Hidden fees.

How to identify and avoid the hidden fees in processing

If you’ve ever suspected that your credit card processing statement is more expensive than you thought it would be, it may not be your imagination. When is the last time you checked the costs associated with credit card processing?

Because of this, businesses tend to pay a large amount of hidden fees. While accepting credit cards will definitely help your business, it’s important to understand what you are paying for. Our team will help to break down some of the confusion behind payment processing, including how to identify hidden credit card processing fees, and how to ensure you’re using the best payment processing company for your company.

It is imperative that you work with a payment processor that clearly understands your business. Any mistakes involving the setup or deposits into these two accounts can jeopardize your reputation with your customers.

If you use software for (point of sale, accounting or ERP,) it would be best to look into a payment processing company that can properly manage your payments.

Credit card processing rates explained

Credit card rates can be confusing. A rate is defined as the amount a credit card company or bank charges for a specific transaction. People assume that only one exists, but in reality, every single transaction has a different wholesale price (or interchange rate) associated with it depending on the card type and how the transaction is processed.

Many credit card companies will offer a low introductory rate (or base rate), which may seem too good to be true! They will then hit you with “downgrades” or penalties that must be paid, often without you realizing it.

For instance, if a client transacts with a credit card that complies with the processor’s rules, it is called a qualified transaction and has the lowest rates. There are also other types of transactions, including “mid-qualified” and “non-qualified”. For these transactions that do not completely follow the rules, you can possibly incur some of the hidden fees mentioned below.

The worse part about hidden fees is that you may not see this difference on the front-end (especially if you have flat-rate pricing), but these charges will definitely reflect on your bottom line.

Hidden fees of credit card processing

In addition to the interchange fees and basis points, many companies incur 10-15 other categories of hidden fees. They include:

Transaction fees
Retrieval fees
Chargeback fees
Gateway fees
Monthly fees
Return fees
Discount rate fees
Risk assessment fess
PCI fees
Regulatory fees
IRS fees
Annual fees
Voice verification fees
Account on file fees
Corporate card fees

Many of these fees are unnecessary and can be avoided. For instance, you can scan your account every year to ensure that you’re PCI compliant and that your payment system is secure to avoid PCI fees.

Also, consider the following scenarios that are notorious for incurring additional fees:

High-risk transactions
Smaller than average transaction sizes
International transactions
Downgraded transactions
Manually keyed-in transactions
High processor markups

How to tell if you’re being charged hidden fees

Most credit card statements don’t even show some of the hidden fees; the only way to know what fees you’re paying is by calculating your effective rate, which is your total processing fees divided by the total sales volume on your statement. Here’s an example.

Let’s say your total sales volume last month was $100,000, and your total fees equaled $5500.00. Your effective rate would be yours fees divided by your sales:

$5500.00 / $100,000.00 = 0.055 or 5.5%

In general, a good effective rate for credit card processing is around 3-4%. If you’re paying more than this, or more than your processor’s promised rate, this is a sure sign that your payment processor is charging you those nasty hidden fees.

How long it takes for money to reflect in your acccount

Banks and credit card companies use certain tricks to lure merchants. For instance, a bank may charge meager rates for credit card transactions but end up keeping your money for two to three days before it reflects in your account.

Why should you have to wait so long for your money? It is critical that your payment processor provides you with “next day funding” on all card types including American Express. For example, when you use a processor like Electronic Payments, the money is set to reflect in your account one day after a transaction is processed.

Whoever you choose to use, make sure they have clearly published rates. You also want to make sure that don’t include early termination fees, PCI compliance security fees, junk fees or bait-and-switch tactics.

Switching to a new payment processor

If you’re not happy with your current payment processor, don’t worry: It can be easy to switch. It only takes a few minutes. There is no fee to switch, and you’ll only have to fill out a brief application. It will also help save you big in the long run, since the proper payment processor will help reduce your losses, increase profitability and client satisfaction.