A contract is a good thing because it provides protections for businesses and processors by clearly outlining the responsibilities of each party under a merchant processing agreement. A contract term is also a good thing. Without a term, a processor would not be obligated to provide processing services for any length of time. Most businesses wou...

Interchange plus rates vary widely from one processor to the next. How competitive rates are will depend on your business's processing profile and how you are gathering quotes. It's also important to understand that interchange plus is a form of pricing; it's not a single rate. The percentage portion of the processing markup (the "rate") may not...

Not too long ago, CardFellow posted an evaluation of Costco merchant accounts that found Costco's service to be very disappointing. Undeterred, I decided to take a look at the merchant services offered by Sam's Club to see if Costco's big-box competitor fares any better. As it turns out, Sam's Club Merchant Services uses the same bait-and-switch ta...

Despite how it sounds, you may incur the international acquirer fee even if you don't think you take international payments. That's because the fee applies to transactions in the United States made with cards issued outside of the United States. If a foreign customer uses their card at your business, the fee will apply. Visa began charging this ...

Visa charges a number of different fees, called assessment fees. Every time you accept a Visa card, assessments apply. The Base II fee, or settlement network access fee, is one of those assessment fees. As of 2018, Visa sets the Base II fee at $0.0025. What is Visa Base I and Base II? Visa's processing network is called the VisaNET Integra...

Let us know if you have a tip to add via the comment box at the bottom of the page. Ignorance is blissfully expensive when it comes to credit card processing. It's safe to assume that you are paying too much for processing if you are not familiar with the components of processing cost, such as interchange, assessments, and markup. These handy ...

The International Service Assessment (ISA) fee only applies in situations where a US-based business accepts a Visa card issued by a non-US Bank. If you take card payments from foreign visitors in person or accept foreign transactions online, you may see the ISA fee as part of your processing costs. Visa's Assessment Fees The ISA is one of man...

Spotting these shysters is easier said than done because they will in fact honor the low rates they advertise. Processors that use bait-and-switch aren't blatantly lying; instead, they're tactfully omitting some important details. This type of credit card processing bait and switch can be costly for your business, but there are ways to avoid it. ...

Note: Pivotal Payments has changed its name and goes by Nuvei. It's possible that the new company does not engage in the same practices noted in this article. We're leaving it here for historical purposes, but will no longer be updating it. If it turns out that Nuvei utilizes the same practices, we will create a new article detailing those situatio...

How are businesses with small tickets an unexpected (or expected, depending on whom you ask) casualty of the Durbin Amendment? Let's take a look. Interchange is Complicated The fees that businesses pay to process a credit or debit card transaction are called interchange fees. An interchange fee generally consists of a percentage and flat tran...