Unless you are using a Virtual Terminal on your computer, the Merchant Services Provider is trying to sell you credit card processing equipment (aka "terminals"). Trust me when I tell you that they are trying to make as much money as possible off of the sale/rental of your processing equipment.

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One of the Merchant Services Providers that I previously worked for tried to lease all processing equipment because they would make 400% of the cost of the equipment over the duration of the equipment leases. I believed that this was a shady practice and certainly not in the best interest of the customer, so I parted ways with that organization and decided to partner with Fiserv/CardConnect/Clover, the largest provider in the U.S.

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When you're dealing with an honest Merchant Services Provider, they can often provide you with free processing equipment (in some cases) and discounted equipment (when the equipment is larger and very expensive). I am able to provide some of the Clover equipment for FREE. I take a smaller commission when I choose to offer free equipment to my customers, but I find this to be the most fair way to provide equipment to my clients.

If you accept credit cards in your business, then there is a processing rate that has been assigned to your account by your provider. In most cases, you are actually assigned different rates (e.g. one rate for card-present transactions, a higher rate for card-not-present transactions, a lower rate for ATM transactions, etc.)

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Most Merchant Services sales representatives will try to set this rate (or rates) as high as possible because the higher the rate, the more money they make each month off of your monthly transactions. Perhaps you have not been aware that your sales representative/account executive earns a monthly commission off of your monthly transactions. So, you can easily understand that most of them will set your rate(s) as high as they can get away with.

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However, most of the sales reps do have the freedom to set your rate lower (if you ask them to), but some representatives will have to take any rate decreases to management for approval. If you are dealing with someone that has to get manager approval for a rate reduction, then you are probably dealing with the wrong Merchant Services Provider.

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Please make sure that you negotiate the lowest rate possible with your sales rep because you will be paying this rate(s) on all of your monthly transactions for as long as you are with that Merchant Services Provider.

While there are some monthly fees that are mandatory for the Merchant Services Provider to pass along to the Merchant, a lot of the monthly fees that you are currently paying are optional "add-ons" that the Provider and the Sales Rep include simply for the purpose of making additional money off of you and your business.

 

At Madden Payment Solutions, we keep the monthly fees to a minimum. Our philosophy is that if we can keep the total costs to your business as low as possible, then you are more likely to stay with us because you know we are honest in our dealings and interested in taking care of you and your business.

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We offer all prospective clients a FREE Statement Review to help identify how much we can save you over your current provider. All you need to do is provide us with a copy (digital or hard copy) of your last three billing statements from your current provider. We will promptly review those statements to identify your current processing rate, your monthly fees and any monthly equipment costs.

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One of the fees that you agreed to when you signed with your current provider is the "Early Termination Fee". This is typically a tool to scare Merchants into staying with their existing provider. These fees can sometimes be $750.00 or more. Unless they gave you free processing equipment with value equal to or greater than the amount of the fee, then this is nothing more than a scare tactic. If you decide to leave your current provider, we will walk you through the process and help you avoid that "Early Termination Fee.