Merchant Card Processing - How To Select The Most Suitable Service For Small Business
Posted Under: Small Business
Selecting a credit card processing service brings up some essential questions such as Will the service add to the revenue from my business?, What will the rates be like?, Will they be dependable?, Are they trustworthy?, and more. The internet is a reliable tool to survey the market for credit card processors. But, what are the parameters involved in determining which processing service will best fit your trade requirements?
In this article, we talk about a few of the key factors in picking out a small business credit card processing service:
The fee charged to accept credit cards is undoubtedly an important consideration. You want a service that is reasonably priced and well worth its price. The types of fees charged by processors vary but the most common are described below:
- Startup fee: A lot of card processing companies do away with this charge. Others collect this fee as a “one time” charge. It ranges around $250.
- Gateway fee: If you have an ecommerce store, you will need a payment gateway to process credit card payments. The gateway fee is charged monthly and ranges widely from $10-$50.
- Statement fee: Majority of service companies collect a statement fee that ranges from $9-$10 per month.
- Monthly minimum fee: Credit card processors charge a monthly minimum from $20-$30 to ensure minimum earnings from each client.
- Transaction fee: This fee is common to all card processing services. A fixed sum that varies from 24-35 cents is collected for each transaction processed. In addition, the service also charges a percentage (discount rate) that averages to 2.14%-2.40% of the payment amount processed.
- Address verification fee: Address verification is an additional safety measure to protect businesses from credit card deceptions. Some agencies charge a fee for this service. The charge for verifying addresses is around 5-10 cents per address.
What to expect from a credit card processing service
The next step is to find out whether the service can serve all your business requirements. List your requirements against the offerings of the service.
Category of credit cards accepted
Record the most common cards used by your customers or the card types you would like to accept. Make sure the credit card processing service accepts them. The most widespread card types are Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express.
Kind of services
process payments in physical stores or e-commerce outlets.
Some services that should be part of the deal are:
- merchant account
- virtual terminal
- e-check services
- point-of-sale (POS) terminals
- shopping cart
- recurring billing
- reasonable payment clearing period
Credit card processing security measures
Credit card transactions are vulnerable to scams and thefts. Credit card processing services should provide basic security features such as:
- fraud protection
- CVV2 verification
- real time processing
- address verification
- SSL and encryption
Customer support quality
What makes credit card processing services reliable? An almost zero error rate and easily accessible customer support service. Service providers should be able to render help as and when required. Some features that should be part of the agreement are:
- customer support numbers, email, fax, and work timings (around-the-clock is always preferable)
- fixed response times
- toll-free telephone number
- live online chat, if needed
Businesses should weigh costs and services before selecting a service provider. The contract should not only be affordable but also meet all your expectations. Daljeet Sidhu is the author of this article.
