I recently spoke with a new business wanting to set up credit card processing. He wanted to compare us to another company that gave him a quote with a flat rate of 1.89% and $.19. The rate was, obvious to me but not obvious to a rookie, only for qualified transactions. I knew it was too low for rewards cards, corporate cards, and keyed-in cards.
I recently spoke with a non-profit who closed one of their entities. They went to close their merchant services account at their bank, and lo and behold, they found out that the contract they had signed stated they would be responsible for paying the average surcharge fees the bank had been collecting from their merchant services until the end of the contract, even though they
Recently there was an article from our industry magazine about a processor selling interchange pricing. But it turned out they were padding the interchange and not disclosing this to their merchants. So the merchant was paying interchange plus a surcharge, all under a category called interchange.
Recently a customer relayed a story about her previous processor, Bob. He prospected her on the phone and told her he represented Wells Fargo, which just happened to be her bank. He told her she would save money on her checking account fees if she used Wells Fargo credit card processing services. So she signed up. When she got the first statement, she discovered that
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 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 earned a great up-front commission on that one. And there was no documentation on the monthly savings, just a verbal comment that
New game plan from Bob 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 card anymore. Now
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. 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 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 is now marking them up a ton. So Bob isn’t saving you
