February 15th, 2010
Every couple of weeks, I like to browse the most recent payments industry articles that have been published online to see what people are saying. For the most part, I very rarely read anything that is not published by a reputable site. With that being said, I was shocked to read this weekend an article posted online by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) titled “For Businesses That Accept Cards, Tips for Cutting Fees“. The following is how this article started:
“When it comes to credit-card fees, bigger companies have more clout with issuers than small ones. But there are ways to minimize costly processing fees, from negotiating to shopping around. Here are eight tips.” – At this point, I am very intrigued! The author is right, bigger companies will always have more clout but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a low rate.
“Negotiate processing fees – To negotiate the interchange rate, which is set by Visa and MasterCard accounts for about three-quarters of merchants’ card acceptance fees, business owners should contact Visa and MasterCard directly, says Trish Wexler, a spokeswoman for the Electronic Payments Coalition, a group representing banks and credit-card networks.” - This statement is incorrect and it is articles like these that confuse merchants on what they should do. Unfortunately, you cannot call Visa and MasterCard directly to negotiate interchange rate as this rate is un-negotiable. There are over 300 interchange rates and though you may not be able to negotiate for a better rate, there are steps that you can take to make sure you process at the most optimal rate. If you would like more information on if you are processing at an optimal rate, contact your processor or us at The Processing Brokerage and we would be more than happy to point you in the right direction.
- The Processing Brokerage
Tags: Credit Card Processing, Credit Card Processing Fees, Interchange Fees, Processing Brokerage
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