Keep in mind that Visa and Mastercard don't impose fees on businesses that are PCI non-compliant - that decision comes from your processor, so it's purely a for-profit charge for them. Processors are not required to charge you a non-compliance fee. Let's take a closer look at PCI non-compliance fees and how you can avoid them. What is PCI? PCI...

Some credit card processors charge a PCI fee and provide no compliance support, others charge a fee for providing compliance scanning and assistance, and some don't charge a fee at all. So how do you know if you're being charged fairly? Let's take a look. What is PCI? PCI DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, and it's essen...

Every business that takes credit cards is required to comply with PCI standards, no matter how few credit card transactions it processes. What is PCI? PCI stands for "Payment Card Industry," and it's the first part of two-part acronym that refers to security guidelines for businesses that accept credit cards. The full acronym is PCI DSS, which st...

The suit, which dates back to 2005, accuses the card networks and banks of conspiring to fix interchange fees that businesses pay to process credit and debit cards. The settlement is seen as a victory by many fighting for interchange reform, but at least three plaintiffs in the case feel it doesn't go far enough. Update: December 13, 2013 -- Acco...

Unnecessarily high debit card transaction fees are an easily correctable source of significant losses for many businesses. Understanding debit card transaction fees and the difference between signature debit and pin debit transactions will save your business thousands in processing fees. Feel free to jump down to the Signature Debit Vs Pin Debit...

Credit card processing statements are full of confusing acronyms and opaque fees. We can help you figure out what they are and how to lower your costs if your fees are adding up to an expensive processing solution. What is a POS WATS Fee? As mentioned above, the pos wats fee is a fee you'll see each time the credit card equipment dials the processo...

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 ti...

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 institution when the busines...