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A common and costly mistake when shopping for credit card processing services is to focus on a processor’s rate while paying little attention to transaction fees. The financial impact of this mistake is especially damaging for businesses with a low average sale amount. What’s the difference between a transaction fee and a processing rate? Each …
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Since interchange is the largest portion of credit card processing fees, it’s worthwhile to dig into the effect of MCC on interchange. I’ll go through the finer points of MCCs below. What is a merchant category code? A merchant category code (MCC) is a four-digit number assigned to a business by an acquiring bank or …
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An acquiring bank is named for the role it plays in credit card processing. Acquiring banks accept or ‘acquire’ credit card transactions from banks that issue credit cards to consumers, called issuing banks. An acquiring bank maintains a merchant account for each business it services. A merchant account is an open line of credit that …
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This article explains what a basis point is, how to calculate fees using basis points, and finally the role basis points play in credit card processing — specifically having to do with a processor’s markup. What is a basis point? A basis point is a unit of measurement that is equal to 1/100 of one …
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The battle for the micro mobile market heats up as PayPal Here enters the ring in direct competition with Square.
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A cardholder’s issuing bank sends a retrieval request to the processing bank. Then the processing bank sends the request to the business. At this point a processor will assess a retrieval fee. A retrieval request does not involve the refund or reversal of a transaction. A reversal is only initiated if a chargeback occurs. Since …
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Intuit uses opaque tiered pricing and excessive downgrades to inflate credit card processing fees.
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NOTE: As of April 2023, PayPal Here is no longer available by that name; it will be converted to PayPal Zettle. We’re leaving this article for historical accuracy. With the Here mobile option PayPal takes direct aim at Square — the market leader in the smartphone credit card processing space. Square has a few things …
