How To Understand Your Merchant Statement & Cut Costs
Daniel Flynn
-Managing Your Digital Information eBook
-Run Your Free Business Report
Due to the difficulty you may face in understanding your merchant statement, business owners, like yourself, often associate the payment processing industry with feelings of confusion and/or frustration.
In fact, most disagreements between merchants and payment processors are the result of the merchant lacking sufficient knowledge of payment processing.
Therefore, it is important that you, as a business owner, understand the payment processing industry and its various pricing structures.
Once you are able to understand your merchant statement, you will be able to determine the viability of your current or future processor’s pricing.
Interchange fees
The main fees associated with payment processing are interchange fees.
Each credit network standardizes its rates for the different card types it issues.
As it pertains to interchange fees, the payment processor is a payment-receiver. Therefore, interchange fees are non-negotiable.
However, the markup on top of interchange is oftentimes negotiable.
Understanding your merchant statement: pricing models
Tiered/Bundled
Tiered/bundled pricing refers to a pricing structure in which the processor assigns a rate to the three different types of transactions, which are often non-qualified, mid-qualified, and qualified. Qualified transactions typically have the lowest rate out of the three transaction buckets.
Interchange-Plus
Interchange-plus pricing refers to a pricing structure in which the processor charges a rate in addition to interchange. Although the interchange-plus pricing structure offers transparency to the merchant, it is not necessarily the most cost-effective.
Flat Rate
Flat rate pricing refers to a pricing structure in which the payment processor charges a single rate on all transactions including interchange. This pricing structure is the least transparent and most straight-forward. However, it, like the interchange-plus structure, depending on your type of business is not necessarily the most cost-effective option.
The Issue of Variability
Since each card type has a set interchange rate, variability between the usage of certain card types within a certain billing period distorts the cost-effectiveness of a pricing structure. The issue of variability also adds to the confusion most merchants have in understanding their merchant statements. Therefore, you must look to the other fees on your merchant statement when assessing your current processor’s pricing.
Markup fees
Markup fees refer to costs that are passed onto the merchant by the processor. Such fees could be PCI fees, MID (merchant id number) fees, or other fees that the processor receives then marks up.
Miscellaneous fees
Miscellaneous fees refer to additional fees that are often non-essential. In most cases, there isn’t even a cost that the processor is passing onto the merchant. Therefore, miscellaneous fees are often unnecessary. Examples of miscellaneous fees are “program” fees, batch fees, and receipt paper fees.
Keywords Are Important
As you can see, the keyword is at the heart of search engine optimization. But if you don’t demonstrate the proper ranking signals, you won’t get on the first page of Google for the keywords that your listing or webpage displays.
Your goal is not only to show consumers that you offer a product or service that they are searching for, but your goal is also to show Google that you are a credible provider of said product or service.
Ranking signals play a HUGE role in this.
But before we get into the ins and outs of core ranking signals, let’s discuss where you should place the keywords that you want to rank for.
POS/Terminal fees
A business must have a POS, terminal, or payment gateway in order to accept credit cards. Oftentimes, a processor charges a lease fee or an upfront price in order to provide a piece of hardware.
Software fees
Another cost associated with payment processing is a software fee. Payment-related software can help streamline your day-to-day processes and reporting. Clover POS offers a wide range of add-on software that can help business owners simplify their managerial workload. Additional services include employee time-tracking such as Homebase, payroll reporting, and invoice distribution.
Now that you understand your merchant statement…
In order to understand your merchant statement, you must first assess the value your payment processing solution offers you. If your payments solution offers you additional functionalities that are of value to your business such as instant funding and/or POS software, then you should take note of that when assessing how much you are willing to spend on said processing solution. For help selecting a POS system, reference our guide for what to look for in a POS system.
How we can help
We, at TAP Payments, offer 2.5% flat rate processing for all card types. In addition, we take a transparent, no-frills approach on pricing in which we do not charge merchants unnecessary, miscellaneous fees in order to raise our bottom line.
Hopefully, this article has given you the tools necessary to understand your merchant statement and the fees passed onto you by your current processor.
Next Step?
The worst action is inaction! Our team is ready to find your next big move. Over 20 years of experience means we have the tools to get it done in your local market.
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