature on the receipt. 
6. With Card Not Present, its a whole different game! You have NO IDEA if the card bring given is actually owned by the person purchasing. Due to that reason, mostly, key-entered cards have a higher base rate than a Card Present Rate.
7. Fraud also determines your Discount Rates or Percentages. ITS ALL ABOUT THE RISK! 
8. Other factors that influence rates besides: Points, Percentage back to the cardholder for using said card, not filling in all the fields on the terminal and not batching within the required time.

Moble Card Reader

Does this seem too much to ponder? That's why it is SO important to work with a reputable, local company that you can call, meet with and discuss your particular business situation. Merchant Processing Solutions Inc. prides itself on setting up their merchants on what THEY NEED and not what makes us money! 

CREATING RELATIONSHIPS NOT JUST TRANSACTIONS!

Call Us Today @ 954-938-2420

Q. Why can't I understand my merchant processing statement?
A. Most processors don't want you to!!!

I must admit, there are many times while doing a statement analysis, that I need to
consult with my colleagues because the numbers just don't make sense. Or there are 
charges on the statement that I have never heard of before.  Or worse yet, I know they are paying too much but I cannot for the life of me find where this processor is hiding it!!! 

You see, you are not alone! Many of my merchants tell me they stopped opening the statements
because they could not understand them, so why get upset. They just look at their bank deposits and withdrawals and pray they are correct and fair. Some use the "Net Effective Rate". Divide what you paid in fees by the gross amount you sold.   

        

        Example: Fee for the month were $475.00 and you sold $20,000 that same month.

                                 $475.00

                                 $20,000 = 2.375% Net Effective 

                
                But what does this Net Effective REALLY mean?

•      What types of cards were you accepting during that month? Debit, Rewards, Credit, Business etc
•       Were they swiped or key-entered into your system? Key-entered cards rates are always higher than swiped card rates. 
•       Is your statement a full month or does it include a type of "Bill Back or Enhanced Bill Back System" ?  A processor that employs this billing method is nothing but a CROOK in my book! In the month's statement you are billing what was promised as a base rate plus the processor fee and that's it. But the following month, after those transactions actually hit the brands and the processor see there were some higher fees associated with those rates, they charge you the next month in their PENDING category. So to find the TRUE Net Effective of your statement, you need to add not only what you were charged this month in fees but what is pending for the next month. Enhanced Bill Back is when this practice is done and the processor adds a little more on top for themselves!!!! YIKES THAT HURTS

As you can see, it is not easy to understand your merchant processing statement, unless you are with 

Merchant Processing Solutions Inc. We pride ourselves on taking the time to educate our merchants

on reading their statements. We also show them what fees are from Visa/MC/Discover/AMEX and

which ones are ours. Finally, we explain what "Other Fees" mean and what they should look out for. 

You see, at Merchant Processing Solutions Inc. we want YOU to be a customer of ours for a long 

time. Remember....we are about "creating relationship NOT just transactions!"

So here are some final tips about your merchant processing statements:                                                                                                                      

•       Never toss your statements into a drawer or the trash
•       If you need to get your statements online and print them, make sure you ask for the log in and password when you REP come to your location and gets you set up. Make sure they go over that process so you can have access to your online statements whenever! 
•       Never JUST rely on your bank account to indicate what you are paying - those numbers are misleading
•       Hold your account rep and/or your processing company accountable - make them go line by-line with you to understand your processing.
•       If you don’t understand what you are being charged and how they get to that info, cancel your service! So of course.............NEVER SIGN A CONTRACT! 
•       Make sure you get a clear copy of your application/contract from your processor. Make sure you clearly understand what your are paying. Then use this document to occasionally compare your PROMISED RATES AND FEES to what you are actually paying. 

Please call Merchant Processing Solutions Inc. @ 954-938-2420 

to review your merchant statement! 

Q: How quickly should I get my money after settlement?

         This is great question and the answer is, it depends!!

         

Many people think that closing the batch at anytime should mean that your money is instantly in your bank account. This is anything but true. Companies like Square and PayPal offer "instant deposits" but at at cost! Square charges an additional 1% while PayPal will only allow you to use those funds to purchase on PayPal payment acceptance sites or transfer those funds to your PayPal Debit Card.
However, most merchant processing companies take between 1-4 days to process.

Why does it take so long to get my money? Several factors influence that timing. 

• One of the first issues is when you close your "batch" and "settle" your daily transactions. If the merchant processing company, in California, has a cut-off time of 5pm Pacific Time and your office is in South Florida, you would have to batch before 8pm for that payment to be considered a TODAY BATCH. 

• Using that scenario, the next step we need to know is how quickly does the merchant processor's "Acquiring Bank - Merchant Services Bank that receives all the transactions from that batch send those transaction amounts to the "Issuing Bank". Then each "Issuing Bank - a bank acting as a middle-man for customers/cardholders to connect transactions to their credit cards" sends the transaction information out to the actual credit card companies for repayment those transactions. This can be a few hours or a few days! It totally depends on what your merchant processing company has negotiated with both the Acquiring Bank and Issuing Bank. In years past, a merchant would pay MORE to get Next Day or Early Funding. 

• It evens get more crazy when dealing with ONLINE SALES!! When does your online payment gateway batch? Where is that company located, CA, NY, KS? OK, they are in CA (3 hours from FL) and do ALL batches at 5PM PST. I need the money to get to my merchant processing company by 6PM CST. 

• What time zone is my software? What time zone are my customers/clients making payments?????? Need I say more...

• Quite frankly, the Acquiring Bank to Issuing Banks is a pretty quick and seamless process. What I find is the Merchant's Bank - Wells Fargo, Citibank, Bank of America, etc. Some of these banks still do the deposits from merchant processing sales manually. And for some reason they can take more than a day to enter those funds into your bank account. We have seen this time and time again. Our Issuing Bank pays you and the money is just not in your account? Why? We have come to find out that it has to do with internal cut-off time, your credit rating within the bank, sometimes the size of the deposit etc. In my opinion, these guys want you using their merchant services partners to do your processing so they can make their money. So if you are not processing with them; they don't always make it easy. 

• Banks, using their merchant processing partners, usually offer Next Day Funding unless the equipment used or software has an additional time for batch which pushes the entire deposit process off by a day or so. However, Next Day Funding come with a price. Banks get about 25% of each transaction, sign you to a long-term contract and LOVE to lease you equipment!

• A main talking point for TEAM MPS Inc. is asking our potential merchant what time they close for the day. It may not be convenient for a merchant to close their batch earlier than they close. Example: A merchant is processing through a company that requires you to close the batch for Next Day Funding eligibility by 6pm Central Standard Time. But your shop does not close till 9pm. Do you want to do two daily batches; one at 5:45PM and anther at closing around 9:15pm? What does that do to your daily totals and accounting? It's all about consulting with our merchants to make sure we hear and abide by their needs. 

• Another consideration is how the payment acceptance equipment communicates with the processor. It it a phone line and there are occasional noise on the line that prevents GOOD COMMUNICATION. Or are they using a terminal or software that is impacted by fluctuations in Internet speeds. MPS Inc. sets up all our equipment to batch at least 15 mins before the cut-off time to ensure that the settlement happens ON TIME for our merchants. 

In conclusion, BEWARE...Today, most reputable companies offer Next Day Funding as part of their sales package and desired benefit by most merchants. AND It should be offered at NO ADDITIONAL COST! 

Merchant Processing Solutions Inc. offers Next Day Funding to all their merchants after asking these key questions:

• Do you want or need Next Day Funding?
• What time can you batch? Does that cut-off time meet the criteria of the Acquiring Bank? 
• Have we considered the merchant time zone and the merchant processing time zone?
• What equipment or software are you using? Do they have any specific batch constraints to impede closing at a desired time?
• What bank are you using? What time do they need to get the deposit to consider it Next Day Funding? 

Should I open a Merchant Account with my bank?

Q: My bank is offering me merchant services....is there a reason I should not go with them? 
     Yes!

Banks are not in the merchant services business! It is a product that they offer like ordering you checks from a third-party for your checking account. They go to an outside merchant services company that they have a monetary partnership with. By doing this, you are losing out on a couple of good aspects that Merchant Processing Solutions Inc has do for you:

• Usually someone in the bank takes the application or they call an exclusive rep from the partner Merchant Services company. They will take your application and then they are done! 
• You will have your equipment shipped to you along with and 800# to call for installation that you will have to do on your own.
• If you have any issues with the installation, you may have to spend a lot of time on the phone or call in someone to install the terminal or software for you; at your own expense.
• The first time you have a problem, you will realize the value of a local representative and a local company that can bring you immediately a replacement terminal so you have NO down time! 
• Then the statement comes and you realize that are a lot of charges on the statement that you do not understand or you might even feel that you were not even told about them! Your only choice is to call the 800# for customer service and spend however long it takes to get the answer you need.
• I always ask potential customers if they are currently under contract with their bank. Many merchants say they are NOT, only to find out that not only are they under a contract, but that it is for 3 years with a VERY LARGE cancellation fee!!! Yikes!!!
• I have other merchants that come to me and say, I just finished my contract so let's get things going! I ask them when "SPECIFICALLY" their contract expired and what were the terms to cancel that contract. Merchants don't know that they have to give cancel notice with so much time in advance, otherwise many of the bank contracts have AUTO-RENEWAL clauses to them. 
• Banks have also partnered with equipment leasing companies to lease equipment to their bank merchants. Again, many potential merchants think they own or are renting their equipment only to be told that they are on a 4 year+ lease. 
• Lastly, one of the most horrific discoveries is when they realize that the bank they thought HELPED so much to get set up with a merchant account, not only signed you to a 3 year contract with cancellation fee but also a 4 year lease with an even bigger cancellation fee!

                To Summarize:

                        Bank Merchant Accounts:                            MPS Inc. Accounts:

                 - Contract with Cancellation Fee                         - No Contract, No Cancellation Fee,
              & Auto-Renewal                                                  No Auto-Renewal

                 - Lease of equipment – sometimes                      - No Leases

                    longer than the contract                                     - Equipment at Cost

                - No Local Customer Service Rep                        - Local Sales Rep for Application, 

                           - No Local Installation & Training                         Installation & Training
                                                                                                         - Local Customer Service Support
                                                                                                             & 24/7 back office support.

Call Merchant Processing Solutions Today and see the difference! 954-938-2420

Creating Relationship NOT just transactions!!!