This decision overturns a 1992 ruling in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota in which the Supreme Court ruled that a business must have a physical presence in a state for that state to require it to collect sales taxes. That means that any online business did not have to pay sales tax in states where it did not have nexus. However, the topic of o...

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 ba...

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 ...

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 Integrated...

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 hand...

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...