NBS Agents >> Merchant Account Agent and ISO Programs

I think its 1% to 5% that a credit card company makes from the merchant when I use my credit card.
True or False?
Higher or Lower?
Will the new laws that are trying to get passed lower this?
I know credit card companies make billions in profits from merchants like walmart in credit card processing fees.

The people that really make the credit cards happy are the ones that charge everything under the sun on the card – charging up possible 1,000 a month easily and pay in full
By reducing the merchant fees, will credit cards not like those customers anymore since it will be less profit from them.?
I can ask tough questions and always get amazing answers. Thank you so far.

you are somewhat incorrect.

merchant fees are negotiable. they usually involve a fixed amount per transaction plus a percentage. high volume merchants, like walmart, can negotiate lower fees. fees also tend to be lower for debit cards used in debit mode(enter your pin instead of sign).

credit card companies(mostly banks) absolutely hate people who pay off their balances in full every month, like me. as they get no chance for any additional interest earnings when i fail to carry a balance.

I need a merchant account to process credit cards online, can I open one online?

It’s easy to open a merchant account online. There are many merchant account providers that will let you process credit cards online. PayPal is a popular choice.

But if you need more features that require a true merchant account, I’ve found this one below to be quite helpful in getting setup .. http://www.ElectronicTransferService.com .. it’s pretty fast to get setup and their fees are very reasonable.

You also get a free merchant account when you setup your payment gateway through them.

Hope that helps!

All of my credit cards clearly state, "not valid unless signed", so I sign them and indicate that I also show ID with every transaction.

As a college business office, can I refuse to accept a credit card that isn’t signed by the customer and is therefore invalid? Can any merchant refuse to accept an unsigned credit card for payment?

signature block, and I very rarely even get asked to see my ID. The only place that has refused to take my credit card that was was some anal old biddy at the post office, even though all the other clecrks are fine with checking my signature against a government issues ID card. It seems to me that if the credit card comes back "approved" and you check the signature of the customer against a government ID you should be covered.

i am having someone develop a site for my new company and i want to have an ecommerce section. i use quikbooks now and love it and would like to use Intuit’s merchant services for my customer’s shopping cart functions. is this possible in wordpress? if so, any walk-throughs or instructions online?

This will not be a free Wordpress at Wordpress.com – you can’t advertise there.

For any shopping cart service, you will have to buy a domain name, have it hosted at a hosting company compatible to your shopping cart. You can also have wordpress installed on the domain – but you don’t really need to.

Looking at the intuit.com site, they say hosting packages with large companies such as homestead, godaddy, ultracart are all compatible with their payment method. So what you do is get a hosting package with either the Fantastico (Cpanel product) or other MySQL database – install Wordpress on the database – hook it up to the shopping cart (make sure you get a SSL), then connect it to your merchant services. Sounds complicated, but not really.

When we make a purchase online, can the merchant (payee) actually see our credit card details such as number, name and CVV(2)? I’m fell insecure if the merchant can see it.

This depends on how the merchant processes the transaction. Typically the merchant account will have a payment processing service linked to their merchant account, when you make a purchase online, you will be directed (often transparently) to the "gateway" where the card details are taken and the payment is processed – the merchant doesn’t ever get to see the details of your card. It is possible, tho not common, that the merchant can take your card details for later processing – if this is the case then its likely that the merchant will be storing your card details and then processing them through their offline channels such as virtual terminal or phone verification – this is perfectly legitimate but like I say, this is very uncommon particuarly in eCommerce where transactions are normally processed their and then, electronically through a secure merchant gateway.

Make sure that whenever you are paying online that you are in a secure environment – that means that the website address will begin https:// instead of http:// meaning that anything you type/submit is encrypted.

http://www.paymentsense.co.uk

I have a small business and my clients dont like PayPal. Can anyone suggest a good merchant that I can use that is reputable and easy to work with (phone, online, swipe), thank you.

Costco merchant Services

This is my kids tuition collection service, so it’s not the neighborhood pizza parlor where you shrug you shoulders and pay.

It comes out to A LOT of money on an ongoing basis.

So my question is whether VISA allows this under some merchant agreements, or is it worth threatening them with a complaint?

According to VISA’s website, merchants "may not
impose any surcharge on a Visa transaction. You may, however, offer a discount
for cash transactions, provided that the offer is clearly disclosed to customers
and the cash price is presented as a discount from the standard price charged for
all other forms of payment."
Convenience fees are allowed:
"For merchants who offer an alternate payment channel for customers to pay for
goods or services, a convenience fee may be added to the transaction amount.
If the merchant chooses to assess a convenience fee to its customers, the merchant
must adhere to the following rules:
• The fee is being charged for a bona fide convenience of using an alternative
payment channel outside of the merchant’s normal business practice (see
example below).
• The fee:
– must be disclosed to the customer as a charge for the convenience of
using the alternate method to pay
– is applied only to non face-to-face transactions
– must be a flat or fixed amount, regardless of the amount of the
payment due
– is applied to all forms of payment products accepted in the
alternative payment channel
– is included as part of the total transaction amount
– cannot be added to a recurring transaction
– is assessed by the merchant that provides the goods or services to the
cardholder and not a third party
• The customer must be given the opportunity to cancel prior to the completion
of the transaction"

I need to process credit cards for customers of my small business.
I own a computer repair shop – service, sales, and support.
Most of my transactions are between $50-150.
I get between 3-15 CC transactions per month.

Here is what I would like to be able to do:
Have a phisical terminal that allows me to swipe a card in person for a low rate.
Be able to process online through the merchant website in case it is an on-site job or internet sale.
Maybe if they have an app for the iPhone that would be a bonus. Not necessary, but would like.
No setup, annual, rental, termination, cancelation, equipment, minimum, etc. fees. No BS.
I just want to pay a low monthly rate, and low transaction fee. PERIOD.

THANKS~!

It sounds like you need a simple Dialpay account since you have such a low amount of transactions. You simply make a call and enter in the card info and transaction is completed! It will cost you more, but it is so easy to setup and use. Expect to pay around 3-4% Flat or if you can find a lower rate sich as $2.50 and $.75 per transaction that works better since you have a low ticket size.

If you want to use your iphone as a credit card swipe, then it will cost you more to process as you need to purchase extra equipment. I just don’t think that is worth the investment. If you need help searching for a provider, I found this information helpful:

Try emailing me as well I can perhaps find you something better.

Chris

I am in the process of starting up an online business and I need a good merchant services provider. I have looked into paypal and google checkout…they have some restrictions on certain products and are a bit pricey. I want that is reasonably priced, with not too many hidden fees and restrictions….let me know if there is anything better

Costco Merchant Services

I own a restaurant and I wanted to cancel my merchant service contract which is set for 36 months. A friend told me that in the state of california, service contracts can legally be canceled after one year without having to pay any early term fees. I wanted to know if this is really true since I have only been contracted for about a year and a half.

No. any contract has a penalty clause and is yours doesn’t your attorney is not doing his job