Shopping for Credit Card Processing rates
“Give me your best rate!” Those are the words that any Sales Rep in the merchant service industry will agree are by far the most dreaded. Upon uttering those 5 words, it is almost certain that the conversation is headed down a dark road. But I have to say, I don’t often blame the merchant; IF they can remain malleable to hearing me out.
When a merchant starts “shopping” for credit card processing, they are drawn to a company’s site by numbers. Whether it’s a discount rate or a terminal price, the merchant will click on the lowest number they see on their Google search page. What the merchant doesn’t know is that, 9 times out of 10, the numbers they see are most definitely not what they are going to get.
The notion of “what you see is what you get” does not apply to the merchant service industry in most cases. So when a merchant tells me flat out to give them my “best rate” I try to back them up about 10 paces and explain to them that a merchant account is made up of many more elements than one single rate, and it is crucial that they look at each and every rate and fee for all the companies they are researching. I tell them they must take the time to do a TRUE “apples to apples” comparison to in order to truly assess which company has the best overall deal.
Chances are good that the company who offered them a 1.18% has a $25 monthly minimum and a 3 year contract with a $200 early termination fee. It frustrates me to see how many merchants take these “low rate” numbers at face value and end up getting burned.
In summation, I encourage merchants to “shop around” as long as they are doing so from an educated place where they ARE looking at the whole package and are not staying fixed on one rate, using that as their basis for comparison between companies.
Erin Leddy – Account Executive
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