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| Rates are important but how can you control them? |
Merchant Services is not ONLY about rates, its has to do with several variables that impact your bottom line! Its about understanding your business and setting your company up on the right platform & rate structure, customer payment interaction and technology to suit your needs and your budget!
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| You need to make sure you choose the right pricing structure for your business! |
Understanding the platform pricing is even difficult for us in the industry!
- Flat Rates put all cards under one rate. They bank on the majority of your cards being debit cards. Processors make more money using this pricing method.
- Qualified/Mid-Qualified/Non-Qualified; Tiered Rates are the most confusing! Each company decides the threshold for all three of these rates and charge incrementally by adding different percentages to each Tier based on the type of card like Debit/Credit/Rewards/Business etc. Its hard to know if you are being treated fairly with these rates.
- Interchange Plus Pricing is the most transparent pricing method. (Merchant Processing Solutions puts their merchants on this method!) The actual wholesale price of each card is passed along to our merchants with a NEGOTIATED FLAT FEE FOR OUR PROCESSING on top. Although this has become the most popular, we are seeing abuse by processing companies that are charging .75% - 1.25% over the actual wholesale rate of each card.
If you don't know what method your processor has you on, call us today for a free analysis!
How do you accept payments: In-Person or Not in-person? In-person is when the customer and the credit card is at your store, office, shop or you are at their location and the card can be TAPPED/EMV CHIPPED/SWIPED! You need to have the right equipment and the correct rate plan in order to receive the lowest rates.
Example: If you are at a customer location and key-enter a credit card payment via your smartphone, you do not get retail rates. Once you key-enter the information, the transaction is transmitted via data (cellular or WiFi) for approval. It is now considered a higher risk since the card cannot be "TOKENIZED" or verified as an authentic credit card. Only when the credit card is Tapped or EMV Chipped (NOT Swiped as that does not tokenize the card for verification) and returned as verified, your rate is the lowest possible.
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| What technology is right for your businesses' payment acceptance? |
Technology Matters! The type of technology/equipment/POS System you choose to run credit card transactions, is very important. Low rates are important but if you are using a credit card stand-a-lone terminal and key-entering credit cards over the phone, you are paying higher rates and your employees to sit on the phone and key-enter numbers! Then they have to print the receipt and mail/scan & email the receipts to the customer! This is a waste of time and money for any company. The solution for Call Centers or Billing Departments is to have a Payment Button on their company website for payment or a virtual terminal on each employee's PC allowing them to take calls and enter payments into the Payment System and send receipts via email to the customer. For a few dollars a month, a business can send Invoices or set-up Recurring Billing that had a payment link making it easy to get paid quickly!
Merchant Processing Solutions, has brought this issue up many times over the years but ONLY by getting your situation analyzed will you know if you are getting the best rate, on the best technology for your customer interaction.
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