Every business owner wants affordable credit card processing, that is a given. The problem is finding out what options are available to you and figuring out which ones are best for your business model.
A quick online search for credit card processing shows that there are thousands of processing companies out there and all of them are fishing for your business. So how do you know who to trust, who to listen to, and which plans are right for you... and which ones will actually cost you more than they should?
The answer is: It depends.
Terrible answer, but unfortunately it is true. Each business is unique in it's own right and the best processing option for you may not be the best for the business right next door to you.
For example, let's assume you own a coffee shop doing an average of $12,000 each month and your best seller is a double chocolate shot latte that sells for $5.
Your best friend runs a tire store next door and does abut $75,000 monthly with an average ticket of $400.
If both of you have the same processor and use the Interchange Plus pricing program (the only pricing plan that processor offers), here is how it breaks down for both of you.
Your Coffee Shop
Double Chocolate Latte
Price: $5.00
Interchange Rate: 1.7% (= $0.9)
Interchange per Transaction Fee: $0.10
Processor Mark-up: 0.40% (= $0.02) + $0.10
Total Processing Costs: $0.31
Effective Rate: 6.2%
The Tire Store
New Set of Tires
Price $400.00
Interchange Rate: 1.7% (=$6.80)
Interchange per Transaction Fee: $0.10
Processor Mark-up: 0.40% (=$1.60) + $0.10
Total Processing Costs: $8.60
Effective Rate: 2.15%
So, while your cost was only $0.31 for that one transaction and his was $8.60, the thing to notice is that your processing cost was 6.2% of your sale and his was only 2.15% of his sale.
The lesson here is that you need to be on a different kind of pricing plan than the tire store.
This is why you need a trusted advisor like IntraFirst to help guide you and make sure that the pricing plan you use is best for your business, not best for the credit card processing company.
Let us help you by giving you the right options
Explore our pricing plan options or reach out to us and let us give you our recommendations.