Here's a new one / PCI compliance

[Alibi Ike]

Some processors are offering 1.49% but have monthly fees which of course I did not have before but now that I am "in the market" I will need to compare the one verses the other.
Alibi rememeber that I had that little advantage when I first signed up of have some inside knowlege because I used to sell cc processing so that helped me negotiate BUT I did not go with the company I used to sell processing for because I saw how they $crewed their customers .. but ANYONE can try and negotiate their rates, esp if you tell your processor you are "looking around"
Take a look at www.feefighters.com
PS MTL Innpayment looks interesting because I have so many corp and rewards cards so I will follow up on that one and if I do go with them maybe they will give you a referral fee!!!.

My processor charges a fee to leave so they don't take any kind 'I'm shopping' talk seriously because they'll just hit me with the fee if I cancel. I have called AmEx and they've flat out refused to lower my rate.

 

[Don Draper]

We only ever had to pay a PCI compliance fee if we were out of compliance. YOu fill out the online questionnaire and if everything's good you don't have a fee. This is with First Data..

We only ever had to pay a PCI compliance fee if we were out of compliance. YOu fill out the online questionnaire and if everything's good you don't have a fee. This is with First Data.

This specifically refers to "in order to offset the development costs for PCI compliance" so is not related to "non compliance."
I would be interested to know why they are saying you are NOT in (PCI) compliance because the only way they can do that is by coming in and auditing you.
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They were saying we were not in compliance simply because we hadn't filled out the questionnaire. When this all first started I thought the questionnaire email was a scam so didn't fill it out. But since filling out the questionnaire I've not had any other charges related to compliance. This could be a new fee they just haven't smacked me with yet too, they roll these things out progressively.

 

[agoodman]

Some processors are offering 1.49% but have monthly fees which of course I did not have before but now that I am "in the market" I will need to compare the one verses the other.
Alibi rememeber that I had that little advantage when I first signed up of have some inside knowlege because I used to sell cc processing so that helped me negotiate BUT I did not go with the company I used to sell processing for because I saw how they $crewed their customers .. but ANYONE can try and negotiate their rates, esp if you tell your processor you are "looking around"
Take a look at www.feefighters.com
PS MTL Innpayment looks interesting because I have so many corp and rewards cards so I will follow up on that one and if I do go with them maybe they will give you a referral fee!!!.

My processor charges a fee to leave so they don't take any kind 'I'm shopping' talk seriously because they'll just hit me with the fee if I cancel. I have called AmEx and they've flat out refused to lower my rate.
.

WOW - well keep it in mind for when your contract is up - but I saw on feefighters they will try and negotiate a new rate for you with your current processor so it's worth a shot. How long is your contract for?
Ref Amex and Discover - nope those are a different kettle of fish but when I first opened and did not accept Amex I was losing business so I just had to bite the bullet and found that they were actually NOT that much more expensive.

 

[Alibi Ike]

Some processors are offering 1.49% but have monthly fees which of course I did not have before but now that I am "in the market" I will need to compare the one verses the other.
Alibi rememeber that I had that little advantage when I first signed up of have some inside knowlege because I used to sell cc processing so that helped me negotiate BUT I did not go with the company I used to sell processing for because I saw how they $crewed their customers .. but ANYONE can try and negotiate their rates, esp if you tell your processor you are "looking around"
Take a look at www.feefighters.com
PS MTL Innpayment looks interesting because I have so many corp and rewards cards so I will follow up on that one and if I do go with them maybe they will give you a referral fee!!!.

My processor charges a fee to leave so they don't take any kind 'I'm shopping' talk seriously because they'll just hit me with the fee if I cancel. I have called AmEx and they've flat out refused to lower my rate.
.

WOW - well keep it in mind for when your contract is up - but I saw on feefighters they will try and negotiate a new rate for you with your current processor so it's worth a shot. How long is your contract for?
Ref Amex and Discover - nope those are a different kettle of fish but when I first opened and did not accept Amex I was losing business so I just had to bite the bullet and found that they were actually NOT that much more expensive.
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Contract renews every year for one year. Being stupid when we opened we just went with the former owner's company and did not know about all the different fees. I do know others have gotten out of paying the fee by getting PAII to go to bat for them. If and when I find a company that can actually guarantee the overall fees will be less, I'll bail. It hasn't happened yet. Heartland just handed us back our info and said they couldn't beat the rates even though they 'guaranteed' their rates were lower when we contacted them for a comparison.
What I would like to do now is refuse rewards cards but I don't know anyone who has a non-rewards card! I have been able to get a lot more guests to pay by check or cash this year. Just by asking, not needing to do any sort of discounting.

 

[agoodman]

Actually it is against the VISA regulations to refuse cards if you accept Visa (and MC, amex etc) so you can't just say "I don't accept rewards or corp cards"
It SUXX that WE have to pay a different fee so the customer gets benefits!! If your contract renews annually there is no reason you should not be able to get out of your contract with no fee at the end of the current term, and I BETCHA that when you call to tell them you are not renewing "suddenly" they will offer you better rates.
But they cannot charge you a cancel fee once your contract is up. And I saw on feefighters they DO NOT ALLOW cancel fees on anyone they contract with!!

 

[Joey Camb]

i dont know if it is the same in the usa but our bank negotiaed a really good deal with evalon if you bank with them plus we get free business banking.

 

[Alibi Ike]

Actually it is against the VISA regulations to refuse cards if you accept Visa (and MC, amex etc) so you can't just say "I don't accept rewards or corp cards"
It SUXX that WE have to pay a different fee so the customer gets benefits!! If your contract renews annually there is no reason you should not be able to get out of your contract with no fee at the end of the current term, and I BETCHA that when you call to tell them you are not renewing "suddenly" they will offer you better rates.
But they cannot charge you a cancel fee once your contract is up. And I saw on feefighters they DO NOT ALLOW cancel fees on anyone they contract with!!.

Actually it is against the VISA regulations to refuse cards if you accept Visa (and MC, amex etc) so you can't just say "I don't accept rewards or corp cards"

Not anymore. You can do whatever you want now that the new regs have gone into effect. Charge more to use a CC? Go right ahead. Don't accept certain cards? Go right ahead.

 

[agoodman]

Actually it is against the VISA regulations to refuse cards if you accept Visa (and MC, amex etc) so you can't just say "I don't accept rewards or corp cards"
It SUXX that WE have to pay a different fee so the customer gets benefits!! If your contract renews annually there is no reason you should not be able to get out of your contract with no fee at the end of the current term, and I BETCHA that when you call to tell them you are not renewing "suddenly" they will offer you better rates.
But they cannot charge you a cancel fee once your contract is up. And I saw on feefighters they DO NOT ALLOW cancel fees on anyone they contract with!!.

Actually it is against the VISA regulations to refuse cards if you accept Visa (and MC, amex etc) so you can't just say "I don't accept rewards or corp cards"

Not anymore. You can do whatever you want now that the new regs have gone into effect. Charge more to use a CC? Go right ahead. Don't accept certain cards? Go right ahead.
.

wow I had not heard that

 

[Alibi Ike]

Actually it is against the VISA regulations to refuse cards if you accept Visa (and MC, amex etc) so you can't just say "I don't accept rewards or corp cards"
It SUXX that WE have to pay a different fee so the customer gets benefits!! If your contract renews annually there is no reason you should not be able to get out of your contract with no fee at the end of the current term, and I BETCHA that when you call to tell them you are not renewing "suddenly" they will offer you better rates.
But they cannot charge you a cancel fee once your contract is up. And I saw on feefighters they DO NOT ALLOW cancel fees on anyone they contract with!!.

Actually it is against the VISA regulations to refuse cards if you accept Visa (and MC, amex etc) so you can't just say "I don't accept rewards or corp cards"

Not anymore. You can do whatever you want now that the new regs have gone into effect. Charge more to use a CC? Go right ahead. Don't accept certain cards? Go right ahead.
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wow I had not heard that
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My mistake on the semantics...you cannot tack on a surcharge to use a cc, you can discount the amount a cash-paying customer has to fork over.

 

[agoodman]

Funnily enough in the US if you have merchant processing "directly" through your bank ex through Wachovia, BB&T the rates are higher than using an ISO who actually use those banks systems, this CAN sometimes be the case with BOA as well who use First Data as their credit card processing arm.