Credit cards

[slowtech]

I have been watching my cc fees go up. Add to that the pci compliance hassle. Does anyone have a good cc processing service?

[Wheelingauto]

When you take in all fees, discounts etc what is your all in discount rate on a monthly basis? What type of volume do you do?

 

We have a company who charges all in 1.44%.....everything...

[mspecperformance]

  On 2/10/2017 at 11:55 PM, Wheelingauto said:

When you take in all fees, discounts etc what is your all in discount rate on a monthly basis? What type of volume do you do?

 

We have a company who charges all in 1.44%.....everything...

 

Thats very low! Would it be ok if I msged you for a referral to your merchant provider?

[Wheelingauto]

  On 2/11/2017 at 1:20 PM, mspecperformance said:

 

Thats very low! Would it be ok if I msged you for a referral to your merchant provider?

sure

[Jay Huh]

Can you message me as well? I use Wells Fargo and paying close to $700/month

[Leonardi Auto]

I would also appreciate a referral

Thank you.

1.44 is a great rate.

[Topauto]

Everyone pays the same bank processing fees . What you pay above that is the secret. After two weeks researching We choose Dharma merchant services . Saved us $200 the first month we changed over merchant service. No contract check out there website

[Handson]

I use Royal merchant services. They are local to me here in colorado. Think I am 1.35 +.

[Truett]

  On 2/12/2017 at 11:59 PM, Topauto said:

Everyone pays the same bank processing fees . What you pay above that is the secret. After two weeks researching We choose Dharma merchant services . Saved us $200 the first month we changed over merchant service. No contract check out there website

True. We use WorldPay (First Mile). We pay a flat Fee per month ($200) no matter how many we process, then the bank fees. Have saved as much as $500 in both stores from old system (EPX)

[Wheelingauto]

  On 2/13/2017 at 12:51 PM, Truett said:

True. We use WorldPay (First Mile). We pay a flat Fee per month ($200) no matter how many we process, then the bank fees. Have saved as much as $500 in both stores from old system (EPX)

 

 

Not true! I have been in the game almost 30 years and thought this was true. Had a close friend who did my processing at cost plus. When my current provider was referred to me I had my friend call him and find out that "catch" there was none and he told me he oculd find no reason not to go with this new company and had no idea how they could provide service below cost.

 

I have been with them almost 4 years and it's still 1.44% all in. Not above....I know he does this for the automotive industry only as I have wanted to refer him to others. E mail me and I will forward his info dave@wheelingautocenter.com

[jeffg]

1.44% on all cards seems to good to be true. Many types of cards charge more than that. There are set interchange rates charged by the card companies (visa, mc, etc...) and for many types of cards it is higher than 1.44% (rewards cards, fleet cards, Amex, Disc), some are lower (debit cards and some others). Not sure how anyone could charge 1.44% all in for everything unless you are doing a whole lot more debit cards. We are doing over 10 million a year in credit cards and I have shopped many times over the last 30+ years and never seen anything that is one fixed flat rate. I have seen cost (interchange) plus plans and tiered rate plans (usually with 3-4 different rates on different types of cards). Would be interesting to see how this works.

[Wheelingauto]

  On 2/13/2017 at 2:16 PM, jeffg said:

1.44% on all cards seems to good to be true. Many types of cards charge more than that. There are set interchange rates charged by the card companies (visa, mc, etc...) and for many types of cards it is higher than 1.44% (rewards cards, fleet cards, Amex, Disc), some are lower (debit cards and some others). Not sure how anyone could charge 1.44% all in for everything unless you are doing a whole lot more debit cards. We are doing over 10 million a year in credit cards and I have shopped many times over the last 30+ years and never seen anything that is one fixed flat rate. I have seen cost (interchange) plus plans and tiered rate plans (usually with 3-4 different rates on different types of cards). Would be interesting to see how this works.

 

FYI: I am not in any way affiliated with any CC processor.

 

That being said if you've never seen it I guess it cant be true.....but....if it is.....cant I get 50% of what you save the first year?

[chasauto]

In 2016 we paid 1.95%. 1.44% looks pretty good. Would save us about $400 a month. I'll email you Dave.

[jeffg]

  On 2/13/2017 at 2:45 PM, Wheelingauto said:

 

FYI: I am not in any way affiliated with any CC processor.

 

That being said if you've never seen it I guess it cant be true.....but....if it is.....cant I get 50% of what you save the first year?

Not saying it is not true, just saying I have never seen anything like it. Would like to see a statement or contract that showed how it worked. Is that your average rate or fixed rate for all cards processed? Do they charge the same for Amex, & Discover? What about debit cards, are they the same?

[Wheelingauto]

  On 2/13/2017 at 6:08 PM, jeffg said:

Not saying it is not true, just saying I have never seen anything like it. Would like to see a statement or contract that showed how it worked. Is that your average rate or fixed rate for all cards processed? Do they charge the same for Amex, & Discover? What about debit cards, are they the same?

So no 50%.... sigh........ e mail me

 

 

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[carolinahigear]

A girl called me yesterday, made an appt. for today and came to see me. So I listened to her as I'm going to change my processor by March 31( my self-imposed deadline.) She told me that she (the company she works for) will process ALL my credit cards for 1 %, and process ALL my debit cards (Pin #) for 0%. Will charge me $129 per month for machine, plus a $31 fee, and that's it. *** She did say that AMEX is 1.77%. Others are 1% and 0 for debit cards.

 

I'm going to call some of her referrals and check her out. She's local and works out of an office 30 mins. from my shop.

 

Have any of you EVER heard of a processor this cheap? Any recommendations of what I should look for or questions I should ask her??

 

Thank you in advance!!

 

Hi-Gear

[jeffg]

  On 2/15/2017 at 3:56 AM, carolinahigear said:

A girl called me yesterday, made an appt. for today and came to see me. So I listened to her as I'm going to change my processor by March 31( my self-imposed deadline.) She told me that she (the company she works for) will process ALL my credit cards for 1 %, and process ALL my debit cards (Pin #) for 0%. Will charge me $129 per month for machine, plus a $31 fee, and that's it. *** She did say that AMEX is 1.77%. Others are 1% and 0 for debit cards.

 

I'm going to call some of her referrals and check her out. She's local and works out of an office 30 mins. from my shop.

 

Have any of you EVER heard of a processor this cheap? Any recommendations of what I should look for or questions I should ask her??

 

Thank you in advance!!

 

Hi-Gear

Haven't heard that one. Visa/MC interchange rates are higher than 1% and I don't know of a way to get around them, unless she is saying she will charge you 1% on top of the interchange rates. $129 per month for a machine is expensive, Most lease rates are in the $30-45 range and the cost to buy outright maybe in the $400-$800 range depending on the machine. If you aren't doing a lot of volume, maybe the extra that is being charged for the machine and the monthly fee makes up for what would be lost on the interchange rates. They seem to be always trying to come up with a way to say and do things to make it look cheaper than what you have. I wouldn't change processors without seeing a comparison based on my current statement and an explanation of exactly how they get to their price based on my statements transactions. Also I wouldn't go into any kind of contract without being able to get out, if what they say doesn't pan out in the first month or two. One problem we had when changing processors once, was not getting out of our contract with the processor, but getting out of an equipment lease early, as these are usually done through a leasing company and done on a 36 or 60 month term with automatic renewals. Lots of things to check into when making a change, seem to learn something new every time we change.

[Jay Huh]

  On 2/15/2017 at 3:56 AM, carolinahigear said:

A girl called me yesterday, made an appt. for today and came to see me. So I listened to her as I'm going to change my processor by March 31( my self-imposed deadline.) She told me that she (the company she works for) will process ALL my credit cards for 1 %, and process ALL my debit cards (Pin #) for 0%. Will charge me $129 per month for machine, plus a $31 fee, and that's it. *** She did say that AMEX is 1.77%. Others are 1% and 0 for debit cards.

 

I'm going to call some of her referrals and check her out. She's local and works out of an office 30 mins. from my shop.

 

Have any of you EVER heard of a processor this cheap? Any recommendations of what I should look for or questions I should ask her??

 

Thank you in advance!!

 

Hi-Gear

$129 is really expensive for the lease and that is probably where they are making up the difference. I pay $29 each a month for my machines and they are new.

[Richard Ehler]

I have learned that these middleman process companies can be very decieving. We switched to "Retreiver" recenlty. Rep is Jason Woodward. He has signed up

hundreds of Tire Pros dealers in last couple of years. They are a "direct processor" No middleman. Analysis said they will save is about $503 per month from our $4k bill.

[xrac]

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[MINI4U]

Anyone try WheelingAutos processor? 

[marentetteservice]

We pay a flat 1.5 + .25 per swipe and 2.4 for keyed. Monthly fee is $20. Equipment is owned outright and was $75 shipped. Average is 1.5 to 1.8. We do key the occasional card. No contract. I have my money within 3 days. Integrates well with QuickBooks. 

[Natalie Spears]

  On 9/29/2017 at 10:13 AM, marentetteservice said:

We pay a flat 1.5 + .25 per swipe and 2.4 for keyed. Monthly fee is $20. Equipment is owned outright and was $75 shipped. Average is 1.5 to 1.8. We do key the occasional card. No contract. I have my money within 3 days. Integrates well with QuickBooks. 

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What service are you using?

[tyrguy]

  On 2/20/2017 at 3:02 PM, Richard Ehler said:

I have learned that these middleman process companies can be very decieving. We switched to "Retreiver" recenlty. Rep is Jason Woodward. He has signed up

hundreds of Tire Pros dealers in last couple of years. They are a "direct processor" No middleman. Analysis said they will save is about $503 per month from our $4k bill.

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Been with retriever just a little over a year. First few months were great, with a net after all fees at 1.43 to 1.65. However starting this summer we have started to see fee creep. Last 4 months were 1.59, 1.65, 1.74, 1.96. I called Jason last week and he said that I'm probably doing more AMEX. I told him no, we haven't been processing any AMEX. He seemed puzzled and said he'd check it out and have an answer by the 17th. We'll see but apparently other Tire Pros dealers have noticed the same thing.

 

[xrac]

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[Natalie Spears]

This is definitely something my husband and I need to research further before opening the shop.  I found this article that is specific to auto shops that I am going to look into further.  Thought this might be useful to others, as well.  I would love to know if any of you have used any of these and your opinions of them.  Someone had recommended Swipe and Square to me a while back so I thought this was something we would not really even need to research but it looks like we might be back at the "research" part on this (when I compare their rates to those y'all have listed above, they seem rather high).  Anyway, here's the link:  https://www.cardpaymentoptions.com/credit-card-processing/best-automotive/

 

[MINI4U]

That is an interesting website that I will have to explore further. We are using our bank which averages overall about 2%. They provided the machine free of charge with no contract. Square is more expensive and seems to be suited better to small sales. 

[Natalie Spears]

  On 10/17/2017 at 3:48 PM, MINI4U said:

That is an interesting website that I will have to explore further. We are using our bank which averages overall about 2%. They provided the machine free of charge with no contract. Square is more expensive and seems to be suited better to small sales. 

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Yes, I agree...Square sounds expensive compared to the others many have listed in this post.  I have a friend who runs a local window tint shop and another friend who runs a local auto detail shop.  Both use Square...or at least they did the last time I was in their shops which has been a year or two.  I could see, though, where spending a little time researching these options could save a business quite a substantial amount of money each month.  

[JBockman]

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[mmotley]

Jeez, I can't wait to get out of my contract based on what I'm seeing others pay on here. I paid 2.3% last month

[PherBag]

Square is way too expensive. I think the only places that use them are the ones that don’t research. I see small businesses using them, but they are not busy / high traffic businesses. We use Heartland Payment Systems for the last few years. My fee 1.59%, swipe fee is .05 or .10, and statement fee. After reading this post I am going to do some more research myself.


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[alfredauto]

Remember some companies break up the charges to deceive customers. I studied a colleagues account because I wanted 1% processing. Turns out he got a monthly statement that was fixed at 1.2% on all transactions; swiped, typed, cvc not present you name it. Looked good until we checked his bank statement😦. They deducted the interchange rate before depositing funds. All part of the contract. I had a similar  system when I first started, trust me I paid for that free equipment.  I didn't do a complete analysis but it ended up around 4% total. 

We pay about 2.7% average because we accept Amex, discover, over the phone. Pin entry with chip inserted is the best and cheapest way to get paid. 

What burns me is I'm paying 2.7% to collect sales tax for the state. Do the math. It costs us money to collect sales tax. The credit caps out fast if we do even moderate volume. 

Some months it's below 2% but being in a college town keyed entries are common, as are multiple cards for a relatively low purchase. It all adds up. 

Edited November 7, 2017 by alfredauto

[mmotley]

  On 11/7/2017 at 9:26 AM, alfredauto said:

Remember some companies break up the charges to deceive customers. I studied a colleagues account because I wanted 1% processing. Turns out he got a monthly statement that was fixed at 1.2% on all transactions; swiped, typed, cvc not present you name it. Looked good until we checked his bank statement. They deducted the interchange rate before depositing funds. All part of the contract. I had a similar  system when I first started, trust me I paid for that free equipment.  I didn't do a complete analysis but it ended up around 4% total. 

We pay about 2.7% average because we accept Amex, discover, over the phone. Pin entry with chip inserted is the best and cheapest way to get paid. 

What burns me is I'm paying 2.7% to collect sales tax for the state. Do the math. It costs us money to collect sales tax. The credit caps out fast if we do even moderate volume. 

Some months it's below 2% but being in a college town keyed entries are common, as are multiple cards for a relatively low purchase. It all adds up. 

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Wow! That's slick, taking the charges before depositing the money. Surely he should have caught that as he was reconciling the bank statement though! I use Paul, as recommended by xrac. Great guy. He'll tell you more than you care to know. I'm consistently around 2% total, out the door, everything. The only thing I don't like is being under a contract, but given the fact that there are so many shady credit reps that will lie to get you to come on board with them, I can understand it. I'd highly recommend Paul.

[xrac]

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[mmotley]

  On 11/7/2017 at 6:21 PM, xrac said:

Paul is a good guy but he is hard to get off the phone with. 

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😂 He will keep you on the phone longer than you really want to. But such a nice guy! You can tell he really cares about his clients and getting them the best deal. Night and day difference between him and some of the scum I've dealt with in the past.

[mmotley]

*double post

Edited November 7, 2017 by mmotley

[Hands On]

So I never thought to do an out the door price evaluation. I just did one and found I am hovering between 2.2% and 2.3%  I pay nothing on my machine. I am pretty happy with this rate. I am not interested in making a change as I trust these folks. The owner drove up here to drop a new machine off to me once.  I call and speak with the same two women every time I have an issue.

[xrac]

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[Hands On]

  On 12/4/2017 at 8:39 PM, xrac said:

We have the same person to talk to any time we call and he is very helpful. We also receive all of our equipment for free and have no contract.  We average about 1.74% versus the 2.2% you are paying.  That is .46% which means at least $460.00 more for every $100,000 in credit card sales.  For us that cost would be in excess of $2,000.00. 

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Any chance you would be willing to PM me a statement? This just sounds to  good to be true.

[xrac]

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[Hands On]

  On 12/4/2017 at 9:10 PM, xrac said:

Here is cover page of the October statement. 

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So, I rounded up, I am actually like 2.174......  So I wuld look at you as being 1.8 if I rounded up.  And if you read that statement at the bottom there, looks like you are about to be bumped up to 2.0 unless you have worked that out with them.  Still better, but I duno if it is enough to make the jump, and what happens next year when it goes up another .02%  Does this include AMEX?

Edited December 4, 2017 by Hands On

[xrac]

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[Hands On]

[Hands On]

I have posted two to show how a rate can vary from month to month. One thing that will make it vary is average RO. Since many cards to have a cost per swipe, if you have to swipe it twice as many times in a month to make the same amount of money, you will pay more.   Also, if all of your customers use some huge major rewards card for every transaction in a month you are going to pay more.  And if everyone comes in with Debit you will pay less. One thing I would like is if my merchant offered a free debit transaction deal, but I have not looked into it yet. I would need a pin pad I think.  I forget which is which, but one of these shows about 2.2% and the other shows about 2.1%, which puts me so close to you once your .02% increase hits that we may be dead even and I had a lower RO or more folks with Fancy cards. This does include my AMEX fees.

[Hands On]

  On 12/4/2017 at 9:20 PM, xrac said:

I have been with this provider about 7 years and fees have stayed stable.  The switched to chipped cards has created some increase in costs related to security. I suspect that is across the board with all vendors.  One of the things is every month they run a security scan on our system to see if we pass.  This is through something called Trustwave.   

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I imagine they all do this, its part of the PCI compliance I imagine we all have to do.

 

I think these statements are good for the folks thinking of starting up also, this might be one of the many hidden costs of ownership that are forgotten when dreaming of all the money you will be making starting your own shop.

[xrac]

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[xrac]

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[Hands On]

  On 12/4/2017 at 9:42 PM, xrac said:

.02 is only .0002.

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Thanks for that, I hate %... Does this include your AMEX?

[xrac]

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[Hands On]

  On 12/4/2017 at 9:57 PM, xrac said:

Amex is through Amex.  Car-x has a national account deal with Amex.

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So that is another thing to take into consideration when comparing our two statements.