MERCHANT SERVICE FEES ARE AS EASY AS 1, 2, 3!
Give us three minutes and we will walk you through three things that should make up your merchant processing fees.
Let's get started. Below are the three things that make up what you are charged to process a transaction.
1.
Interchange Fees: This is the majority of all fees paid by the merchant and vary on a percentage basis from .05% + 3.25%. This fee goes to the issuer of the card which are banks like Chase, Capital One, Citibank, Bank of America and the list goes on to include American Express and Discover.
2.
Card Brand Fees: These are fees charged on transactions and paid to the card brands (Visa, MasterCard etc). These fees can be a small percentage, a few pennies or part of a penny on each transaction. These fees have many names and are charged by the card brands.
3.
Processing fees: These are the fees charged to process transactions, maintain your merchant account, and provide customer service.
Let's take things a step further:
As we stated above interchange (1) is the biggest expense and if you click on the links below you will go to the Visa/MasterCard websites and see all the different rates which should appear on your merchant statement unless you have a bundled rate like Square 2.65% + 0.10₵.
Bundled rates have to be priced high because the merchant may only accept the most expensive card types.
Click on the links below to get an idea of the range of the interchange rates for Visa/MasterCard.
Visa Card Brand Link
MasterCard Brand Link
Discover Card Brand**
American Express Card Brand**
**American Express and Discover: Please call us for the latest interchange rates pricing as the American Express and Discover rates are not disclosed on their websites.
Next are the card brand fees (2) which are the fees charged by each brand and this is where they earn their money. Give us a call and we will be glad to send you the latest card brand fees.
Lastly, our processing fees (3) are extremely competitive and volume based. Send us your merchant statement so we can show you what transparency looks like or give us a call to get a direct quote!
Our goal is to help educate you on the fees you should be paying and provide some transparency!
What is PCI?
PCI Compliance – PCI - DSS
PCI Compliance is about providing a safe processing environment where the card data is protected no matter where the card is data is entered: in the store, on your network, or on your website . That involves making sure your computer, your network, and your website are all secure and no cardholder data is being stored. We are here to assist you in meeting the card brands guidelines as outlined under the PCI Security Standards.
To learn more about PCI requirements please click the link below to go to the PCI Security Standard Website.
