Merchant Services Rate Increases

Ahh.. Springtime! Flowers blooming, Temperatures rising, and your Merchant Services Processors’ rates rising again too? Really? During the time when your business has been down due to the slow economy and your costs are rising for accepting credit cards? Yes, your rates and fees you the business owner pay may be going up, way up depending on who you do business with. One Merchant Services processor announced they were raising their rates by .27%!! That’s a huge increase. But it doesn’t stop there. I’ve seen several other companies jump on the bandwagon and announce they have raised their rates too. The largest increase I’ve seen so far has been .45%. So if you were paying 2% you will now be paying 2.45%.



Please keep in mind this is not Visa, or MasterCard raising their rates, it is the greedy Merchant Services Processing companies!



Time to get your Statements out!! You should have received these in the mail by now. In the last paragraph on the last page of your statement is where they usually disclose (hide) the rate increase. It may be a % the rate is going up and/or a transaction fee ($ .xx) increase. It also states that if you continue to process with the company May 1st you have agreed to their rate increase.



It may be time to shop around for a different Merchant Services Provider if your current company is raising your rates. There are plenty of Merchant Services Providers out there that are not increasing their processing rates. If you are under a contract and are worried about a cancellation fee, the companies that are raising your rates are giving you an out by the way your contract is worded. If you protest the rate increase and say you are going to another Merchant Services processing company because you are not agreeing to their rate increase they should let you out without a penalty. Be firm and stand your ground.



I’m frightened at the number of business owners or those in charge of the books for companies, who don’t even bother opening their statements anymore! This industry is very broken and alot of the Merchant Services processors have made their statements so confusing and hard to read, that business owners quit opening them. This gives these companies a real easy way to raise rates and fees since all the alerts and communications are on the statements.



I’ve developed a Merchant Services Processor Questionnaire which will help be your guide to make sure you ask the right questions to get the best pricing, service, and terms.



I have been in the merchant services industry as an account executive (OK salesman, but account executive sounds better for over 9 years. I’m getting real tired of the games being played at your expense. I’m ready to shed some light on the industry and I’m on your side.



Go to savingmerchants.com for your Processor Questionnaire at no cost to you! Enter your name and email address and I’ll get that questionnaire sent to you immediately. You may be able to save several hundred to thousands of dollars per year by following the questionnaire and tips!



This is the first post of many to come so stay tuned!!