Credit Card Processing

Looking for the best credit card processing rates? Checkout this post

2014-06-15T20:57:00.004-07:00

Merchants are constantly looking for ways to make their business more efficient and to lower operating costs. One of the most common operating costs to merchants is debit and credit card processing fees. Some merchants may focus their full attention on getting the best possible rate, not realizing they may incur hidden charges.

The enormous competition in the credit card processing industry has made sales agents creative, and sometimes not in a good way. As there are thousands of merchant services companies that are competing for the same service among merchants sometimes the only left characteristic to fight for is cost.

Sales agents may promise you a low rate of 0.20% plus the interchange, but in real life, if that was true it would not be beneficial at all for the agent. On a 10k a month merchant, 0.20% is $20 which results in $5 - $12 net profit to the agent. If this was true agents would not be in this industry for long, realizing it would take thousands of merchants to make a living in the industry.

Many merchant services companies and agents make most of their money on batch fees, transactions fees, authorization fees and many more hidden fees they can place on your account. Also, agents can lower costs by going with merchant services providers that offer them the best buy rates but best buy rates may not be so beneficial for you since this could mean that the MSP assigned to your account does not specialize in your industry and may result in merchant account holds and delays.

A decent credit card processing fee could range from 0.50% - 1.50% plus interchange depending on the industry. With a $0.05 - $0.20 transaction fee depending on the service needed. Be cautious and check for the small details when applying for a new account. Because in our industry it might sound too good to be true.

Merchant services companies do not decide what the interchange would be, they only get to choose what the service fee would be, and what you can fight for is ONLY the service fee. Interchange fees are NOT negotiable. If an agent claims he can lower your interchange rates it is a red flag for you.

Why Merchant Services Companies are Requesting Site Inspection to Be Completed?

2014-06-13T22:43:00.003-07:00

Personally I have been in the merchant services industry for about 3 years. Although it is not a lot of time I was able to learn a lot about the industry, mostly because I started on my own, from scratch, and studied every inch of that industry, reading blogs like this daily for the first 2 years. When I first started site inspection for a merchant account was pretty rare. As I started working with high risk merchant accounts banks began requesting more and more for this procedure to be done.

Although site inspection seems like an old technique of trying to prevent fraud, and may sound out dated to some people, it works better than almost any technology available for preventing fraud. As identity theft has become a main concern not only for people but also for merchant account providers, acquiring banks, merchant services companies are much more careful then they used to. Taking a closer look at each account in order to try and detect the fraudulent applications that are being submitted by scammers daily.

So you have applied for an account, and now the sales representative is advising you that someone will contact you in order to schedule an appointment for the site inspection. You are skeptical at first and not sure why they would send someone out there. That is understandable considering we are in 2014 and almost everything is digital now, not to mention almost any kind of information about a person is available throughout the world wide web.

Due to increased credit card fraud in the merchant services industry, merchant account providers do their best to prevent this kind of leaks, and certain accounts have to go through this procedure. Now the question is what kind of accounts?

While some providers may request a site inspection done for every single account, other providers may only request site inspection on certain clients, the ones that involve more risk and are a bit more speculative. After all site inspection is an upfront cost for the merchant account providers and they would like to save it when possible. These kinds of accounts may be high risk industries, such as electronic cigarettes, certain e-commerce sites, collection agencies, travel agencies, online technical support and membership clubs. Also, people with bad or no credit may be subjected to that and businesses that are unverifiable are also on the list.

So as you can see there are a variety of reasons as to why your merchant account provider may request a site inspection. If you are an honest merchant with a legit business there is no reason for you to worry and actually you should be happy because this means that you are dealing with a legit merchant account provider. I hope I was able to relief some stress for those of you that were unsure and skeptical of the process.

Original Post: http://www.magicpay.net/merchant-services-companies-requesting-site-inspection-completed/

www.MagicPay.net

Declined Merchant Account? Can't Get Credit Card Processing? Read This!

2014-06-12T12:03:00.002-07:00

In recent years many merchants find it difficult to obtain a merchant account for their business. Although the industry is very competitive with thousands of merchant services companies available to choose from, many of them have strong parameters they are unwilling to bend. Reasons for a declined merchant account could be from credit history to industry type and business model. Once you find out what is your reason for denial, that is how you would be able to setup a plan of getting a merchant account quickly and fairly easily.

Filling Out The Merchant Application

Over the years in the merchant services industry I have reviews tens of thousands of merchant applications. Some merchants insist on filling out the application themselves, being scared of their sales agent to rip them off. The credit card processing industry is well known for its hidden fees and merchants that would like to get the best deal usually are very skeptical when speaking to one.

Although it is not easy to find an honest sales representative in the merchant services industry, once you are able to find one you would need to trust him on filling out the application. This would be your first step in getting an application approved. Many merchant services applications are long and generic, making it difficult for someone new to understand their structure. As a sales representative, we know the structure and can help you fill out the app easily, quickly and most of all, correctly!

Many merchant applications can get declined for the simple reason of filling it out wrong and then underwriters are dependent on the information provided on the application, which if wrong will give you less of a chance to get the account approved.

Personal Credit History

Another very important thing while researching for a merchant account is your credit score and credit history. Many merchant account providers deeply depend on that for liability purposes with an account. If your credit history is not clean, or you have no history, you may find it extremely difficult to obtain an account. A good way of going around that is simply going with a merchant account provider that handles bad credit merchant accounts. There are a few of them out there, including us here at MagicPay.

Prohibited / Restricted Industry Type

The next category is one of the most important ones as the entire merchant account is based off just that. Your industry type. Many merchants are considered high risk, or hard to board, due to many controversial concerns most merchant account providers have a solid list of restricted and even prohibited merchants.

If your business type is listed in this kind of list then it would be very difficult to get an account with a typical merchant account provider. Again, you will need to go on a search of finding a hard-to-board merchant account provider. Just like MagicPay. There aren’t many of them here in the US, and if you would look too deep into it you will find yourself going in circles around the same companies, one way or the other.

TMF Match Merchant

Last parameter credit card processing companies look at is the well-known TMF MATCH list. The TMF list is like the blacklist of merchant services companies. Being a TMF merchant will give you problems for about 5-7 years. 99% of merchant services companies do not deal with TMF merchants and get their account declined right away. The TMF Match lists all the merchants that have disobeyed PCI compliance regulation, have a debt with their credit card processing company or were terminated for a variety of reasons by a merchant services firm due to violation of the merchant services industry.

Although it is not good being on this list, by all means! It is not the end for your search on a merchant account. Some merchant services companies still consider dealing with TMF merchants, but under certain limitations. MagicPay provides a solution for TMF merchants as well, the solution varies between domestic and offshore bank depending on your TMF status.

Original Source: http://www.magicpay.net/declined-merchant-account-cant-get-credit-card-processing-read/

MagicPay Merchant Services

Credit Card Processing Made Easy

www.MagicPay.net(855) 891-2600

MagicPay Launches the American Express Full Acquiring Program

2014-06-12T00:18:00.000-07:00

For years merchants who wished to accept American Express cards had to open a secondary merchant account through AMEX and connect it to their regular merchant account provider. The process was inefficient and included many obstacles. One of the most known obstacles was the fact that AMEX could decline your merchant account and you wouldn’t be able to process its cards, limiting you to Visa, MasterCard and the Discover networks.

These times are now over. Although MagicPay has launched the AMEX One-Point program long ago, which gave some merchants the ease of accepting American Express relatively easy, it had a few limitations. The main downside of the AMEX one-point is the fact that all American Express transactions went through AMEX and not through the merchant account provider, meaning the funding was different.

With the new American Express full acquiring program AMEX cards will be treated the same as all other cards. Merchants will enjoy many benefits; at first, the merchant will not have to pay an additional monthly fee to accept American Express. Secondly, all funding will be set from the same account, meaning that merchants will receive Visa / MC / Discover and AMEX, all at the same deposit, making it much easier for accounting purposes.

Another great advantage is the lower interchange rates. Up until now AMEX would usually have a fee of anywhere from 2.89% to 3.49% per transaction. These days are now over and the new rates would be the same as the rest of the cards, bringing the average down to 1.73% if using a MagicPay retail merchant account.

One of the most important benefits of the new setting is the fact that all customer service inquiries will be handled through the merchant service provider. Up until now if you had a problem with AMEX you would need to call directly to them. From now on, all transactions, including AMEX would be taken care of by our customer service representatives, saving you valuable time.

Last but not least, one statement will be provided for all cards. If in the past merchants were to receive 2 statements, one from their merchant services provider and another from AMEX, today one statement from your merchant services provider would include all transactions.

Original Source: http://www.magicpay.net/magicpay-launches-american-express-full-acquiring-program/

MagicPay Merchant Services

Credit Card Processing Made Easy

www.MagicPay.net

(855) 891-2600

Don't Let a "High Risk" Label Stop You from Successfully Processing Payments

2014-06-10T23:33:00.002-07:00

In an era that is becoming more and more digital with each passing day, the ability for merchants to be able to process payments quickly and safely is vital to their success. Whether it’s through a website’s e-commerce platform, a point of sale (POS), or via mobile processing systems, a merchant must have the opportunity to collect and process payments whenever a customer wants to buy.

Unfortunately, there are still several types of businesses that are generally considered to be high-risk. For the most part, this is no fault of the business or its practices. In truth, most “high risk” businesses suffer from the fact that they accept dealing with higher risk customers. However, these businesses, which include collection agencies, travel agencies and electronic cigarette manufacturers need viable and secure payments options just like any other.

“Everyone deserves a shot at being successful,” stated Rami Levi of MagicPay, “no matter who they are. These hard-to-board merchants often provide a critical and necessary service and we believe that we should do everything possible to see they get a chance to do business. It’s why we’re always searching for new solutions.”

MagicPay is pleased to be able to announce the addition of a new merchant processing bank that works with high-risk merchants like those mentioned above. After careful consideration and testing, MagicPay has added this new credit card payment processing institution to its repertoire of merchant services as yet another example of pushing the boundaries and opening up roads to everyone.

MagicPay can now allow a greater number of hard-to-board merchants to utilize a domestic payment processing system, thus allowing for greater flexibility and security. Additionally, any business that wishes to take part in this program can get an approval within the same business day. This is a tremendous advantage for these types of clients. MagicPay has also ensured that just because a business may be considered “high-risk” by some, they will not have to pay extra for this. MagicPay offers its new payment option with very low fees making it reliable, affordable and effective.

When coupled with MagicPay’s other innovative services such as full mobile credit card processing, swipe and save mobile payments that allow credit card acceptance even with no power or internet and Cloud-based options, the digital world and all it has to offer is totally open for business. MagicPay continues to lead the way in both innovative solutions and a strong track record of personalized customer service. This merchant services provider is truly a solid foundation for any growing and successful business.

MagicPay Merchant Services

Credit Card Processing Made Easy

www.MagicPay.net

(855) 891-2600

Credit Card Processing Made Easy

2014-06-10T10:11:00.003-07:00

What is Credit Card Processing?

Over the years, working in the credit card processing industry I've been asked thousands of questions. Some of these questions were asked quite frequently by many beginning and existing merchants. In order to answer one of the most basic questions out there I have decided to write and explain what is credit card processing.

So, simply, credit card processing is a service provided by merchant services companies that enables businesses to accept debit and credit cards as a form of payment. Since there are many different types of businesses, varying form retail to MOTO and online business models, each model gets a different approach.

Going a little deepr into credit card processing

Since generally speaking there are three types of business models (retail, MOTO and online) then there are a few methods of processing payments to each:

Retail Credit Card Processing:

Retail credit card processing, currently the most common form of merchant services, is refered to retail stores and businesses that provide products or services in a face-to-face enviromnment with the client. In simpler words, a retail transaction refers to the fact that the debit or crdit card is present at the time of payment.

When the card is present it is best to use a credit card terminal or another form of terminal that would allow the merchant to physiclly swipe the magnetic stripe of the card on the machine. This way, it proves the merchant services company that the card was present at the time of sale, enabling the merchant to save money and making the transaction as most secured as possible.

MOTO Credit Card Processing Accounts:

For those of you that are not familiar with the terminology, MOTO stands for Mail Order Telephone Order business models. Although MOTO accounts has been very popular in the recent past, slowly the online business platform decreases the need for MOTO accounts and makes the transaction more secured.

MOTO credit card processing refers to the fact that the merchant is keying in the credit card information on a credit card terminal while the card is NOT physically present. This kind of transactions are less secured and cost a bit more due to the surcharge in the interchange fees. But, with that being said, some businesses that do not have a retail location depend on this kind of processing methond and it became very popular among merchants that wants to expand their business nationally.

Online Credit Card Processing Merchant Accounts:

Online payment processing became very popular among many businesses in the last dfew years due to the increased amount of people that shop online. Processing credit cards online has made a huge positive impact on small businesses and allowed them to expand to new markets quickly.

With the new internet market available businesses needed a method to transfer payments quickly. Short later merchant services providers began offering credit card processing for online businesses using secured online payment gateways. This method allows online merchants to take credit cards on their website without having to manually handle each credit card transaction.

I hope I made it clear for those of you that needed a simple and clear explanation of the credit card processing industry. Although I only covered a tiny bit of it, and there are a lot of sub-categories and exceptions to each business model it gives you a broad idea of the industry.

If you have any questions you may contact MagicPay Merchant Services.

MagicPay Merchant Services

Credit Card & ACH Processing

URL: http://www.MagicPay.net

Toll Free: (855) 891-2600