Best Credit Card Processor?

Andrew,

As a past member of both the Electronic Transaction Association (Credit Card Processing Industry) and the Restaurant Association of the State of Washington and the National Restaurant Association, I can share with you this:

The RASW DOES definitly work on the behalf of SMALL Business Owners regardless of political party affiliation. And, the rates you are probably getting from Heartland are because of the negotiating power of being a member of the larger group RASW.

Never the less, you should always be looking for a better deal for you. I am presently organizing some educational events on business essentials for bizniks which will include a session on understanding credit card processing and choosing the best service provider. Watch for my event and come join with us to learn more.

Howard

Heartland? RASW? It sounds like restaurant owners have some pretty specialized card processing services. I don't know anything about the restaurant business, but I have done some looking into merchant accounts for online business, and most of the big players there also do point-of-sale merchant accounts. Two providers that I've heard highly recommended are:

http://www.cardservice.com/ http://merchantwarehouse.com/

I use ProPay. It's an online service and I don't have any credit card processing machinery. I just go to the website and run the card. It's great, easy, and secure. It probably isn't a good solution for a business that runs credit cards on a daily basis, but it works for me.

http://www.propay.com

I currently use Therapy Partner, which caters to mental health providers by offering practice management features in addition to easy online credit/debit card processing and electronic check processing. Funds are deposited into my designated account as direct deposits

Among these additional features are a scheduling calendar, financial report capability, and insurance-ready statements that are automatically emailed to my clients each month. Also, Therapy Partner is an online system (nothing to install) and already populated with commonly used (CPT) codes and session types.

On the downside, data is not currently available for export into Quickbooks, although this capability has been promised for a future release. The user interface is nothing special, yet the easy-to-use system gets the job done. Overall, Therapy Partner offers good payment processing plus administrative time-savings.

If you are interested, mention my name (Karen Gorrin) and you'll receive my lower monthly fee of $14.95 (it's much higher now.) There are no application fees or terminals to purchase.

(http://www.therapypartner.com)

I use Midwest Transaction Group. Very good customer service and from what I could research they have good rates.

I have no idea about their political affiliations but they are very easy to work with and have fair rates.

http://www.midtrans.com/

I only have the need to run a few manual transactions a month, where the customer hands me their card, and I process it later, or via my laptop. I'm just wondering how paypal's monthly fee and per-transaction costs stack up against other services for a low volume business.

Currently, paypal charges $30 per month for their virtual terminal program. This allows you to accept credit cards over the phone, fax, or mail--basically, you are processing credit cards without swiping them in a reader, and the customer is not supplying the info themselves over the internet. In addition, there is a $.30 fee per transaction, plus 3.1% if your monthly charges are less than $3,000, and 2.7% for $3,000-$10,000.

A couple of examples: If I have a single $250 transaction in a month, it costs me $38.05, or 15%. If I have 14 transactions totaling $2800, it costs me $121, or 4.3%.

The other option is to not accept credit cards, but it's a nice option to offer.

Great topic! Very useful! I'm going to give PayPal a chance.

-Andrey

Andrew, I just had a meeting today with Victoria Hardy of Pinnacle Processing. She really knows her stuff and is very good at explaining it. Also, she works with both small and large businesses. She's a hoot too!

PINNACLE PROCESSING GROUP, INC. Victoria L. Hardy 206-715-5342

Andrey, I've been less than thrilled with PayPal. I am looking at other options, especially now that I want to expand beyond my online store and take CC's in my classes and presentations. I started a "rant" about PayPal on another thread a few weeks ago, a week before this thread started.
(http://biznik.com/forums/community-wide-general-discussion/topics/evil-paypal) I am now looking into ProPay as per Jay's suggestion and other companies listed on these two threads. I think PayPal is decent if you have a very limited online store, but so far I haven't found it to be the most cost-effective choice if you need a virtual terminal. I'll report back what I find after checking a few more out.

For the math challenged, here's the math on Propay: Using their $59.95 annual fee option (which works out to $5 per month instead of paypal's $30), you get a rate of 3.25% and $.35 per transaction ($500 individual transaction limit and $3,000 limit per month). It also allows you to take Discover and Amex, in addition to Visa/Mastercard.

So, using the same examples I used before: Single $250 transaction in a month: $16.73, or 6.7% (compared to paypal $38.05). 14 transactions totalling $2800: $100.90, or 3.6% (compared to paypal $121, or 4.3%).

Good savings--the only downside is you have to commit to a year, but it's only the equivalent of 2 months of paypal for a full year of propay.

Propay also has higher annual fee options that lower the rate and per transaction fee. The best package costs $25 per month (with an annual commitment) and gives you 2.69% and $.25 per transaction, with a monthly maximum of $15,000.

Thanks Jay and Nancy!

Xakary...thanks for the breakdown with a specific example. Big help for me as I always say there's a reason why I taught special ed math and not accelerated math classes when I was a public school teacher! ;)

I'm paying $5 per month, and the transaction rate ranges from 1.79% to 3% depending on the card and how I run it. Typical visa/master card swiped through my terminal, with the zip code entered, and then confirmed with-in 24 hours receives the lowest 1.79% rate. I also have a charge per transaction but it's not much.

Corporate cards and reward cards have a higher rate, and cards that are not swiped through the machine or confirmed with zip codes or confirmed with-in 24 hours are charged at the highest rate.

I just came across a member who is in merchant services. I've never met him or talked before but here's his profile.

(http://biznik.com/members/arthur-torelli)

I'll mention this thread to him.

Check out Costco. They offer merchant services and I've heard good things from several people:

(http://www.costco.com/Browse/Productgroup.aspx?Prodid=11105019&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=&lang=en-US/)

Some representatives from credit card processing companies will try to avoid answering questions and may not give you all the facts. Be vigilant about getting your questions answered.

Intuit has a merchant account processor that integrates with QuickBooks. I sell it off my website, which is www.radicalaccounting.com. If you put in your order through my web site, you get a free copy of QuickBooks Pro software with your order.

I'm going to tell you the good and bad of having this merchant account.

The good news is that they approve anyone and everyone. I was approved in 1 day. I didn't have to submit a P&L or tax return, which was a good thing at the time, ha, ha.

More good news is that their rates are lower than anyone, including Costco, last time I checked. But please check for yourself.

More good news is that it integrates with QuickBooks, which is truly awesome.

And they offer a variety of features, like card reader, no card reader, virtual terminal, etc.

Recently they lowered my processing rates for being a "good customer".

The bad news is that their customer service is not up to my standards, so if you have a problem, it can be frustrating or even impossible to solve. I've had clients with problems, and I've had problems, and we still use them anyway, because we believe the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

For example, one client had a big problem with a foreign transaction that was fraud and he couldn't get credit. IMS handled it badly. He does .5M a year with them. I thought he might change over this, but he just loves the QuickBooks integration. He does a fair number of credit returns, because he has this battery thing that you can buy and return, and he'll recharge it, and the credit returns are integrated too, so he loves the ease of use. He said his lesson wasn't to change merchant accounts, but that foreign transactions are wire transfer only from that day forward.

Madeline.. Great post with good information on this subject. I appreciate your participation so much that I just purchased your book from your website. If it is as good as the content's portray... I will promote it to my existing and future clients.

SEE... online networking with Biznik really does pay!

Oh Costco...never thought of them. Thanks, Karrie. I am a little disappointed in Propay already as I called in and talked to a very helpful young man about the different types of accounts. Info was great until I asked about whether or not they have "pre-fab" shopping cart code like Paypal does to just drop into my site for my online store. He didn't know and suspected there was an extra charge to access this or have it built. Otherwise I need to have a web designer build it, wI'm sure will be spendy...with Paypal I was given this no charge. Anyway, Propay guy said to email tech support and they will reply in 24 hours. That was 2 nites ago and still no reply. :(

Regarding Art Torelli. I have talked to Art. He had some great info for me but the best suggestion he gave me for the CC processing he can provide is likely still too costly for my needs. I just want to take CC's for my products online and in classes and presentations. I don't want to accept CC's for my class fees themselves (details I won't bore you with), so I think he has better options for people who have will be running larger CC amounts each month.

Wow lots of talk about credit cards. I'm a brooker in the industry and I can tell you that their is no one best credit card processor for every business. A business like Liberty gets very different type of service from almost everyone who has posted on this discusion panal. The main difference that I think all of you will find over years of processing is the type of service that you end up getting. Everyone is good when their are no problems or special needs but if anything does happen and you don't have anywhere to go But the 1-800 number (i,e. Costco and Paypal) you might find that what ever price they've offered you that seems so cheap at the time is now not worth it. The product that you are purchasing is a loan. Not a servicing account so think about who you are doing business with. Can you trust them, will they help you when trouble arises? Anyone that wants more specific info please contact me. Thanks Art T.

Arthur brings up a good point to consider. When you sign up for a merchant processing account, you are, in reality "outsourcing YOUR accounts receivable" department. YOU are loaning money to your customers (just like the old fashioned corner grocery store that keep charges on index cards until payday when the customer would come in to settle their account).

Study your merchant agreement and you will notice that all the processor is doing is advancing you the money for YOUR credit charges. You've just relieved yourself from carrying compensating bank cash balances to cover projected bad debts along with the need to maintain a credit department, which depending on your volume could be a major expenditure.

Your merchant processor really does a lot of work for a very small transaction fee, which, of course is determined by your industry, volume, and credit risk. You should be more concerned about the reputation of service you will recieve from your processor and broker representative than squeezing out a couple more fractions of a percent in the processing fee.

Hey... concentrate more on building sales of your product and service and find a processor that you feel you can trust to handle YOUR CREDIT DEPT.

Just like you (as an indie) offer better service than the big chains and corporations, you can usually receive better service by choosing a fellow indie to service your account. Maybe one of these biznik brokers would like to put together a workshop to help clarify how the credit card industry really works. I will assist if requested... HH

Well said Howard. Art T.

Madeline,

I like the way that the Quickbooks solution works the fees into the books automatically. The reason I didn't look into the service further was that when I was looking into them a couple years ago I thought they had a $20 month service charge on top of the processing fees. Is this still the case or have they come down in price?

I can't speak to Madeline's fees but their are other ways to integrate with Quikbooks without using Intuit. The company I work with doesn't have a $20.00 monthly service charge and its a local Seattle business. If you'ld like to know anything about them its www.gravitypayments.com Art T.

Resurrecting a topic with some new information I found. I was about to go with Midwest Transaction Group per Bret's recommendation (their fees are very competitive--$5 per month, 1.69% to 2.89% plus .20 transaction fee), when I found another alternative.

If you have a need to be able to take credit card payments from your clients (not via a website, and not live in a store setting), I have another alternative besides setting up a credit card account: You can use your PayPal business account (which is free) to email a PayPal invoice to your client and get paid through PayPal with a credit card or PayPal balance.

The fees are as follows: No monthly fee! 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.

While 2.9% (and .30) are a bit on the high side, there are two bonuses that make it worth it (besides not having to pay the monthly fee).

1st bonus: If you get a PayPal debit card (also free), you can use it for purchases/payments from the money you receive and you get an immediate 1.5% cashback bonus. This lowers the effective fee to 1.448%, plus the .30 transaction fee.

2nd bonus: Any money you've received that sits in your PayPal account automatically earns money market rates (currently 4.69%)--try getting that with your checking account!

You can also download the transaction info into quickbooks.

It's working great for me. Let me know if you have any questions.

I am setting up an online ticketing service so I had to upgrade from 2checkout.com - It's good for people who have low volume because there are no monthly fees. You essentially pay a one time setup fee and then a percentage (5.5?) per transaction IF you sell something.

I recently signed up for processing through http://freeauthnet.com/rates.html and they have the lowest fees that I've seen anywhere. The sign-up process was fairly painless and I haven't had any any unexpected surprises yet.

Check it out!