Bargain Credit Card Processing Services.
Beware! Sometimes bargains are not really bargains at all.
With the current economy, and tightening credit markets, just about everyone is looking for ways to save money and cut costs. This has sent a lot of managers and business owners out actively shopping for deals on Credit Card processing services.
Along with this surge, we have seen an increase in the amount of aggressive trolling by unscrupulous companies offering completely "unbeatable" low-ball deals. Most of these companies are nothing more than marketing agents for existing banks and credit card processors. They can generally be identified by the following:
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The organizations name sounds vaguely familiar, or something very professional/high-brow sounding, like: American Card Services, International Credit Services, Franklin, Witter and Associates, etc. However, you can find little on no information when doing an Internet search, and may only be able the turn-up a contact phone number in your local phone book.
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The organization’s lead-in is to offer low-ball credit card processing rates of .5% – 1.5%. These are rates that are unheard of in the industry unless you are processing millions of transactions per month. The industry standard for small-medium businesses is currently between 3% – 5%, depending on how the transaction originated and your overall transaction volume. Many of these low rates are also offset by fine print caveats such as high monthly service fees, a per transaction fees, overall transaction or sales volume requirements that your business would unlikely qualify for. With all of this factored in, the real average for most small-medium businesses is probably closer to 5% – 6%.
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Even if the marketing company is legitimate, and has good intentions, they are often small organizations that are often further identified by incompetent technical staff, poor customer service, and poor follow-up.
A recent known example of this sort of thing involved a company that was hurriedly talked into signing a (3) three year contract for processing services, without having read the fine print. That same month, the owners of the company realized that they were now really paying a higher overall rate than they had with their previous processor. The new processor had them legally locked into a contract with an extremely high minimum monthly service fee, and would not let the company out of the contract.
If you are interested in obtaining realistic, honest, and competitive Credit Card process service quotes, please contact the CCS Sales Department.