So, we do some decent ecommerce volume, enough to get us the lowest per-transaction fees from nearly all payment processors.
I started looking around and was enticed by some of the promises made, and then started to notice wildly fluctuating rates/fees based on the type of card and loyalty program.
Anyhow, here are 10 questions to ask any payment processor you're considering.
1. What are the rates, or additional fees that will be charged when I accept the following cards? Corporate, Business, Signature, or Rewards cards
2. What are the rates, or additional fees that will be charged when I key in a credit card manually, or accept a credit card online?
3. What is your gateway fee and your authorization fee? Do you charge additional gateway fees and/or authorization fees?
4. What fees are charged when I refund a transaction? Do I get any of the original fees paid refunded to me?
5. Is there a contract term? If so, what is it? If I close my account prior to that term, what are the fees associated with the early termination?
6. Do you do any bill backs or are all charges related to all transactions billed in the same month? Or is it possible that I pay more fees for the same transactions in two separate months?
7. What is your statement fee and web access fee?
8. Is there a monthly minimum processing requirement and/or fee?
9. Do you charge an annual (or monthly) fee?
10. Do you charge a PCI compliance fee?
Its immaterial who I ended up going (or staying) with, because your situation will be different depending on volume.
I started looking around and was enticed by some of the promises made, and then started to notice wildly fluctuating rates/fees based on the type of card and loyalty program.
Anyhow, here are 10 questions to ask any payment processor you're considering.
1. What are the rates, or additional fees that will be charged when I accept the following cards? Corporate, Business, Signature, or Rewards cards
2. What are the rates, or additional fees that will be charged when I key in a credit card manually, or accept a credit card online?
3. What is your gateway fee and your authorization fee? Do you charge additional gateway fees and/or authorization fees?
4. What fees are charged when I refund a transaction? Do I get any of the original fees paid refunded to me?
5. Is there a contract term? If so, what is it? If I close my account prior to that term, what are the fees associated with the early termination?
6. Do you do any bill backs or are all charges related to all transactions billed in the same month? Or is it possible that I pay more fees for the same transactions in two separate months?
7. What is your statement fee and web access fee?
8. Is there a monthly minimum processing requirement and/or fee?
9. Do you charge an annual (or monthly) fee?
10. Do you charge a PCI compliance fee?
Its immaterial who I ended up going (or staying) with, because your situation will be different depending on volume.