There is a lot at stake while choosing which credit card processing company is proper for your business. That means considering costs and fees, the setup that is involved, accepted payment types, and security features.
That is the reason why we have put together a checklist of what merchants should consider while choosing a credit card processing company.
Credit card processing for small businesses: Security
Credit cards and security concerns go hand in hand. Choosing credit card processing for small businesses should be performed with security as a priority. That means asking which fraud prevention tools they have to keep your client’s payment details safe. Today, credit card processors have to provide tokenization and encryption features for online and offline purchases alike. For payments online, merchants ought to search for a processor supporting CVV2 verification and SSL certificates. The last security measure to check on involves ensuring a credit card processor is PCI-DSS compliant to completely safeguard the information shared around your systems.
Costs and fees
Transparency in pricing is among the most critical aspects of picking a credit card processing company. Generally, every credit card company charges an interchange charge for every transaction. That’s usually between 0.5 to 3% a transaction, depending upon whether the purchase was made online or in-store, the size of the transaction, and the kind of card.
What is vital to consider is whether the credit card processing company charges month-to-month fees, how they’ll bill, or if they possess minimum processing figures the merchant has to hit to avoid extra fees. Businesses have to learn if there are extra fees, like accessibility to a payment gateway charge, fees for support and setup, or monthly statement fees. More importantly, you will need to learn if you will be charged for ending the contract early if you choose to transfer to some other credit card processing company.
The process of setup
While choosing a credit card processing company, merchants have to ask questions concerning integration to figure out how simple the setup process is. The process must be painless and quick; however, it is vital that you ask questions regarding how long installation takes, as well as how long it’ll be for your company to be set up on their system. Each delay you face will cost your company money and the opportunity of securing another client. Lengthy, complex setup processes is a risk that an organization should not have to take.
Accepted payment types
Today’s customers expect choice, which includes how they prefer paying. When you establish a relationship with the credit card processing company, organizations have to ask about the types of payment they accept. It is essential to make sure all major credit and debit cards are part of this list. You will also want to ask about the capability of accepting gift and prepaid cards in order for you to completely cater your payments systems to your clients.
Businesses have to be savvy while entering any payment relationship. We are here to educate you on making the process easier to understand in order for you to spend less time concerned with how to process payments and concentrate more time on creating customer relationships and increasing their revenues.
Story by Brad Bernanke
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