Friday, September 9th, 2011 | no comments | B.J. Kharrazi
1. Know your Business Type
Visa/Mastercard use pricing indicators or business types to apply discounts toyour rates. In the beginning, Visa/Mastercard used to charge one rate for everyindustry. Some industries refused to accept credit cards because they thoughtthe rates were to high and cut into too much profit margin. Supermarkets wereone of the biggest holdouts. So, Visa/Mastercard began offering discount ratesto specific industries, card types, and processing methods. This is why there are 440 different rate categories. These discounts paved the way for credit cardacceptance at supermarkets, gas stations and fast food restaurants.
Your business may qualify for one of Visa/Mastercards special programs.For example, if your business has an average transaction of less than $15, youmay qualify for the small ticket program. If you are paying 1.64% + $0.25 pertransaction now, then under the small ticket program you could get your rates aslow as 1.65% + $0.04. Now your processor will probably tack on another sixcents to cover its costs. Still, you would save fifteen cents a transaction or 1.5%on a $10 transaction.
Visa/Mastercard has programs for most industries like restaurant,B2B, MOTO,Quick serve restaurants, Convenience Store, Hotel, Gas Stations, Supermarkets,charities, insurance, utilities, government etc.
Sunday, June 27th, 2010 | 1 comment | B.J. Kharrazi
No longer are the days when credit card terminals cost a lot to purchase or lease. Many seemingly legitimate merchant service processors hawk free credit card machines. The Internet is thoroughly spammed with FREE CREDIT CARD PROCESSING TERMINAL come-ons.
Are free credit card machine offers legit and worth it?
Often they are NOT. Many unsuspecting merchants are falling prey to ‘aggressive’ merchant service agents. There is no such thing as a free lunch, or a free $500 wireless credit card machine, it would appear.
So what’s the catch with the free credit card machine offers?
Simple – no merchant account, no free credit card machine. But even more germane, it’s “free,” but you don’t own it, and it actually costs you more. Sounds like a riddle, yes?
