It doesn’t matter how big or small your business is – if you take business credit cards, you can qualify for better rates. B2B transactions don’t have to cost more. Note: Unfortunately, in October 2017, Visa raised its rates for some commercial transactions and businesses won’t save as much by providing Level 2 or Level […]
You have probably been told that business credit cards are expensive to process. What you haven’t been told is that there are steps you can take to get lower pricing.
Stay Informed We’ve updated this article several times and will continue to do so. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for the latest news. Please let us know in the comments how you’ve been charged this fee. What is a Merchant Location Fee? When will I be charged the Merchant Location Fee? What does the Merchant […]
In keeping with the steady flow of fee increases from the card brands, MasterCard has (very) quietly announced it will begin charging businesses an annual “merchant location fee.”
In order to understand CPS, you need to understand the fundamentals of interchange and interchange qualification. I’ll briefly cover them in this article. If you’re interested in learning more, which I encourage, check out related articles on the topics of interchange and processor pricing models on CardFellow’s blog. Note: As of summer 2023, Visa has […]
CPS is an acronym associated with some Visa interchange categories. It stands for Custom Payment Service.
In a nutshell, Visa’s CPS allows a business to qualify transactions to an interchange category with a lower rate by following a set of rules.
It’s pretty clear from our Wells Fargo Merchant Services review that we don’t hold the company’s credit card processing services in the highest regard. We formed this opinion over many years of reviewing quotes, applications, and statements that push opaque, overly aggressive pricing. One of our least favorite tactics in Wells Fargo’s arsenal of tricks […]
Wells Fargo Merchant Services slips an opaque “Interchange Clearing Fee” into its interchange-plus pricing, adding more proof to the fact that interchange-plus does not guarantee competitive credit card processing fees.
Note: These fees were more common early after the EMV liability shift took place in 2015, but they can still apply for businesses that haven’t upgraded to chip-capable equipment. As time goes on, we anticipate these fees to be eliminated (or change into something else) as machines that can’t accept chip cards are phased out […]
The EMV liability shift has come and gone, and you probably know that if you don’t have an EMV-capable terminal to take chip cards, you’re liable for fraudulent transactions. But did you know that you may be subject to an EMV non-compliance fee, EMV non-enabled fee, or EMV non-acceptance fee?
Several months ago American Express introduced OptBlue, which is a new pricing structure that will replace the company’s current One Point pricing for most businesses. OptBlue’s pricing functions similarly to that of Visa and MasterCard’s interchange in that processors pay “wholesale” rates to American Express and apply their markup through a cost-plus or tiered pricing model.
American Express’s OptBlue program provides the possibility of lower Amex fees for businesses that know what to look for.
You’re setting yourself up for an expensive failure by shopping for the “best credit card processing rates.”
Credit card processing rates are a decoy that distracts from the variables that really impact cost. The biggest mistake you can make when shopping credit card processing services is to ask a bunch of processors the fateful question, “What’s your rate?”
The key to lowering your business’s credit card processing expense is not avoiding non-qualified fees. The key is completely eliminating a processor’s qualification altogether. Who Determines Rate Qualification Non-Qualified Interchange Non-Qualified Credit Cards Over-Simplifying Qualification Qualified Rate Mid-Qualified Rate Non-Qualified Rate Eliminating Non-Qualified Fees Who Determines Rate Qualification Qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified rates are set […]
If your business is paying qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified charges to process credit cards, it’s paying too much. In fact, businesses that find a processor through CardFellow typically lower fees by as much as 40% by eliminating non-qualified rates.
Use the secrets that credit card processors don't want you to know to drastically lower your credit card processing fees.
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