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.
When you accept credit cards as payment, you are always charged a fee for processing. We’ll show you how fees work, which ones are mandatory, and which ones you can negotiate away or just skip by finding a great processor!
Wise’s low per-transaction fees, use of mid-market exchange rates, and fully transparent pricing make it a much more affordable option than banks or traditional money transfer services for most individuals and small businesses.
Credit card machines have evolved from having little more than simple transaction processing capabilities to today’s high-tech devices with color touch screens, multiple displays, and the ability to install additional software apps to help your run your business.
Not to be confused with National Processing Company (NPC), National Processing has a great reputation for customer service and transparency. See why it’s one of our top picks for credit card processing.
In a perfect world, you’d be able to take a series of proactive measures that would protect you from ever having to deal with chargebacks. Unfortunately, they’re an inevitable part of running a business that you’ll have to deal with sooner or later. For most merchants, chargebacks will only be an occasional irritant. For others, a high chargeback rate can lead to your business being classified as a high-risk merchant or even having your merchant account frozen or shut down. While we can’t make your business 100% chargeback-proof, we can help you to minimize their frequency and offer some tips on dealing with them when they inevitably occur.
More and more, and especially with the younger crowd, people just don’t carry cash anymore. To do business at all, small businesses need to be able to take some sort of payment card, be it debit or credit. Taking credit card payments can get expensive and complicated, but we’re here to help break it down for you.
This article will discuss PCI compliance, why it’s important, and how your merchant services provider treats it. We’ll look at the numerous ways in which providers charge (or don’t charge) for PCI compliance services and what kind of services you’ll receive. We’ll also discuss the dreaded PCI non-compliance fee and how you can avoid ever having to pay it.
If you want to sell online, you need a payment gateway. These days, small businesses have many options depending on how they run their business. Check out the best payment gateways for a variety of business types.
First Data Global Leasing has the dubious distinction of being among our rogue’s gallery of the processing industry’s worst credit card terminal leasing companies. While it offers high-quality products in the Clover line of terminals and POS systems, it’s disheartening that an industry leader such as Fiserv would condone awful business practices by a subsidiary.
Payment service providers (PSPs) streamline the process of obtaining credit card processing services by aggregating all users into a single merchant account. This eliminates the need for a lengthy underwriting process before a merchant can be approved for an account, but also increases the chance of a hold, freeze, or account termination. Your business will not receive a unique merchant ID number if you sign up with a payment service provider. Well-known PSPs include Square, PayPal, and Stripe.
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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.
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