July 29th, 2005 by Jamie Estep
Deciphering Your Credit Card Statements
Filed in: Merchant Accounts |
I can’t count the number of times that I have been asked to help a merchant decipher their credit card statement. What is worse, is that I have failed to accurately do this several times in the past. Of all areas in the credit card processing industry that needs a touch up, statements rank near the top of my list. Compare your monthly statement to another business. Even if you both process through the same company, chances are that your statements look completely different. Not just in numbers which is expected, but in terms and layout as well.
Merchant Service Providers are the group that is responsible for providing their customers with good support. Unfortunately Merchant Service Providers have no control over how a statement is calculated or laid out. This is entirely up to the processor that the merchant is processing through. Processors seem to try and make the statement as difficult as possible to understand. Processors also like to change the layout of the statements about every 6 months. Just when you think you are starting to understand your statement, they go and change the whole thing.