What the World is Saying About Your Business?

Five Things to Watch Out for when Choosing a Merchant Account

Don’t be like this guy to left when choosing a merchant account provider! Take off the blindfold and read the post below:
I am writing this post for new or young businesses that have very little experience with merchant accounts. Let me start by letting you know where I get my knowledge on [...]

10 Reasons to Break Up with Merchant Account Provider

You may have been with your merchant account provider for years. Your account representative may be a close personal friend. You may think your bank will give you the best price and service. You may be wrong; you may be paying too much; you may deserve a better rate and better service. [...]

Lessons From Being Lost - Swipe That Card!

Yesterday I had a scheduled appointment with a winery here in Southern California (Temecula, CA). A very rare thing happened on the way there - I got lost! I mean really really lost; I arrived at the winery over 1.5 hours late! Turns out there are two streets of the same [...]

SAVE MORE: Authorizations Attempts vs. Captures

I was performing an analysis on a merchant account yesterday for a local winery. Turned out we could save them over $380 a month by providing straight pass through and a few other price improvements. One of those improvements is very uncommon and I thought you should know about it. It is [...]

Calling all Web Designers - I Can Increase Your Revenue!

Credit Card Terminal Warning

Can you say proprietary?
How about “proprietary credit card data capturing device?”
To explain what I am trying to get at let’s start with the definitions of the words in that phrase above:
pro·pri·e·tar·y = indicates that a
party, or proprietor, exercises private ownership, control or use over
an item of property, usually to the exclusion of other parties.
cred·it card [...]

Credit Card Terminal Leasing - Good Idea or Bad?

Pin Based Debit - Another Way to Lower Your Fees

Are you looking for another way to lower your merchant account costs? If so, you owe it to yourself to at least consider adding a pin pad to your credit card terminal(s). The main rule for pin based debit cards is the higher your average ticket is the greater your savings will be. [...]

The Superman Syndrome

I was just reminded of a very provocative book I read a few years back, The Superman Syndrome, by Gen N. Landrum, PH.D . On the book’s back cover the "superman syndrome" is defined as "a series of common behaviors that permit an otherwise average person to rise above the norm."
When I read a [...]

What is AVS?

AVS stands for Address Verification System. This system checks to see that the billing address given by your customer matches what the credit card issuing bank has on record. If your merchant account is set up retail your terminal will prompt you for the customer’s zip code. If your account is set [...]

Free Merchant Account Analysis

Merchant account confusion - “mid-qualified” and “non-qualified”

Every week I go through the search terms the visitors to this blog type in before they arrived here. Mainly I see them attempting to discover what the “mid-qualified” and “non-qualified” terms mean on their monthly merchant account statements. According to my experience here are some simplified definitions for these terms.
For Visa Transactions
Qualified = [...]

Straight Pass Through Reminder

Merchant Account Discount Fees Clarified