Do you know the route your application takes to get to underwriting for approval? Data security is presumed in the merchant services industry, but it shouldn’t be. Background checks are required to sell merchant services, but what kind of training do salespeople get on data security? A lot of salespeople work from home, using their personal computers and smartphones. Since your application will contain all the information needed to become a victim of identity theft, ask questions about how it will be secured.  If you’re given the option to send your application via email, don’t bother asking these, call a different company.

1. Do you work from home? (Salespeople review applications for accuracy and add additional internal documents before turning in to management.)
2. Do you personally keep a copy of my merchant application? (HIGH RISK: Only corporate should have access to your personal data.)
3. What kind of shredder do you have?  (Whether stored at home or not, sensitive data WILL be printed at home. Who hasn’t brought work home at least occasionally?  A cross cut shredder is an essential part of a secure home office.)
4. How long do you store my application on your computer? (If it’s ever stored on the computer, the answer should be no longer than ‘until it’s approved by underwriting’. )
5. What’s your  process to remove from your computer? (Secure delete or Erase is critical. Moving to the trash can or recycle bin is not secure at all, as the data is still on the computer. )

There’s lots of other questions that could be asked, but if the person passes the above, he or she is likely following other security steps too.  In my opinion, if the salesperson doesn’t know this much about data security, they probably don’t know a heck of a lot about how to help you mitigate fraud or identity theft risk, or manage the cost of accepting credit cards either. Digital security and merchant services are synonymous.

At what point does it make financial sense to convert from a Paypal to a regular merchant account? I frequently recommend new small businesses start out with a Paypal account initially. There are factors you need to consider in making this decision, including risk of chargeback and whether you’ll be in front of your customer at the time the payment is needed. Below we examine two  business scenario’s and solutions. Both have customers that pay mostly by check or cash so credit card volume is low.

• A home improvement company meets with customers in person. Multiple salespeople are in the field so traditional wireless devices could be expensive. Some customers make a decision later and fax over their signed contracts.
• A boat towing service company has a fleet of part time captains that respond to emergencies on the water. Most customers pay cash so the credit Traditional wireless devices are impractical due to the number needed and inability to withstand weather elements.

All companies have their service personnel call in the credit card information for an approval over the phone, or they key enter it back in the office later.

Charge slips are impractical and expose the company to risk of a data breach whether through internal or external theft. Paypal is month to month, enabling new businesses to test the waters and build credit card volume before seeking prices from traditional merchant services companies. On the negative side, deposits to your bank account will usually take 3-5 days.  A merchant account will deposit funds to your bank in 1-2 days automatically, and deduct fees once per month.

Paypal is $30 per month plus the table below:

Paypal -month to month, no application fee. Deposits to your Paypal account, then you have to manually transfer it to your bank account which takes 3-5 days. Fees are deducted from every transaction, so you receive net transaction deposit. Some find this to be inconvenient for accounting.

Merchant account- Usually a 3 year agreement, and penalty for early termination and application fee may apply. Deposits to your bank account in 1-2 days and fees are deducted via ACH monthly.

How much will a merchant account cost? All credit card processing fees are based on interchange rates.  There are hundreds of rates. Hardly anyone charges $30/mth, so if your volume is low, be sure to include this when calculating your effective rate.

PAYPAL VS MERCHANT ACCOUNT FEE COMPARISON

The chart below shows examples of multiple scenarios of credit card processing for card not present transactions.  Foreign cards can have a major impact. Paypal charges 1% for foreign bank issued cards and most merchant accounts will pass through the extra fee which varies from .4% to .6% depending on the card brand. The chart assumes NO foreign cards which is a bit unrealistic.

Every situation will vary by number of transactions, types of transactions and actual merchant account fees. For your convenience, you can download the excel spreadsheet above and put in your own numbers. This spreadsheet is offered FREE for your convenience. It may not be used for commercial purposes, nor modified and distributed without express written permission from 3D Merchant Services.

Click to download the xls file Paypal vs merchant account fee calculator .
If you need a Paypal merchant account, click the image below.

If you use Costco’s credit card processing partner, Elavon, which acquired Nova in 2009, or another processor, then your price plan likely includes prices tiers such as qualified,  mid qualified, and non-qualified. This is where merchants have a difficult time comparing processor quotes and get upset when the bills come in.

We reported the latest 2011 rates in the Costco program with Elavon earlier this year. They offer a low Visa/MasterCard qualified rate. It’s an attention getter, no doubt. Here are some 2010 statistics about cards being used by consumers:

• Visa’s overall volume is 60% check cards, MasterCard 35% check cards.
• Only 10% of all card volume is traditional cards- no business or rewards.

Here are the Costco member Elavon published 2011 rates  again:

Visa/MasterCard Qualified (Traditional Credit & Signature Debit) 1.48% plus $0.20 (reduced)
Visa/MasterCard Qualified Rewards 2.20% plus $0.20 (increased)
Visa/MasterCard Partially Qualified 2.96% plus $0.33
Commercial Non-Qualified 2.96% plus $0.33
MasterCard Non-Qualified 3.80% plus $0.33

As previously reported in April 2010 Costco, Elavon, Nova and merchant rates, I’m still neutral for accounts processing under $100,000 annually. Qualified means retail card swiped in the above numbers. Why neutral? As I’ve said before, if you process $5000 or $10000, there’s not much difference in suppliers if you saved even .5% in fees.

At $20,000/mth, the difference in what you’re really paying- remember most cards are rewards related-on the Elavon plan vs a plan we can put you on can start making a difference.

3D Merchant Services specializes in mid-size businesses. As part of our  giving back to Help American Businesses Prosper program, we’re now accepting up to four small businesses per month into our partner portfolio. After all, we were a small business at one time too. Businesses will receive preferred partner credit card processing terms and education to make their businesses secure while controlling costs.

Merchants love the integration of credit card processing within Quickbooks, but not everyone likes the price offered by Intuit. For years they had a monopoly and offered only one option, their own, for processing.

Can I use an alternative credit card processor for Quickbooks? Yes. You can license a Quickbooks plugin for a monthly fee.  At 3D Merchant, we only offer this service to customers who also contact us for processing. In other words, you can’t get the plug-in and process with someone else.

NOTICE: We are seeking a few select accounts to test a new Quickbooks plugin. Minimum processing two million annually. This plugin offers significant differences from traditional plugins. You’ll have all the standard benefits PLUS web-based reporting, advanced fraud protection, least cost routing, and much more. Payment options include traditional retail, web, mobile, and phone,mail, or fax. Free use of system during beta testing and special reduced pricing afterwards!

Law firms accept payments that need to be deposited into different bank accounts, depending on the purpose, such as general account and trust account. Does this mean you need two separate merchant accounts, and therefore incur the costs for two accounts?  Yes.

The main objective is to get the deposits into the correct bank accounts. This requires two merchant accounts which results in two completely different merchant statements, and their associated fees etc. What if you don’t want merchant fees to be deducted from the trust account? This can create issues for your trust account balances. This can be especially difficult for Paypal users which deducts funds from each transaction immediately, creating reconcilation challenges.

With CenPOS, our hosted payment platfom solution, and a compatible processor, you can set up to 5 different bank accounts per merchant account (MID)*. Your bank accounts will reflect exactly the correct balances you require.

For example:
Funding (credits) can be set to one bank account.
Debits (fees) to another bank account.
Disbursement of Debits (Fees, retrievals/chargebacks etc) can also be set per bank account within that one MID.

* Currently compatible with certain Paymentech and First Data merchant accounts.

Do you want to see revenue reports by attorney? Typical merchant account reports have no connection to that, however, our platform lets you set up a heirarchy so you can dynamically generate real-time reports globally across multiple merchant accounts. You can also drill down, much like an organization flow chart, to segments of the top level.

Another benefit for lawyers is TOKEN BILLING. See related article Virtual Terminal Solutions for Attorney’s.

CenPOS is compatible with swipe devices if your clients usually meet you in the office, or you can use the virtual terminal if you collect payments over the phone.

I often hear from CFO’s that more credit card processing companies call on them than any other vendor. So with over 100-1000 calls per year, how do merchants sort through it all and choose your blog host? Tenacity is often cited, but that’s only part of the equation. My keys:

1. Education on pricing- I educate customers on the 4 core elements including which costs are negotiable, which are not, which can be influenced, and which ones may vary by vendor (some may have higher fixed costs than others).
2. Reporting- You must have completely transparent reports in order to identify the costs above, as well as to manage them. I show you what a transparent report looks like and help you understand it. How do you use data for reconciliation?
3. Interchange management. Once you have the right pricing and detailed reports, it’s time to attack interchange qualification. Most of your money, over 95% is paid in interchange fees. Many merchants think the processor gets the money, but that’s not the case. Ensuring you hit the lowest interchange for any given card presented is the next step.
This can be achieved through many different methods, and will never be completely transparent to the merchant because you simply cannot see everything that goes into why a transaction qualifies. With good reporting, you CAN find out why a transaction downgraded. But of course, you’d also have to know WHICH transactions downgraded and WHY in order to fix it. An expert is really needed for this step. Someone who will ‘watch your back’. That’s where I come in. I’ll do most of this behind the scenes and we’ll also have Webex conferences to review your account, including a statement review.
4. Continuing Education- Let’s face it we’re all busy people and sometimes don’t have time to get to anything new unless it’s forced upon us. I’m your force. If something must be done, like PCI Compliance, you’ll hear from me. If there’s new technology (from any vendor) you can implement that will make your job easier, I’ll call you. I’ll advise you of pros and cons, risks and rewards, and quantify it whenever possible so you can focus on what you do best.

* (If you were not aware of the above before, would you go back to your old processor and renegotiate, or would you say, they’ve earned the right to have my business? If you intend to go back to your processor don’t disappear, thank me by paying me a fee to help you renegotiate your contract.)

Cost reduction specialists choose 3D Merchant Services to partner with for credit card processing because we offer value added services just like they do.  Cost reduction specialists look for ways to reduce credit card processing costs and frequently are paid on a contingency basis. Merchants don’t switch processors just to save money though. They need a bigger reason than that.

Merchants hear from sales people every day “I can lower your costs.”  While some cost reductions are achieved with merchant discount changes, most long term savings are achieved through interchange management. There’s also improved efficiencies (save time) which can be huge. If the cost reduction specialist uses just the  ‘save money’ approach, they’ll lose more deals than ‘save money AND get more benefits’.

Our competitive advantage:

• PCI Compliance Certification Assistance.
• Fortune 100 Pricing Structure.
• Relationship Manager proactively helps you manage costs; regular account reviews.
• On demand access to transaction details and reports you really want.
• Tools and resources to prevent internal and external fraud.
• Hardware/software agnostic- compatible with most systems.

Our Top 5 vertical markets: ( not in order)

• Retail, especially durable goods, automotive, construction supplies and electronics.
• Non-profit
• Wholesale building supply; any Business to Business (B2B)
• Hotel and entertainment (golf, amusement)
• Ecommerce

Market niche comments:

• Card not present transactions have many potential cost and risk problems. We’re seeking B2B, insurance, medical billing and non-profits in particular.
• For retail stores processing more than $1 million per month, our CenPOS technology solution is frequently desirable and has benefits not available from other competitors.
• Our average merchant is processing a minimum of $1 million annually.

Service reliability- I hope that this is a non-issue in any organization. Downtime is non-existent in my experience.

Another worry for merchants is the process of changing.  We address this upfront with an implementation schedule. Both parties need to have all elements or questions answered completely before we start to ensure a smooth and flawless transition.

For the Cost Reduction Specialist to prove savings, and thus get paid, you’ll need reporting that shows not only costs, but the full detail of all costs. Merchant reports show full details so that you can discern non-negotiable cost increases (such as an interchange rate increase) that are out of anyone’s control.

Our services are not limited to just credit card processing. We offer services for all aspects of payment processing, including checks, loyalty cards and more.

We conduct account reviews, training, and other conference calls using Webex, a web based meeting program that allows us to exchange voice, data, pictures and video in real time with customers, and you, regardless of location.

Volusion references the standard fees for merchant accounts as Discount rate, Transaction fee, and Statement fee. Then additional fees you can avoid if you use Volusion which include the application fee, set-up fee, and customer support.

For the small business, all of the above is true. Most ecommerce businesses are offered rates that fit the above description. But what if you are processing hundreds of thousands or millions annually? If you are paying the above fees and nothing else, then actual costs are being averaged with a healthy profit built in.

How do I know this? Because EVERYONE PAYS INTERCHANGE. It doesn’t matter if you get your account from a bank, an independent service provider, or your local wholesale buyers club.  Interchange varies with hundreds of different rules creating hundreds of different rates, but in essence interchange for ecommerce includes a percentage rate and a per transaction fee. Then there are other fees such as the cross border fee, Visa misuse of authorization, authorization ( frequently bundled), MasterCard Brand Usage fee, and yes, the merchant discount.

If you are paying one fee, or a few fees, then your processor has estimated what their actual costs will be based on certain historical trends, then mark it up and charge you that.  The processor WILL ALWAYS estimate a healty profit to make sure they don’t lose money, because THEY PAY INTERCHANGE and associated costs, not bundled pricing. In summary, bundled fees equals higher costs and fees that are broken out into minute detail have the potential * to be the lowest cost.

Why the POTENTIAL and not the actual lowest cost? The same card could go through at 2.2% OR 2.95%. This is for another discussion. Basically, you need to see what interchange levels you hit so that you can MANAGE interchange qualification. Yes, you can manage costs. Well, probably not you, but with an expert service like what we provide, you’ll hit a lot more at 2.2% vs 2.95%. And we’ll get you wholesale prices instead of bundled rate packages.

Compare your Gateway and processor with one company vs two companies. After the initial account set up it’s virtually unheard of to have any problems with either the gateway or the processor if you are using quality companies. Volusion isn’t in the payment processing business. They outsource and get a referral fee. I believe you should pick the best gateway to achieve specific needs and the same for the processor. For example, do you need a virtual terminal? How important is online reporting for reconciliation? I think this is really a non-issue and I’m personally indifferent as to the benefits of using one or two companies. You should be too.

What is the application process like? Why is it faster with some processors vs others? It’s not because the application is vastly different, it’s almost always the quality of pricing and services you are hoping to get. I can place you with one merchant processor and have it approved in days but another might take a week or two. The longer process is for a provider that does a more thorough underwriting review and requires additional documentation beyond the basics. The benefits are numerous including ‘best in world’ online reporting and true wholesale pricing.

In conclusion, the overall Volusion merchant accounts 101 is a great starter review. However, unless you are a very small business, you can do better with pricing and other benefits without sacrificing service and quality.  I like the Volusion shopping cart and their service and I recommend them. Like all shopping carts though, you really need a thorough understanding of what you need to accomplish on both the front and back end to determine the best solution for you. That’s why there are so many carts out there- because people have different needs.