Best Merchant Services for Small Businesses
A small business owner will likely do everything they can in an attempt to offer the best service for their customers. However, this isn’t always the case in all situations. While the business owner gave their best attempt to offer great customer service, new obstacles arise regularly, leaving them struggling to keep up with new challenges.
Most small business owners don’t have the time to manage their business and keep up with the new challenges that come with being an entrepreneur. Not knowing the best merchant services for small businesses will often lead to additional struggles, which can easily derail the business owner and their business.
But what are the best merchant services for small businesses?
These are the services that make the most sense for business owners, especially when keeping a handle on the business is quite a chore.
Credit/Debit Card Processing
This service involves handling credit and debit cards and key-entering all customer card data into a computerized point of sale system. These systems are widely used around the world and process billions of dollars transactions each year.
If you’re a small business owner, you’re likely already using a point of sale system of some sort. If not, you will be able to find some type of a card terminal after you sign up with a merchant account provider.
Which Payments Provider Is Right For You?
If you’re considering going with a merchant account for your business and you’re looking for advice on which type to get, there’s one question you should ask yourself first: What does your business need?
Some types of merchant accounts are more suitable for high volume businesses that sell a lot of products. Others are more suited for businesses that only work with a few customers in a limited geographic area.
Once you have an idea of what type of merchant account is best for your business, you’ll be well on your way to a fast, smooth, and secure online checkout experience.
Question 1
What are the benefits that I will gain from Merchant Services?
- Payment Gateway
- Know your account
- Help your customers with products and services
- Send Remittances bi-annually, quarterly, monthly
- Use your entire line of credit
- Use your entire line of credit to pay for freight and bills
- Remove admin obstacles
- Do financial accounting
- Internet connection is up to you
- Get paid daily
- Get paid free
- You can spend as much money as you please
- Charge your customers Credit Card fees
- Web Hosting
- Domain Name Registration
- Use email accounts
- Use online data storage
- Use online data encryption tools
- Use online email account
- Automated Shipping Strategies to ensure customer’s satisfaction.
How would you like to accept payments?
Accepting payment can be a tedious process. There are so many payment gateways available today that you may have trouble choosing the correct one to suit your needs.
Choosing the right payment gateway for your small business is a vital decision. Having the wrong payment gateway can keep you from reaching your most important target customers.
Also, if you pick the wrong gateway, transaction fees can add up quickly. However, choosing the right gateway is a huge step in the right direction for your small business.
Electronic payments, including credit and debit cards, are the most commonly accepted forms of payment around the world.
So, if you want to accept payment on your website, it’s first important to look for the best payment gateway for your business.
Question 2
Of 9 – Merchants Services?
{{Variant: Merchant Services?
When it’s time to choose merchant services for your small business, it’s important to understand all the different types of merchant services that are available. It’s also important to know if it’s in your best interest to use each in order to make an informed decision. Here’s a look at the 9 best merchant services for small businesses and how they may (or may not!) help you in your line of work.
Are you a high-risk business (due to the type of products/services sold or bad credit)?
If you operate a high-risk merchant account (due to your type of business or buyers with bad credit) you’re going to want to do some shopping and check out our 9 best merchant services for high-risk businesses list.
What’s the Difference Between High Risk and Normal Risk Merchants?
There are two very basic types of merchants: “normal risk” and “high risk.” It is important to understand what and how these terms are being used in the context of a merchant account. The terms can be used interchangeably and both can be defined by two things: the risk to the merchant and the risk to the bank.
The general rule, says the FTC, is this: Merchants with less than a 10% risk of bankruptcy within the next two years are considered “normal risk” and are eligible for a merchant account.
If your business has a greater risk of bankruptcy in the next two years, your account will be deemed “high risk” and you will not be allowed to obtain a new merchant account.
What Does “High Risk” Mean?
Question 3
How much do you use your merchant services?
- in a month
- in a month
- in a month
- in a month
- in a month
- in a month
- in a month
- in a month
- in a month
- in a month
- in a month
- in a month
- in a month
- in a month
What is your estimated monthly sales volume?
The merchant service industry has been offering great business lending since the advent of eCommerce eleven years ago. However, for the past couple of years, when most fintech startups entered the financial services space, they were forced to look at merchant servicing as their main source of business lending.
Recently, SMB loans returned to the limelight, and the merchant services sector is now working hard to see whether there’s a new revenue stream for next generation fintech startups.
But what is a merchant service?
A merchant services provider assists the merchants in setting up or maintaining their eCommerce portals to allow businesses to sell online. Merchants such as travel agencies, distributors, large retailers, and even businesses of different sizes can be incorporated within their shopping cart.
There are several different types of solutions offered by the merchant service providers, thereby supporting different business scenarios. For instance, one service provider is capable of handling a business’s day-to-day backend needs and would only switch to a different provider when there are major upgrades to be done. For this reason, most if not all the larger merchant service providers are able to offer multiple services.
Question 4
What Are Big Industry Giants Paying For Merchant Accounts Online?
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Are you concerned with chargebacks?
That’s understandable! Merchants are expected to pay the highest processing fees, and if you’ve attempted to grow your business without merchant services, you’ve no doubt heard the horror stories of chargebacks.
While your brick and mortar store may seem like an easy place to start a business, it carries risks. Even if you’re a safe online merchant, you still have to worry about the cost of acquiring new customers.
There are many credit card companies that will gladly accept fraudulent charges, so chargebacks are a possibility even if you’re a reputable online merchant. Many companies, however, are beginning to take a stand against the amount of chargebacks. As a result, you can trust that most merchant services will help you fight chargebacks.
Ultimately, you can save your business from losing many hours and thousands of dollars.
Square: Best Overall Merchant Services
A number of small business owners often find it hard to compete with the big name retailers that can spend millions on advertising and marketing to boost their sales. But there’s no reason why you can’t take advantage of the best practices followed by big name online retailers.
The next best thing you can do to boost your sales is to either offer the same service or better themselves. It may not be easy, but the companies in the list featured here understand the need for small businesses to grow and have come up with specialized solutions to help them succeed.
Square Pricing
I’m sure at this point you’ve heard of Square, the popular handheld device that currently allows almost anybody to accept and process payments. While Square is a fantastic option for merchants interested in selling their goods online, using a single credit card machine is not always a feasible option in smaller businesses.
Fortunately, Square also offers card processing through some great service providers. I’ve gone ahead and researched and compiled a list of the best merchant services for small business owners.
The focus on these businesses is on higher volume, but if you're running a mom-and-pop operation, all of these services offer great options as well.
Depending on the merchant services you choose, you’ll be able to accept various payment options including credit cards, debit cards and check payments. Also, each of these options will work with different types of businesses including online and brick and mortar stores.
I hope you find this post helpful.
Square Features
Square Credit Card Reader: Square is the only merchant service that allows you to accept credit card payments from your mobile device. It’s feature rich and allows you to sync up with your web site, automatically take the order, respond to the customer by email, and print the receipt.
Square Market: Square Market is a new feature that allows you to sell directly to your customers on your website. It’s streamlined and requires less time to process than other merchant services.
Charge from Credit Card: Once you’ve received the payment, you can process it through your business’s charge account or through the card’s issuing bank.
But Wait There’s More: They also offer documentation and programming services, support for mobile apps, an online store and more to help grow your business.
Payment Depot: Best Merchant Services for Established Businesses
The definition of a merchant account has always been about the bank and the brand of the bank. Merchant accounts may require a minimum amount of transactions of a certain type, have specific account verification processes and more. The purpose of a merchant account is to help you get something tangible in return for your businesses hard work, right? Well, the fact is, merchant accounts are essentially in place to help you get paid for your business –and the vast majority of us either are unaware of them or are not using them to their fullest potential.
With the emergence of innovative technology like point of sale systems, online applications for businesses and nearly endless possibilities, your credit card payment system has evolved significantly and paid merchants process on behalf of merchant account holders allows your business to spend less of your time and the money you have set aside for processing and more time building and growing your business.
From here, we’ll look at 9 merchant service providers under the category of Payment Depot, each one of which will make your life just a little bit more comfortable.
Payment Depot Pricing
Review: Shopify, Braintree, BlueSnap and more
In December 2017, I opened an online store and used the free Shopify + Squarespace ecommerce platform. These free platforms are the best way to get started for an online store, but they are not compatible with some major payment gateways for your business.
The choice of payment gateway is critical for your business to generate sales and ensure that customers can actually pay your business. If your business partner is not a feature in your current payment gateway account, you have to buy it from a separate payment gate vendor. Here, i have shared 9 Best Merchant Services for Small Businesses that can help you with your store.
Payment Depot Features
Visa and MasterCard offer a variety of tools for businesses. But it’s important to understand that they’re not the best solution for everyone. In fact, some merchants use more than one type of payment method. For example, Shopify merchants using a third-party payment processor can use both the Paypal and the Stripe options. Thus, knowing the differences between various merchant solutions can make the decision of choosing a best merchant services for small business easier. Here are a few of the differences we’ll discuss:
Payment Processor Features
It’s important to accurately understand what a merchant services provider offers before you make a decision. Payment processors offer vastly different services, and it’s important to know what those services are. To help you better understand the differences, we’ve identified the main features of a variety of different payment processors:
Fattmerchant: Best Merchant Services for Professional Services
If your website needs an internet presence and you have many services that you provide to your clients (such as accountant, attorney, etc.), then Fattmerchant’s merchant services are the best fit.
Fattmerchant is able to do the following for your business:
Facilitate any merchant services transactions.
Audit and monitor your sellers’ credentials, policies, and transaction types.
One of the most exciting features of Fattmerchant’s merchant services is the ability to offer custom packages to meet your needs. There’s a basic merchant package that’s just for basic e-commerce transactions, such as purchasing domain names, building your own shopping cart, and so on. Next, there’s the premium merchant package that’s perfect for business owners who are looking to take online transactions to the next level. Premium merchant packages includes the following:
- Full transaction support
- Brand name and Shopify selling
- Data storage
- Order management
- Discount fulfillment
- Shipping with carriers such as FedEx, UPS, and USPS
Fattmerchant Pricing
Fattmerchant has a flat pricing, there are no extra fees or other charges. Once you agree to the Fattmerchant terms of service, don’t change your mind. It’s a monthly recurring charge.
Additional fees apply if you are a new merchant or are activating a new account.
Merchant Account Charge
There is a 1-month free trial for merchants who signup for an account during the first 5 days of the month.
If you’re switching to Fattmerchant from another credit card processing company, there is a fee of 3.9% multiplied by the monthly processing fee.
Offers and discounts cannot be applied to Fattmerchant’s monthly recurring charge. The only way to receive a discount is to pay the processing fee in full for the month.
Monthly Recurring Fees
There are no monthly recurring fees for transactions, processing fees, taxes or other recurring charges.
Fattmerchant does not apply a monthly recurring fee to merchant accounts for charges incurred on behalf of the merchant.
Fattmerchant Features
Dharma: Best Merchant Service for Established Retailers and Restaurants
Have you heard of Dharma lately? If you weren’t already aware, they provide an AMAZING checkout solution for small businesses. And they do this by combining retail tracking with an API that helps retailers and restaurants integrate with their services.
I am using Dharma at my current hosting gig and they are by far the best merchant services option I’ve encountered. I personally haven’t used a variety of other merchant services, but it’s no secret that these kinds of services are popular.
If you are just starting out, or if you are an established business looking for new options, here are a few options from which you can choose.
Dharma Pricing
For merchants with more than one business location, there is the option of having an account with Dharma. Dharma Pricing…Dharma helps small business owners control Dell prices across multiple stores.
All of the information about the products your purchase will be collected from all stores. Then you give your suppliers a weekly amount to buy products from that agree to a wholesale price, generally through electronic transactions, for that amount.
While it’s not a revolutionary pricing plan, it does have a lot of benefits for the small business owner. The main benefit of this plan is the price of the product is based on the daily average of the selling price in each store.
This method lowers the risk of accidentally losing money on a loss leader sale. So, you don’t overbuy in one store and run out of stock only to find out your selling price was artificially high.
Another benefit is you can have the same price across all stores with a 50 percent discount to encourage buying across stores. Because you rely on your suppliers to submit your purchases electronically, all of the costs are shared.
Dharma Features
Dharma’s API solution and Merchant Services are available as a SaaS model; you can also signup for a hosted merchant account, which will give you free access to the tools. The hosted merchant account is designed for merchants that have a web store selling products through an e-commerce provider, and it is managed by the platform’s technology partners.
Dharma’s API solution provides support for online governance, supply chain management, inventory management, investment management, real-time analytics and reporting, and consumer and retailer financial data.
The platform has also developed a solution, known as Dharma Pay Plus. It is a revolutionary way of processing payments online as it is built on the standard credit cards point-of-sale infrastructure. It is the only solution that provides strong security controls and allows you to use international online payment methods, such as paypal or Credit cards.
With Dharma, you can easily get started on accepting payments online. You can quickly apply for merchant accounts and start accepting credit card payments online. Dharma’s merchant account requires a 2-30% cut on each transaction.
Once your account is approved, you can start processing online payments using your merchant ID and password.
PayPal: Best Payment Processing for Occasional Sales
PayPal is a highly respected merchant service, especially for the services it provides to start-ups and businesses that are not very big. PayPal's two-factor authentication and malware protection are especially important for these types of companies.
Square: Best Credit Card Processing for Occasional Sales: Square is an easy-to-use tool that makes it easy to accept credit cards with basic pricing, or any other credit card that you want. These meters are highly customizable and you can use them to accept any type of credit card you want.
Stripe: Best Credit Card Processing for Occasional Sales: Stripe is one of the easiest tools for anyone to use. The user interface is simple and easy to navigate. As long as you have a secure connection, you can easily get your start-up or small business started with Stripe.
Google Checkout: Best Merchant Account for Occasional Sales: Google Checkout is easy to use, has a great interface, and is extremely easy to sign up for and get started. Although it can't accept most types of credit cards, Google Checkout is a great tool for occasional sales and for people just getting started.
Amazon Payments: Best Merchant Accounts for Small-Scale Sales: Amazon Payments is another great tool for people just getting started, so for service providers on a budget, WalmartPay, PayPal Here, and Amazon Payments all make great choices for processing credit cards for consumers.
PayPal Pricing
Here are the basic pricing strategies for PayPal that a lot of merchants use to maximize profits. You can use them in conjunction with each other or on their own, and they are all perfectly acceptable.
Here’s how to use each strategy.
{1}. Shipping and handling (S&H): This is when you add a flat S&H fee to your order. You can either offer this option on your checkout page, or indicate that you’ll add it to the order if a customer selects it. A flat S&H fee is a good way to have customers cover the shipping costs upfront before you pay for them.
{2}. PayPal fee: This fee is charged per transaction. It’s expressed as a percentage on each transaction, so you’ll see a small fee on your sales receipt. It’s a flat fee that you pay regardless of how much you’re selling on a given transaction.
PayPal Features
Whilst it is possible to open a PayPal business account with no fees, there are 3 tiers of fees associated with the PayPal account. This is designed to help businesses make more money by offering tools that allow you to transfer money easily and securely.
Lower-Level PayPal Accounts
The higher the fee, the more you’ll get from the PayPal account. However, you will be limited in the amount of money that you can transfer each month and the profit you can make from PayPal.
Fees, while paid individually, do not include things like the PayPal fee, account verification costs, currency conversion fees, intuit cost and deposit fees. They do include the following:
- Basic functionality – Sending and receiving payments (with limits and fees), funds transfer statements, money sweeps, recurring payments, invoice payments, e-commerce (with limits and fees)
- Advanced functionality – business payments (with limits and fees),
- Receiving payments (with limits and fees)
- E-marketplace – with limit and fees
- Brands (with limit and fees)
- Other – individual bank accounts, knowledge base access, enterprise payments, loyalty and rewards programs, seller tools (with limits and fees), other premium functionality (with limits and fees)
- Top-Level PayPal Account
PaymentCloud: Best High-Risk Merchant Account
We recommend this merchant account if you’re willing to pay a slightly higher monthly fee because you’re looking to accept a wider range of payment methods.
If you’re looking to accept high-risk payment types like PayPal or Alipay, then you’ll have to give this merchant account a closer look because it comes with special software that allows you to integrate PayPal and Alipay into your website.
Payment processor Stripe has an expansive list of payment methods that you can integrate into your website, and PaymentCloud accepts all of them, allowing you to accept payment types like PayPal, Alipay, Apple Pay, Android Pay, and major credit cards and debit cards.
High-Risk Merchant Account Features:
Compatible with all major credit and debit cards.
Passes PCI and data security compliance checks.
Accepts payments from a wide range of financial institutions and payment types.
Available in Europe and US Territories.
What we don’t like about PaymentCloud:
It comes with a slightly higher monthly fee compared to other merchant accounts.
In addition to the standard credit and debit card processing services, PaymentCloud also offers special software that allows you to accept PayPal and Alipay payments without having to integrate the PayPal or Alipay payment systems into your website.
PaymentCloud Pricing
PaymentCloud Features
The Payment Services industry is fast paced and in a constant state of change. Merchants are under pressure to grow their businesses and Payment Services providers (i.e. banks, credit card processors, and other processors) rely on merchants as revenue sources. As a merchant, it’s important you consider your new payment service provider’s offerings and price point, as it will affect your bottom-line. There are many reputable payment processors today, but some are better suited than others for the needs of your business. For a small business, what you can’t afford to lose is innovative service offerings and competitive pricing. Here are 9 Merchants Services that focus on innovation and low transaction fees.
Helcim: Best Interchange-Plus Merchant Account for Online Sales
Helcim’s four main merchant account products include interchange-plus (with a fixed monthly fee), interchange-plus with monthly fee, interchange-plus with lower fixed fee and interchange-plus with lower fixed fee and monthly fee. …The interchange-plus cards… can get you the most from your cards and your merchant account.
Helcim, Inc.…is a full-service payments processor based in Phoenix, Arizona. In addition to providing businesses with a secure payment solution, it offers a host of other payment-related business services.
Helcim’s interchange-plus card product can work well for online businesses. The card issuer will generally allow these kinds of merchants to set the swipe fee rate as high as they like. In turn, this will allow them to pass on a higher amount of cardholder rewards to cardholders.
And these rates take effect across all settlement periods …meaning that they will apply to the total amount of sales volume that you’re transacting during the billing cycle.
Unlike other cards, Helcim’s interchange-plus card product does not limit the amount that you are permitted to charge to the card in any given settlement period.
Helcim Pricing
Helcim is a popular merchant services company that offers online payments and credit card processing to small and medium sized businesses like photographers and wedding photographers.
In this Helcim review post, we’ll take a look at some of the major plans and pricing they offer. We’ll go over what you get when you sign up, what could be better, and how much you will be spending. We’ll also compare the major features of Helcim to those of other merchant services providers.
Helcim Features
Helcim is changing the nature of how people transfer money worldwide by using the innovative Helcim online money transfer service platform. By using Helcim, merchants can receive payments in seconds, which will significantly reduce the amount of time it previously took to process payments, giving merchants more time to focus on other aspects of their business. Merchants using Helcim transfer services can also enjoy discounts and rewards, as well as customer opportunities – all of this means they can now focus on what they do best.
Helcim is partnered with the largest banking system in the world. This enables them to offer low transaction fees and maximum security; their aim is to minimize balance loss and reduce the impact debit card fraud has on their clients’ businesses. They currently have offices in the US, Asia, Latin America, the UK and the Netherlands and have a reach of more than 34 million merchants with more than 9 million customers.
Helcim provides merchant services to business globally. Their approach is to offer a unique, dynamic and finely tuned payment processing and business services solution which aims to set the benchmark in the industry. They offer merchants a variety of business services including deposits with the added advantage of instantaneous wage payments. They also provide Mastercard and Visa point of sale processing services, which is beneficial for merchants that work with both credit and debit cards.
Chase Merchant Services: Best Merchant Account Through a Bank
The most rewarding part of running a small business is providing your customers with a convenient, satisfying experience. Placing an order on your website can sometimes seem difficult. A customer gets distracted by a hard sell from your competition on the other side of the screen and your payment processors can’t yet handle the increased transaction volume. To keep up with the changes in technology and consumer expectations from your website, you’re constantly looking for new ways to accommodate customers. In the past, if you’re running a brick and mortar business, you had many options to accommodate customers in person and online. These included: accepting credit card payments, using a debit card, providing customer service via phone call, and using payment processors. As a small business owner, you’ve been juggling all of these responsibilities on a weekly basis in order to run your business.
Introducing Merchant Services from Chase Paymentech. Chase Paymentech is the premier provider of Merchant Services. Or as they like to say…. merchant services for business. For businesses who do business with Chase Paymentech, you can now accept credit cards online using an easy-to-use web-based tool that is fully integrated with your website.
Chase Merchant Services Pricing
Chase Merchant Services offers a good set of merchant services for small businesses. The rates range from as low as 2.9% for swipe service to as much as a 5.9% price-per-transaction on their Electronic Fund Transfer Provider processing services.
Aside from their standard rates, these services also come with rewards and bonuses, which many merchants don’t receive for their regular credit card processing services.
On the flip side, Chase Merchant Services offers a large range of rates, which can become usually prohibitive for a small merchant, who has minimal rates. Otherwise, Chase Merchant Services are a great choice.
Chase Merchant Services Features
Users of merchant accounts have long complained about Chase Merchant Services…but if you’re in the market for a merchant services account, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better choice than Chase, which aims to provide the best possible service to their merchant clients. They have developed a variety of account options to better serve different sized businesses and provide for very specific needs.
Chase Merchant Services provides several payment options, including a website gateway, recurring billing, recurring and one-time payments, point of sale, auto debits, and mobile payments. They also provide a number of payment options, including checks, credit cards, ACH transfers, direct deposit, and mobile payments for online purchases.
These choices make Chase Merchant Services a great choice for merchants who need a variety of choices when it comes to payment processing.
Chase Merchant Services actually allows you to run your business from home, and thus offer money transfer as well as recurring and one-time payments. They also provide you with many different payment options, including checks, credit cards, ACH transfers, direct deposits, and mobile payments.
Chase Merchant Services also provides competitive exchange rates, which is an important factor when looking to attract foreign customers. They’ll regularly check foreign exchange rates to ensure that they’re providing you with the best possible rate for your business.
Stripe: Best Payment Processing for Online Businesses
Stripe is a payment processing service that offers everything you need to set up and run a retail or online store. They provide tools to easily receive payments through your website, offer notification email and mobile SMS notification services, and can even help manage your subscriptions through a hassle-free integration. It offers their flexible pricing plans by offering two step invoices to help you sell more.
Stripe has very clean APIs, making it easier for programmers to pick and choose which features they want and use them. It also provides 24 live chat support during normal business hours, and supports over 80 languages. As a result, over 90% of their users are new customers and the time to set up a new merchant account is faster.
Stripe’s straightforward pricing makes their products attractive to those looking to build their first business. They’ve made it easy for merchants to receive payments regardless of where they live. They’re additionally secure enough for major companies to use them, as well as small businesses and nonprofit organizations.
Stripe Pricing
What is Stripe?
Stripe is a form of payment processing, allowing businesses to collect payments. It also can take care of their credit card transaction costs. The platform, which is available for businesses in over 160 countries, is an all-in-one way for businesses to handle all their payment processing needs.
Who Uses Stripe?
Stripe is used by businesses of all sizes. The company’s website claims that it has helped tens of thousands of businesses of all sizes. Each year the company celebrates their 500,000th customer. The site also claims that Stripe “is the fastest-growing service in the history of the Internet.”
Benefits of Accepting Payments on Stripe
Accepting payments for your business can be difficult. To accept payments with Stripe, you can’t have your business’s Salesforce data in that particular format. In other words, you will need to build your own form, or find a template to start with.
Stripe also has a call-to-action bar on the website that you use as a hyperlink. When you click the bar, you’re directed to another platform. This is helpful for businesses who want to give directions and points to their customers as part of the payment process.
Stripe Features
Stripe is the brainchild of two entrepreneurs – John and Patrick Collison – who pivoted after selling their startup, Auctomatic. They discovered a need to accept online payments in their early ventures and ended up building a successful business. They decided to leave the company after its sale to focus on other projects.
Stripe was launched in 2010 as an open source project and quickly attracted a lot of attention. It was described by one reviewer as ″the most thoughtful possible implementation of a currency exchange at a rate independent of any given country.”
Stripe introduced a new model for online businesses to accept payments safely and securely by using an API call. The API enables businesses to accept payments from their websites and mobile applications.
Stripe’s API is also used by platforms to pull payments from their mobile applications in real time, enabling customers to purchase products in-app. Stripe has seen more than 14,300 developers integrating its API with Stripe.
Stripe constantly invests in software innovation to help businesses accept payments, including a new tool to accept credit card payments via Google’s Payment Request API.
Stripe is a payment option for thousands of online stores, including The Verge, Airbnb, and Kickstarter and has partnered with the US government to help businesses accept government payments.
Merchant Service Provider Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQs)
When it comes to online shopping, there are numerous services providers that you can turn to. But when it comes to finding the best merchant services for your needs, there are a few questions that you’ll need to ask yourself. Is it secure? Is it reliable? How fast is it? At Scrips, we believe in the three pillars of safe and secure shopping for all our customers.
Payment Security
Not everyone has a bank account, and that’s perfectly okay. With alternative payment options available, you can now take shopping with you wherever you go. But there’s one thing that you need to make sure of: the payment options you use should be fully secured. Think of it as a safety net. With an online shopping account, you can expect payment options that are stable and secure.
Established merchant services providers ensure that you’re using secure payment options when you use their services. This means that you can shop securely for the items you’ve quickly come to love with merchant services that are secure and safe.
What is a merchant service company?
A merchant service company (aka merchant bank) is a business with many servers that servers your customers with secure, reliable, and efficient payment processing.
Merchant service, or merchant products, is a transaction that happens after a customer places an order with you, but before a customer pays using their card.
When a customer hands you their card, they’re asking you for authorization to spend the money on the card, but before that happens, that customer needs to give permission for the transaction to happen. That’s where the merchant service comes in – they’ll provide all the information to process the payment.
How Merchant Services Work for Small Businesses
As a small business, you usually find merchant services to be necessary. If you’re just starting out or if you’re taking off on your own, you will likely be unable to grow or maintain a merchant account with your bank. So instead, you’re forced to use a merchant service.
When you use a merchant service, you’re on the hook for all the hidden costs that banks levy, such as:
Bureau fees (the fees you’d pay the bank if a customer charges their card)
What are the different types of merchant service accounts?
There are a few different types of Merchant Accounts:
- A business that accepts credit or debit card payments for the sales of inventory.
- A business who accepts card payments for certain services (e.g., haircuts, car repairs)
- A business who accepts card payments for certain products (e.g., pizza, vacation packages)
Businesses (like restaurants or hotels) who sell goods or services to consumers (like you) are known as companies. Merchants have accounts with a bank who they use to process their monthly credit and debit card transactions.
Major credit and debit card companies (e.g., Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover) give Merchants the rates and types of services (called Service Charges) that they offer.
For example, the vast majority of credit card companies charge a monthly flat fee per transaction. They offer two types of monthly fees:
- Transaction fees: A percentage of each sale taken off the top of each transaction's total.
- Statement Fees: A flat fee taken off the top of each transaction's total charged to the Merchant's account.
Each credit and debit card company has different Rules and Regulations for their business. They expect Merchants to provide information about charges and transactions to them, by required Updating the information every month.
What are the different kinds of transaction fees?
Merchant services and processing fees are not the same thing. While processing fees are actual charges incurred by the merchant for each transaction, merchant services fees are fees accrued by adding a service to your business rather than the amount of each transaction. These can include things like merchant account fees, transaction fees, monthly fees, etc.
The merchant services fees should help you save on processing costs down the road, but they also add a one-off fee. Therefore, if you don’t plan to use the merchant services, the fees are not required to run your business.
Below are the different kinds of merchant services you can choose from.
How do I choose a merchant service provider?
You’ve decided to switch to electronic payment methods like e-check, ACH, or credit card processing in order to save time and money and take your business to the next level. Now you’re wondering, “If there are so many merchant services available, which services are the best suited for my business?”
In this post, we’ll discuss nine merchant service providers based on several aspects such as pricing, tools, and services. Then we’ll point you to some must-have tools and resources that can help you decide which merchant service provider would work best for you.
Bottom Line
With more and more ecommerce sites popping up around the net, it’s a good idea to get involved with merchant services for small businesses. Since you only need a few products to offer, you only need a few different payment options. Merchant services, or 3rd party payment processing, are ideal for you since small businesses like you don’t need to pay 2% to process credit cards for every sale. For the most part, you will also get better pricing on your merchant accounts since the large banks and the credit card companies have decided their 3rd party payment processors are too small to matter.
One of the most popular merchant services for small businesses is Paypal. PayPal is a well known electronic payment system that allows you to link a credit card reader to your site via a secure connection. Once your customer uses his or her PayPal account to pay for the product, PayPal will discount the price of the item by the 3% transaction fee. Most importantly, once you receive the money from the customer, the funds will automatically be deposited to your account on the day the purchase is made.