Tips and Tricks
There are two definitions of cheap. One relates to the great deals you can find when getting something at a bargain price, and the other refers to the low quality, sneaky back doors someone might use to trick you. Similarly, there are tricks to improve your business, and there are tricks others might play on you to get more money. You’ll need to know all the tricks you can while shopping for cheap merchant credit card processing; both the good and the bad.
Cheap Merchant Credit Card Processing Tips
Price Match
You want the lowest price, not the lowest quality, right? In order to get it, find someone who will price-match you. As long as you have a written quote from your current processor, we’ll meet or beat the price you’re currently paying.
Avoid Keyed-In Cards
To lower your processing bill every month, try to have as many of your transactions be “card present” instead of “card not present”. Keyed in card numbers are usually billed at a higher rate because of the risk associated with the transactions. This is an inexpensive and cheap merchant credit card processing trick that most business owners are unaware of, and it’s easy to implement!
Be PCI Compliant
Ensure you’re processing with a PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant company. You can be charged an unnecessary arm and a leg in PCI compliance fees every month. This has everything to do with the company you choose, so do your homework.
Use Interchange-Plus
This pricing model is easy to compare with other processors because the bulk (interchange) of the price per transaction is the same for every card issuing company. For example, Processor B and Processor A pay Visa and MasterCard the same amount for processing your transactions. What varies, however, is the Plus part. That is the processor markup, which is easy to compare and usually fixed across all transaction types.
Cheap Merchant Credit Card Processing Tricks
Locked-In Contracts
There are two main kinds of cheap merchant credit card processing contract tricks: Term, and Equipment Leasing contracts. Those who claim to not lock you into processing with them for a specific contract term usually keep you around with leasing contracts. These are hidden in your signed paperwork, and state you must use their equipment (Point of Sale systems), for a typical 48 months. Here at PayFrog, we have neither. In fact, you may even qualify to use our equipment for free!
Teaser Rates
There’s not usually one set rate for a processor. As stated above, it costs different amounts to process different transactions. The only rate that matters for your company is the effective rate, and that will typically be much higher if you fall for a single teaser rate. Your effective rate is the total volume of your business divided by the cost of processing. This should be the rate you look for in cheap merchant credit card processing.
Want the Best of Both Worlds?
You’ve learned that cheap can mean two very different things. If you’re only worried about how much something will cost, you may end up paying much more for it. Check out our virtual tour to see a whole lot of savings, and quality.
