by: Scott Einiger, Esq. — All Media Rights Reserved

If you’re a business that accepts charge card, credit or debit ard payments for your goods or services from consumers, it pays to review your transactional fees and do a little homework. Every dollar saved in credit card processing, fees will go directly to your bottom line profits. Less transactional expenses means more money to you.

1) More profits- No one likes to give back a portion of a dollar earned however over one third of all consumer transactions in the US result in payment from some form of credit. When you price your goods or services, the fee paid to you is impacted by how the transactional fees are taken out which can reduce profits. Most business owners aren’t aware that their credit card processing fees are negotiable. Becoming an educated business owner will put more money into your pocket. Know that the Independent Service Organizations (ISO) that you work with to process the credit or other charge card payments come with a transaction fee. ISO’s are paid a fee above the bank or discount rate that is set and are not uniform. The bank or discount rate is the percentage the bank charges as per American Express, Visa or MasterCard for example.

2) Transparency in Pricing
Becoming educated about credit card processing transactional costs is an important first step to reducing your fees. All banks are required to have at least three rate structures for credit card processing: 1) retail face to face processing are usually the lowest, 2) phone, mail and Internet rates and 3) imprinted or phone authorized rates. Depending on the type of charge card, used their are different transactional costs applied. It is very important for each business to correctly classify the way it accepts charge card payment to achieve the best rate structure. Whether through sophisticated online credit card payments or through swiping a credit card machine, this analysis is critical to obtain the best pricing. Your company should be willing to provide understandable clear pricing so you know what your transactional costs are.

3) Customer Service. You are paying for this service and you should expect a high level of responsiveness from your ISO agent. Providing you with immediate customer service will help in meeting your obligations and dealing with customer service and payment issues. Knowing which company is processing your credit card payments is essential to ensure quality and savings. As an example First Data, a Fortune 50 company handles merchant processing for almost 70% of the credit card transactions in the country. Do you know who your merchant processing company is associated with?

4) Leverage. Does your ISO have a track record, how much credit card revenue do they process annually and what relationships do they have in place. An easy way to review the background of your ISO agent is to ask. And research. Do they have an Internet presence, what companies do they currently do business with and are they endorsed by large Associations or Societies that have businesses like yours with a satisfactory approval rating. Don’t be afraid to ask for references. If they are endorsed vendors of various Associations it is likely they have aggressive pricing that will benefit their small business members. This will ensure that your pricing is favorable to you. Seek out such credit card processors to leverage their existing favorable pricing.

5) It’s Free. If reviewing your transactional costs with your ISO isn’t free, find another agent. Most companies will periodically review their costs and have Internet presence to offer such service. Taking a little time can result in savings that greatly impact your bottom line. www.chargecardsavings.com is available to provide this analysis to our customers or even if you aren’t currently a customer, to ensure you are an educated business in this area.

Email us at info@chargecardsavngs.com to receive a free transparent credit card processing fee analysis. We guarantee the time you spend will be worth it. On average we have saved over $ 1200 per year for business owners and oftentimes much more than this amount.

Copyright © 2013 — Scott Einiger. All Media Rights Reserved.

Most business owners aren’t aware but nearly one in three payments made by US consumers are made by some form of charge cards — either credit, debit or pre-paid. American Express, Visa MasterCard, Discovery are a few examples of the types of credit cards vendors may accept payment from. Such credit card payment methods have varying transactional fees which can be immediately lowered by simply reviewing the transactional processing fees and thereby increasing profits. These fees are negotiable. Working with the credible merchant processing services typically will provide transparent pricing.

Finding the best merchant processing services simply takes a little work and education. It’s a 100% guaranteed savings, and its simple to obtain. In addition to lowering your own expenses to increase your bottom line, referring other businesses to receive substantial savings will result in residual income.

Knowing which company is processing your credit card payments is essential to ensure quality and savings. As an example First Data, a Fortune 50 company handles merchant processing for almost 70% of the credit card transactions in the country. Do you know who your merchant processing company is associated with?

A free cost analysis of current credit card processing charges is available by clicking here, and is an easy way to teach a business owner/vendor simple ways to ensure cost efficiencies in accepting card payment and at the same time increase their own profits. Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest.

Basically any company whether publicly traded like Blast Applications an affiliate partner or smaller privately held business like a local pizzeria or corner candy store, can save money on their transaction processing fees and become sub agents. If a company accepts payment by charge card, anywhere in the country the first step is simply educating itself on the types of cards used for payment and understanding the transaction costs associated with each of those cards. Then a business owner can set up their transactions in an efficient cost effective manner and negotiate to lower cost their transaction fees with their merchant processing company. If interested, getting the process started is as simple as sending an email to info@chargecardsavings.com.

Many ISO (independent service organizations) – a firm or organization that offers to process the credit or other charge card payments for a transaction fee, will receive their payment above the bank or discount rate that is set. The bank or discount rate is the percentage the bank charges as per American Express, Visa or MasterCard for example.

All banks are required to have at least three rate structures for credit card processing: 1) retail face to face processing are usually the lowest, 2) phone, mail and Internet rates and 3) imprinted or phone authorized rates. Depending on the type of charge card, used their are different transactional costs applied. It is very important for each business to correctly classify the way it accepts charge card payment to achieve the best rate structure. Whether through sophisticated online credit card payments or through swiping a credit card machine, this analysis is critical to obtain the best pricing.

When working with ISO, businesses need to understand that the rates set are variable. One way to obtain preferred pricing is to work with a company known for steep discounting because their business model is based on lower profit per business while doing business on a volume basis. As an example some ISO’s are endorsed by large Associations and Societies providing extra value for organizations with 1000′s of members. Value added benefits and preferred pricing is available.

When selecting your merchant processing company or when seeking to understand your current credit card transactional cost structure, it is important to receive a line by line transparent analysis of the true costs being charged. Being an educated business owner whether generating millions of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars per year will ensure you receive fair pricing and ultimately more profit.

For information about lowering your business transactional costs contact info@chargecardsavings.com or simply complete a brief questionnaire and someone will be in touch with you. Get Started!