What you need to know about payment aggregation
Payment aggregators (aka third-party processors) are service providers that allow other businesses to accept credit cards without having to set up a merchant account. They make money by taking a percentage of credit card sales and also a transaction charge. Payment aggregators are a business on their own. They need to get approved for a […]
Merchant account closed, frozen, or on hold
It has happened to many businesses before and it’s not a good experience. You are halfway through a busy day and a colleague tells you that all credit cards are being declined. It was working in the morning, but now it’s gone haywire. You call your payment processor (hopefully they have phone support) and they […]
Do I really need a merchant account?
The quick answer is yes, you need a merchant account if you are going to accept credit card payments from your customers. A merchant account is the way banks lend credit to approved businesses to accept credit cards. In the end, using credit cards is using borrowed money from the bank. There is no way […]
Most common reasons for chargebacks
If you know why consumers do chargebacks, you can work on preventing them. Chargebacks are one of those things that you should pay attention to as a business owner/operator. They cost you money and higher chargeback rates mean customers are unsatisfied. The first step to solving the problem is defining the problem. You should be […]
Payments statistics: credit, debit, cash, checks, EFT…
You want to get an understanding of how people are paying for things. Here’s a set of stats to give you the lay of the land. All these numbers are approximate so take them with a grain of salt. Also remember, statistics can be easily skewed in many ways. To get a real picture of […]
Payment processors vs ISOs
Payment processors and ISOs (Independent Sales Organizations) mostly sell the same products and services. In the end, ISOs resell products and services from processors and they may build additional services on top of processors. There are some ISOs that are huge and many are small. However, in general, they are smaller than processors. Banks are […]
What are personal guarantees and why have them?
When getting a merchant account, many payment processors will ask for a personal guarantee. There are some cases where this may not happen, for example in businesses that have been around for many years or a business that is very low risk. It is understandable to feel a little uneasy when signing a personal guarantee. […]
What small businesses need to know about PCI Compliance
PCI is an industry standard set by the PCI Security Standards Council. PCI stands for Payment Card Industry. Essentially, it provides a set of things that every business needs to do if they are involved with credit cards. Merchants, software developers, payment processors, etc all need to pay attention and abide by PCI standards. It […]
The best payment processors
It is tough to determine the best payment processor. All merchants want the best and the best really depends on your business. We believe the main criteria to determine the best merchant services provider (payment processor) are the following. Customer support: At some point, you’ll need to call customer support, they need to be available, […]
The way to reduce chargebacks
Chargebacks are a pain. If you get a chargeback, it means a customer of yours has got to the point where they don’t believe they got the product or service they paid for. So they complained to the credit card company and got their money back. A great goal is to reduce and hopefully stop […]