We got our merchant account a couple years ago via . Upon comparing our rates (2.65% + .35) and chargeback fees ($25 compared to $10) to what other merchants are paying, we believe we are "overpaying". To discuss lower fees, would we talk to or our merchant account bank?

Also, would be able to help us get Discover and American Express or again, would we go through our merchant account bank (provider)? (We currently only accept MC and Visa, but want to accept Discover and AM)

Ron
Vista Wholesale

To start accepting Discover and AmEx, you need to contact them directly first, get approved and get your merchant number from them. Then you give that information to Julie and she'll forward it on to the bank to get it setup behind the scenes.

I just did this a month or so ago. Very smooth.

Also,

I do not think you can negotiate lower fees because it is a contract.

krazykickz,

You can always negotiate fees. The provider doesn't have to and has the right to increase your rates when Interchange goes up, but the relationship you have with your provider is important.

Do keep in mind that there is risk involved for a provider to take you on as a merchant. If you were to go out of a business and charged a bunch of credit cards and didn't deliver, those charges would come back. The provider would then have to come after you, and so on.

I heard of a story that one retail merchant charged $1 million his first week, don't know why the provider allowed this and the next week he was gone! The biggest problem with providers is merchant fraud! People setting up merchant accounts to defraud processors. Also, businesses closing shop and owing the provider thousands of dollars.

Therefore, some riskier accounts are charged more. I do not know what kind of account you have, you would have to look at your various things, such as your personal credit, what kind of credit limit, etc.

Some would say 2.65% is high and others will say it could be right for the risk your business is for the provider (I do not know at this point). Don't forget your non-qual, which is 1.5% with MC that I see. So you are looking at 4.15% on your downgrades.

You should be able to setup Discover & Amex through them directly or through MC, which is an agent for BankCard, so they would do it. Do know that most processors charge a transaction fee for these cards on top of what Novus & Amex charge.

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American Express offers two plans to choose from. Internet/Moto (any “card-not-present” type of account) merchants are automatically assigned the monthly fee plan unless you process more than $5,000 a year, at which point you will automatically be converted to the 3.50% discount rate. Merchant pays a flat 3.50% discount rate on all transactions with no monthly fees.


Merchants pay a monthly flat fee of $5, with no additional charges. Unlike the discount rate pricing plan, you do not pay an amount for each American Express sale. Businesses must have less than $5,000 in annual American Express sales.

To illustrate the cost difference in terms of discount rates: If you processed $2,500 in American Express sales for the year, the $60 you would have paid would equate to a 2.4% discount rate. If you processed $5,000 for the year, then the $60 would equate to a 1.2% discount rate.

Curtis

By the way welcome to our forums and thak you for the information your sharing.
It is the most grey area of ecommerce and its nce for someone to come and share any information with us.

The processors play a revenue game of hide the ball. Sometimes the revenue
for them is hidden in chargebacks, statement fees, monthly fees, float time
(delay of funding), per transaction fee, batch fees, AVS fees etc.

When negotiating with a merchant processor do NOT be mesmirized by ONLY the discount rate and transaction fee. This in many cases is what the merchant processor wishes you to do. They know you have a business to run and do not have time to look thru every detail of their program.

Steven
http://EmerchantsGroup.com
Formed by merchants for merchants