| By :
Sarah Simmons
Regardless of who processes your credit and debit card transactions, chances are you are overpaying. By following a few simple guideless you can cut your credit card machine processing costs by as much as 20% or more! 1. Make sure you swipe as many of your transactions as possible on your credit card machine as opposed to keyed-entry. The "interchange" which is the price member banks pay for processing your charges is higher for keyed entry, and you will therefore be charged a higher rate. This is commonly referred to as a mid-qualified or partially qualified surcharge. 2. If you process debit transactions of $25 or more, make sure you use the "debit" option on your terminal instead of "credit" and have the customer enter their pin number. By doing this there will be no discount fees accessed and you will only pay one flat fee for the charge. The larger the ticket the more you will save. 3. If you do more than a few keyed-in transactions on your credit card machine each month, consider getting a separate account setup for keyed-entry only. Usually the keyed rate will be much less than the "mid" or "partially qualified" charges. For instance an average surcharged keyed rate might be around 2.9% - 3.2% but a merchant services account setup for keyed entry might see rates as low as 2.25% or lower. Most modern credit card machine terminals can accommodate at least two separate accounts. 4. Avoid Retrieval Requests - Make sure the name that is on your receipt and that you advertise under is the same as the name on your account. Otherwise your customer may call their bank and question the charge and you will be charged a fee. 5. Commercial/Corporate Cards - These cards are normally downgraded to a non-qualified surcharge which is the most expensive form of surcharge. However if your merchant services account is set up for "level two processing" you can avoid the surcharge if you key-in a sales tax number and a customer number. 6. Batch your credit card machine transactions daily or, have your account setup to "auto batch" If you have transactions that are not batched within a short period of time (usually 48 hours) they will downgrade to mid-qualified and you will have to pay surcharges. 7. Always use your address verification feature (AVS) on keyed or internet charges. The AVS is there not only for fraud protection but it also prevents downgrading of keyed-in or internet transactions to mid or non-qualified. One last piece of advice, if you are shopping for merchant services, either as a new merchant or as an existing merchant looking for a better service provider, read the terms of the agreement! Many companies are now offering too-good-to-be-true discount rates that will either escalate soon after you enroll or, are only good on certain card types such as debit. (Debit discount rates are typically much lower than credit card rates). Remember if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
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