Merchants continue to spend 0 time studying who gets what when it comes to the cost of merchant credit card processing, so they are prone to salesaman walking through the door. The lion's share goes to Visa and Mastercard et al. The biggest way a merchant can get costs down is to a. make sure they are on interchange 'plus' pricing, where all the costs are passed on and then marked up by the 'plus' part, typically .0050 0r 50 basis points, or 1/2 of one percent. b. obtain a per authorization charge of 10 cents per or less If you find out you are on a 'tiered' pricing plan, which is like 3 rates, and certainly seems the most logical, reject it and push for interchange pricing. Why? Imagine a railroad track between 2 busy cities with a lot of commerce. The railroad then decides to cut the line and build a new extension out of the way to reach the other city, so it can charge more. This is what happens when you are ona tiered pricing plan. I like railroads so use them as an analogy.

Problems with 'Square'

In the past week have had one bad experience as a customer with a Square terminal and while prospecting an admission that Square is hard to use in some venues....in the former a gal at a coffee kiosk had a 'Square' terminal where the card swiper wouldn't work, the she was unable to get me a receipt or even text me a receipt. Not good. Secondly a prospect told me in an event like a concert it's hard to use 'Square'...he really needs a 'wireless' terminal like a Nurit 8020 etc...

Daily Discount

For most merchants a big credit card processing bill at the end of the month is a pain! I would suggest 'daily discount' as a solution.....where the 'discount'' is subtracted from each daily batch and the service fees, fanf fees et al come out at the end of the month......I am seeing more interest in this option!

Authorization cost

I still encounter few merchants that can tell me their 'per authorization' cost...finally came across a restaurant, chinese, where the manager knew! Like 10 cents....my practice can get most merchants down to 1 cent per authorization! The challenge is getting merchants excited!!!!!!!

Google Wallet

The mobile processing race is on! Who will win???? My money is on Google wallet! Recently I have been able to offer the Verifone VX 520 and it is NFC enabled...! So.....but, we are still at the beginning of this race....I would suspect it will be trendier restaurants and establishments that see customers perhaps asking 'hey do you take google wallet?.......so ask me how you can get your Verifone VX 520!!!!!

QR Codes

Will QR Codes and smartphones change the credit card processing industry? A sea change is definitely on the horizon, and as the number of smart phones in circulation grows, we will see the use of mobile wallets replace hard plastic...if a merchant isn't accepting QR codes for some type of benefit at this point, you are behind the curve...

Continued problems with merchants not understanding there is a cost called interchange; when I put a merchant on interchange 'plus' they still get frustrated and still have a hard time understanding rate structures; ...they want a rate..they do understand that rewards cost more in general to process than other type cards.