Credit Card Processing Rates

Bottom line: Merchant Professionals guarantees we can save you money on your merchant processing rates. In fact, we will give you $250 if we can't lower your merchant account rate. Click here for details.

Read on for details about how merchant account rates are determined.

There are a few things you need to know about merchant account discount rates

If you have been shopping online for a merchant account, you have seen a bunch of rates being quoted. “1.73%” they will say.

Where do these rates come from?

Visa and Mastercard set base rates called Interchange, which is comparable to the Prime Rate that the Federal Reserve Bank sets. These rates form the basis of your merchant account discount rates.

No bank gets a better deal than the prime rate, and no credit card processor gets a better deal than Interchange. The difference is that there are over 250 rates in Interchange. These different discount rates are applied to credit card transactions based on the type of card, merchant behavior, and sales environment.

Interchange rates vary from 0.50% to 3.25%

Click here for an example...

 

Moving on, the rate you see quoted on websites could be based on any one of 250 possible Interchange rates.

We want you to be fully informed...

...about the costs associated with merchant accounts. Call us at 888-353-7723 and we'll answer all your questions.

Of that 1.7235% - 2.1325% the card issuing bank gets the biggest chunk, with the merchant account sales organization and the processor earning the remainder. On a $75 transaction, this amounts to about $1.29 to $1.60.

Then there are the per item fees. Again, the card issuer gets the biggest chunk, the processor gets a bit and the merchant account sales organization gets a slice of the pie for a total of 25¢ per transaction.

The total cost for a $75 transaction is then $1.55 to $1.86.

There is also a monthly statement fee of $8 to $10.

All this enables you, the merchant, to offer your customers the convenience of paying with plastic.

Oh, and another thing you want to be aware of is that most merchant account providers will charge an 'early termination fee' of $295 or so if the merchant wants to break their contract early and go to another merchant account provider. This is because it takes the efforts of several people in their office to get the merchant's business set up on the processor's network. By not charging an up-front application fee, they are investing time and money into the business relationship that they won't be able to recover for many months.

By providing Absolute integrity, Respect for the merchant and Excellence in what we do, Merchant Professionals has achieved an excellent retention rate (three times longer than the industry average!).

We understand the value of a merchant's partnership, and we strive to provide long term value.

Okay, I get it, now show me your rates...

 

We provide a service. We hook you up to the credit card processing network and we provide personal support. We get paid for providing that service by charging merchants a tiny amount of money per transaction.

All merchant account providers make money by charging merchants a tiny bit of money on every transaction processed. The difference with Merchant Professionals is our emphasis on Respect, Integrity and Excellence.