Some people shop the internet for credit card rates. This is scary to me! The rate structures of card processing is like balancing a scale, with not just two buckets to compare, but about a hundred. There are so many different rates for different types of cards and it is just plain difficult, to say the least, to compare tiered pricing, to cost plus pricing,

Bob from Brand X is still out there selling high leases on equipment. I ran across a merchant last week who was told she needed a new terminal for $100 lease payments, but not to worry because her savings were way higher than $100/month. Wowza! Bob from Brand X earned a great up-front commission on that one. And there was no documentation on the monthly

New game plan from Bob from Brand X hits the scene – quote the customer cost plus a low percentage like .20%, but don’t tell the customer that debit cards, airline rewards cards, and corporate cards will be billed back at a higher rate than cost plus .20%, which most of the cards end up being! Hardly anyone ever receives just a plain old credit

I actually met a guy on a shuttle bus to a marketing seminar. Get this! His first job at 14 was with a telemarketing company that sold credit card terminal paper! He actually worked for and earned commissions selling $300 cases of paper for terminals to unsuspecting employees and owners. His script was to say he was with their credit card company and they knew

Here’s a new gimmick from Bob from Brand X. He calls a prospect and says that he is with their credit card processing company and noticed they were being overcharged for fees. If they send him the last two months’ statements, he can work on a refund for them. It is all a lie.

Let’s say Bob from Brand X comes in and quotes you COST for all retail swiped personal credit cards. You’re thinking, “Man this is great, I’m getting cost!” But the fact is that you only take one or two retail swiped personal credit cards each month. Most of your swiped cards are debit cards and Bob from Brand X is now marking them up a

It is amazing to me how many new tricks there are to fool merchants into paying higher rates. Here is a new one. Give the retail swiped rate for personal credit cards below cost at 1.49% knowing full well that hardly any cards will come in at that rate. Then jack up the price for rewards cards, corporate cards, and even debit cards. Bob from

Recently a merchant told me how they had just switched their processing through Bob from Brand X , who told them they were going to save 50% on their processing fees. Processors all work off the same cost, which is interchange. Interchange is the money the banks make for extending credit with the credit cards they issue. Visa and MasterCard add approximately a tenth of

We have a client who switched over to us a few months ago. We heard from them last week that they are still having trouble cancelling their old merchant account. We explained that the best way to do that is in writing and by getting confirmation via fax machine that the fax was sent. We also advised her to keep a copy of that fax