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\nThere are literally thousands of organizations that can set you up with credit card processing. Of these thousands of businesses, there is a large percentage that is out there just to take your money. Finding a good merchant service provider is nearly as important as accepting credit cards itself.<\/p>\n
Start looking for a merchant account several months before you actually need it. Trying to desperately get setup in a hurry is the most common way businesses get locked into expensive contracts with poor providers.<\/p>\n
A Bad Provider:<\/strong> ‘Cheaper’<\/strong> is only a relative term in the processing industry. No provider is ever offered a significantly lower buy rate on the products and services that they sell. This means that since everything costs about the same to all providers, all providers need to charge about the same for their services. If a provider has much lower rates, then they are going to make the money up somewhere else. It’s that simple.<\/strong><\/p>\n A poor provider will usually solicit you in some way either spam email, telemarketing, or direct mail. If their service is that great, you would have found them and not the other way around. <\/p>\n They will almost always try to push leasing equipment and quote you huge prices on purchasing equipment. Purchasing equipment is always cheaper than leasing. This is further illustrated in this post: Why would you ever lease processing equipment?<\/a><\/p>\n A Good Provider:<\/strong> Time doesn’t lie in the processing industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n A good provider will be upfront with everything that you ask them. They will list all of the fees you will be charged, explain what they mean, and negotiate with you where they can if you are unhappy with their proposal. They will only charge you the fees that are required. Those ‘miscellaneous fee’ blocks on the application will be blank and they will never have an application or setup fee.<\/p>\n A good provider is also there to help you if there is ever a problem with your merchant account. Problems aren’t common but chances are you will have at least one at some time, especially if you are a new business. They will have some form of 24 \/ 7 technical support, and they will assign a single person to your merchant account who you can talk to directly if you ever have problems or questions.<\/p>\n Their advertised fees may not be the lowest on earth, but they are competitive and their service quality will make up for any pennies you would save otherwise.<\/p>\n When you talk to them for the first time, you should not feel any pressure to sign with them. It should be a comfortable conversation, and they should ask you questions about your business and history. This is a good time to clarify any questions that you have about their company or processing with them.<\/p>\n How To Find One:<\/strong> BBB – bbb.org<\/a> Talk to a representative from the company. Find out how long they have been in business, if they ever raise your rates themselves, and how many customers they have processing with them. If they claim to have hundreds of thousands, they are probably quoting you numbers from the company who provides the processing back-end and not their own figures. Again, this is a trust issue. Rates should only be raised due to an interchange increase. This is an across the board increase from Visa or MasterCard and is charged to everyone. Make sure their policy is to not raise rates except for interchange increases.<\/p>\n Nothing happens overnight in the processing industry, so don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get dragged into a contract with a 3 days only sales line.<\/p>\n Request them to fax you an application. You are still under no obligation just because you got a fax from them. Look it over, and see what they are charging you for. Look for things like miscellaneous fees, monthly fees, and yearly fees. These are what some providers use to make up those extra dollars for their too-low processing rates.<\/p>\n
\nA poor merchant service provider will get your businesses setup to accept credit cards, but with poor service and at a more expensive price than a good provider. Poor providers often only focus on how cheap they are. Cheap prices are often synonymous with cheap quality services.<\/p>\n
\nA good provider is a company that has been in business for long enough to have good experience with every possible type of business. The merchant service industry is very competitive, and a business that has been around knows what they need to do to provide a good service.<\/p>\n
\nThe best place to look for a good provider is the internet. You can easily browse through provider websites without ever committing yourself to anyone. You should also research any company that you are considering to ensure that they are who they say they are and that they have good history. Check their business information with the BBB, Hoovers, and look for any negative websites, and reviews of them. If they have an entire website devoted to how terrible they are, they must be doing something wrong.<\/p>\n
\nHoovers – hoovers.com<\/a><\/p>\n