Professional Merchant Payment Processor
Knowing what to ask before deciding to employ a credit-card processors will save you a great deal time, conversational tone and there are various of specific questions it is better to understand the answers to prior to deciding to even begin the process. Understanding these key focus points helps to reduce the possibility of being surprised by any unwelcome surprises once you have signed your merchant contract.
When comparing merchant accounts, the area to start is with the fees. Contrary to what you might first think, seeing initial low fees might not be an excellent thing, in fact as merchant processors will be in the business of making money heavily advertised "low" fees may indicate that the processor's contract will have hidden fees and charges that go into effect after a time period. Considering that the bank card companies charge every merchant account provider the same floor rates, merchant providers should for the most part be offering similar rate packages throughout the board; if they have lowered their advertised rates below the "floor rates" or at the floor rates, they are going to be padding their margins in other areas. Beware offers which are too good to be true, or are completely out of line with what you've got received from other merchant processors.
In choosing a merchant account processor, it's also advisable to be careful of the provider's advertisements that will be misleading or purely dishonest. If they are not being honest with their advertisements, it really is probably that they will not care about their customers at a later date. It's always best to check and research the company, especially should they are using convincing blurbs like, 'Lowest Rates Guaranteed', '$500 Cash Reward in the event you can locate a Lower Rate', and many others by which some will be just gimmicks. We should keep in mind that Visa and MasterCard regulations require a business to disclose who their sponsoring bank is whenever they are mentioned in the advertisement. Once again your focus should be on overall cost and not the minimum rate you may find.
One of the most overlooked and yet in my mind the most important things to investigate when selecting the top merchant service, is the merchant providers customer service. In my talks with small business owners that have had significant trouble with their accounts occasionally, they always state that they can pay double their current rates if it meant they could get their issue taken care of. Luckily you may test this before you buy a merchant account by asking for their customer service department's telephone number before signing up for an account. A savvy business owner can try calling their customer service line to view should they have actual live people answering their phone, and how long it takes to talk with someone. You should also find out whenever they have a toll-free number and what their hours are. You may even ask for potential references of current customers to see what their experience has been thus far with the company and their customer support department.
Performing a close examination of the site provides you with an idea of regardless of whether the merchant account provider is a person who has been in business for a while and also will remain. How several years the provider has been in business may be stated within the About Us section; make sure to give their website a comprehensive work through, if pages are broken or links do not work, what does that say to their commitment to keeping things operational.
Most significant is to fully read each processor's contract, and statement of rates and fees, prior to deciding to sign it. Do not sign document with the promise of getting the full contract by fax in several days, the range of horror stories from merchants who discovered that this document included a 3 year contract, by having an early termination fee of over $300 (despite being promise there was no "cancellation fee") are countless, and appear to be growing as more and more businesses graduate from using third party processors to full merchant accounts.
