Merchant Processing Recommendations

I'm looking to find a reputable Merchant Processing Company for accepting Credit Cards for a business.
Any recommendations on which one would be best with regards to Fees / Days for Funds to be available / etc.. ?
This would be strictly in-store only and no internet.

feefighters.com is pretty good in terms of getting an auction going.
A lot of people recommend costco.
Make sure you don't get sucked into leasing the machine - find one used for sale somewhere.

Try and get interchange rate so the pricing is more transparent, and read all the fine print, you will probably end up personally guaranteeing something.

There's no such thing as a reputable company in this area.

Interchange pricing does NOT make pricing more transparent. Every credit card can have a different interchange rate, meaning every transaction will cost you a different amount, and there is virtually no way to know what that is.

What interchange pricing does do is fix the amount of profit the processor collects from each transaction, even though your cost still fluctuates.

For actual price transparency, get a service with a flat percentage rate - it may or may not end up costing you more (depending on the mix of cards your customers use), but you'll know the cost ahead of time.

I've posted this info before, but figured it wouldn't hurt to do it again. I have contact with a Senior Account Executive with First Data Commercial Services in their Revenue Sharing Alliance (RSA) group. I don't want to post his contact info publicly, but if you send me a PM, I'll reply with his contact info.

Basically, he only offers interchange wholesale cost plus pricing (as it always ends up costing less than tiered pricing) and he was able to readily beat my previous pricing and anything else I threw at him. Also, he's been in the industry 15 years and was easily able to read and explain all of the various fees on my previous statement, so if you're confused about any of the fees you've read about, or found on competing offers, he'd be able to explain them to you.

nullterm said:   Try Global Payments.Only if he likes getting calls from all his customers wondering if he sold their information

OP didn't list what kind of business they are in. That makes a HUGE difference on who they can get to honor their cards.

forbin4040 said:   nullterm said:   Try Global Payments.Only if he likes getting calls from all his customers wondering if he sold their information

OP didn't list what kind of business they are in. That makes a HUGE difference on who they can get to honor their cards.

It's going to be a butcher shop / Retail

Why are you trying to keep it secret? Post the rates

Cc processing is so shady precisely because of the lack of transparency

SUCKISSTAPLES said:   and the sleazy scammers start showing up....
and sadly they weren't even a merchant services reseller, that might have actually contributed to the thread

SigX said:   SUCKISSTAPLES said:   and the sleazy scammers start showing up....
and sadly they weren't even a merchant services reseller, that might have actually contributed to the thread
Or they are, and just think they'll seem more credible if it appears to be a third-party referral rather than direct solicitation.

I've found that the resellers rarely understand what they're selling, or what the actual costs are. They simply say yes to everything, then get pissed when you want them to document their sales pitch in the contract.

Isekii can post the rate if he wants. He can also post the rates that he has been getting from the other resellers that he's looking in to. Never understood why everyone likes to attack everyone else so much on these boards.

Isekii - If you decide to accept AMEX, Square will be the cheapest for AMEX. Visa, MasterCard, and Discover you'll get cheaper rates through regular processors.

I've used First Data and one other company for my merchant processing. First Data is by far easier to deal with and any equipment issues have been handled quickly. Not all their reps are competent, but then again, that's true for every company. Fortunately my sales rep has been with First Data for a while and can get the right people on the phone when I need them.

Why not go the other way and use an internet-based processor such as stripe?

Yes, fees are higher but it actually transparent, it works, provides 7 day funding and can be interfaced to virtually any POS with a minimum code.

I've used over 8 different merchant and I like Firstdata, I pay about 3% of total transaction this including all the fees listed above and from my total charge divided and it come out about 3%, and the reason I like firstdata is they give you free thermal receipt paper. the cheapest paper roll i find is costco about 24 small rolls for around $10,

You'll never , ever see the 1.5-1.6 rates posted above as your total processing fee.

All rewards cards, business cards etc have a surcharge and you'll pay 3% plus total fees . If the processor is hiding those fees from you make them put in writing there is no surcharge for non qualified cards

When you start to narrow down companies, you should check their reviews at merchantmaverick.com.

Also, Elavon was charging various other fees that the best processors don't usually charge such as annual fees, pci compliance fees, etc... I don't remember exactly what additional fees Elavon was charging, but I remember being disappointed that Costco cancelled the contract with the company they previously were offering (I think it started with an "M", but I can't remember who it was).

ETA: I think the name of the processor was Merchant Warehouse

Glitch99 said:   There's no such thing as a reputable company in this area.

Interchange pricing does NOT make pricing more transparent. Every credit card can have a different interchange rate, meaning every transaction will cost you a different amount, and there is virtually no way to know what that is.

What interchange pricing does do is fix the amount of profit the processor collects from each transaction, even though your cost still fluctuates.

For actual price transparency, get a service with a flat percentage rate - it may or may not end up costing you more (depending on the mix of cards your customers use), but you'll know the cost ahead of time.

I hate to disagree with you but we process large volume. The flat rate deals always seemed to creep up etc with additional fees. Even with that said we went to interchange Plus the small markup and we are saving alot. I spoke to many companies who always state they are the cheapest etc. Alot of shady characters and some that once questioned hard they gave up because they were not the lowest cost for me.

Rob