| Credit Card Merchant Account Pricing Information |
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This is a brief introduction to some components of pricing that you should be aware of as a business owner. This article will help you know enough about pricing a merchant account so that you don't get taken advantage of when you're negotiating with your merchant service provider on your account.
This is a brief introduction to some components of pricing that you should be aware of as a business owner. This article will help you know enough about pricing a merchant account so that you don't get taken advantage of when you're negotiating with your merchant service provider on your account. Each business owner will pay a discount rate which is a percentage of the gross volume processed. If the discount rate is 1.7%, the merchant will pay $1.70 for every $100 of volume. So, for merchants processing $10,000 or more per month, each .1% represents $10. So a discount rate of 1.3% vs. a discount rate of 1.9% will save that merchant $60 per month on just the discount alone which is an annual savings of $720. This can add up quickly, so it's important to keep this rate low. Your discount rate is determined by the risk your business may represent to the bank. The more risky your account, the higher the discount rate. The type of cards you process may also influence your discount rate, such as a business credit card vs. a check card, or rewards card for instance. You'll also have a per transaction fee for each transaction. The lower your average ticket or average transaction, the greater percentage of the overall fees the per transaction fee represents. For instance, if your average ticket item is $10, a $.25 per transaction fee represents a 2.5% "effective rate". If you add a traditional discount rate of 1.3% or so, your total effective rate would be 3.8% which is high, or at least higher than it could be. If you have a per transaction of $.17, the same $10 transaction would have a 1.7% transaction rate which would reduce your overall effective rate on those smaller ticket items. Your goal should be to get your effective rate as low as you possibly can. You will typically have a monthly fee associated with any merchant account. This is sometimes referred to as a customer service fee, statement fee, or monthly account maintenance fee. You shouldn't be paying too much for this fee. It shouldn't be more than about $10 per month. There is also a monthly minimum that is usually charged on merchant accounts as well. This is a $25 minimum fee based on the discount rate. Any given month, the $25 worth of discount fees is charged. So, if you process $1000 per month at 1.7%, you'll be assessed $17 worth of discount fees. If your minimum is $25, you'd pay the extra $8 worth of fees to equal the $25. These are the main fees associated with any merchant account. Of course, there are more fees that will apply to certain types of accounts, such as an internet-based account or a wireless account which may have additional fees. There are also some per instance fees such as insufficient funds fee, chargeback, retrieval fees, AVS fees, batch header fees, and other misc. fees. Your sales representative should know and be able to explain any and all of these fees. Be sure to work with a merchant service provider and a sales representative that you can trust. The industry is a lucrative one and attracts both the honest and dishonest sales reps. Having said that, make sure you review the "fine print" and pricing pages for the application before you commit to work with a merchant services provider. Author: You can contact Brian through his website dedicated to providing information on business merchant accounts. He has been setting up merchant accounts for all types of businesses now since 2001. You can find more information on his website at MerchantHotline.com. |
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