Frank has been writing about payment processing and business services since 2015. He is a retired Air Force officer and a former practicing attorney. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the Ventura College of Law, and currently resides in Paso Robles, California.
There are so many processing companies, they all seem to be doing more or less the same thing, and they all have both glowing testimonials and terrible complaints. How are you supposed to choose the best company under these circumstances? Who can you trust? Read on to find out.
While merchant account fees are definitely irritating (and expensive!), they're often an inevitable cost of doing business. Even if you sign up with a payment service provider like Square that doesn't charge monthly fees, you'll still be paying the costs associated with maintaining your account in the form of higher transaction processing rates.
Credit card surcharging has rapidly gained in popularity in recent years as court decisions, and legislative changes have gradually removed legal barriers to the practice. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has greatly accelerated this trend. Nonetheless, the question remains: Should you add a surcharge?
There's a lot to love about Helcim. What we love is that you won't have to worry about the bait-and-switch tactics and long-term, binding contracts that plague the industry. Helcim distinguishes itself from many other providers by offering no binding contracts, exclusive interchange-plus pricing, consistently good customer service, and low account fees.
Choosing a high-risk merchant account provider isn’t the same as working with other payment processors. You can expect different pricing and contract terms — but you shouldn’t compromise on customer service. Here are six great providers that offer great service, fair pricing, and reasonable contracts for small businesses.
A First Data contract can be hard to cancel right away. The main problem is that it has an early termination fee (ETF), which could get pretty hefty if you cancel at the wrong time. To pay less of the ETF, you might have to wait a few months. But there are other obstacles as well. In this article, we’ll explain how the cancellation process typically works. You’ll still have to read some of that contract, but we’ll help you find the relevant parts more quickly for quick lookups.
Closing a merchant account is never a simple process. Providers such as Worldpay go out of their way to make it as difficult as possible in the hopes of discouraging you from terminating your business relationship with them. We’ve laid out the specific steps that you’ll need to follow to do so successfully.
Whether you are aware of it or not, you use ACH to make payments every day. In fact, even when a payment is not called an ACH transaction, a portion of that process might still pass through the ACH network. This is because ACH payments form the backbone of money transfers between US banks.
Chargebacks happen to every merchant. In fact, you probably won’t be able to eliminate all chargebacks as long as you keep accepting credit cards. The best you can do is to contain them and reduce them to a small number. What is left is just a part of the cost of doing business.
If you’re ever curious about what card networks, card associations, or card brands are, and what these entities actually do (other than make you pay fees of various sorts), you’re at the right place. We’ll explain what card networks are, give you a little history about each, and provide a general framework for understanding how they fit into the business of credit card processing.
The processing industry is simply not the sort of place where you can expect everyone to be honest and treat you fairly. People in this business can and will take advantage of you – if you let them. Reading your contract before you sign up is your last line of defense against being stuck in a bad deal. Here are our best tips for reading and understanding your merchant contract.
Now more than ever, doctors’ offices and other healthcare providers need an affordable payment processing solution that is as user-friendly for the office staff as it is for patients. Our top providers fit the bill.
Zelle is a money transfer service meant to compete with Venmo and PayPal. Now even businesses can use Zelle to move money around and make payments — here’s what you need to know about using Zelle for business.
In the market for a mobile processing app and card reader? See how Square POS and SumUp compare in terms of pricing, features, customer support, and more.
Payment processing hardware can be expensive. But when you’re ready to start shopping for credit card machines or terminals, you need to know the pitfalls and your best alternatives. And please, whatever you do, don’t lease.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
