Historically, merchant card processing has been a slimy business that relied upon confusion, misinformation, and dirty tricks to trap business owners into contracts. At Pay it Forward Processing, we are trying to change the industry by offering honest, open, and customer-friendly merchant card processing services. Not everyone in this business has joined us on the high ground. If you are searching for a merchant card processor, be careful, do your homework, and watch out for these three popular dirty tricks that merchant card processors use:
Beware Hidden Fees Most merchant card processors try to compete on price. Of course, they still want to make as much money as possible. This has led to a growing trend of low price quotes followed by long contracts stuffed with hidden fees in the fine print. If merchant card processors can’t make money on upfront costs, they’ll try to take it through dubious extra fees, such as monthly maintenance fees, service fees, and the like. Review your contract very closely and ask your sales rep to lay out all of the fees involved.
Minimum Usage Requirements One of the most insidious tricks that credit card processors like to play is to hide a minimum usage clause in their contracts. Oftentimes, sales reps don’t accurately explain what this fee is, allowing business owners to believe that the minimum usage relates to the minimum amount of sales they must process each month, when in fact, the minimum number is actually the amount they must generate for the credit card processor! Many small business owners who experience seasonal fluctuations in sales end up getting slammed with fees when they can’t meet the minimum usage requirements.
Contract Termination Fee Rather than providing great service, most merchant card processing companies try to use the threat of financial pain to keep their clients locked in. This comes in the form of contract termination fees. As usual, this fee is rarely brought up by a sales rep when he or she is wooing you for your business, but if you want to try greener pastures, watch out! You’ll have to lay down some extra money just to leave.
We Do Things Differently.
At Pay it Forward Processing, we keep our clients with amazing customer service, honesty, and integrity instead of using dirty tricks. Our sales people are trained to lay out all of the costs related to our services when meeting with customers so that there are never any surprises. Oh, and we don’t make our customers sign contracts, so minimum usage requirements and contract termination fees aren’t even on the table. Dirty tricks are the opposite of the servant leadership model of business that we operate on. If you want to work with a different kind of credit card processor, contact us for a consultation today.