Free Credit Card Machine = An Expensive Proposition

You are virtually guaranteeing that you will overpay for credit card processing if you’re comparing processors based on which ones are willing to provide a free terminal. The Economics of “Free” Credit card processing is a for-profit business, and the average basic machine costs a processor anywhere from $100 to $300. If a processor provides …

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Credit Card Machine Companies

Some credit card machine companies also provide merchant accounts, while others are solely equipment manufacturers. We’ll take a look at why that matters and give a rundown of the major equipment providers in the United States. This article is specifically about credit card machine companies, not the machines themselves. Need details on particular machines? Check …

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The Fair Swipe Act of 2025

What is the Fair Swipe Act? The Fair Swipe Act, introduced by DC council member Charles Allen, would change the calculation of credit card processing fees. Currently those fees are calculated on the total bill or purchase. Instead, under the Fair Swipe Act, the fees would be calculated only on the subtotal. That is, on …

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CapitalOne Acquires Discover

But what does that mean for your business? Will customers still have and use Discover cards? Are your credit card processing fees going to change? At this point, we don’t know all the details, but here’s what you can expect with the current information. The Discover Acquisition CapitalOne announced its intention to acquire Discover in …

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Mastercard Commercial Interchange – Data Rate 1 and 2

Mastercard uses many different interchange categories to determine the rates and fees your business pays for accepting credit cards. There isn’t just a single “Mastercard business” interchange rate. There are 5 different business card rates, depending on the “program level.” From there, most businesses will see rates further broken into one of two categories: Data …

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