Video: Are Early Termination Penalties Really That Bad?

Watch this video to here a different poi of view on merchant account early termination penalties. Let us know what you think by sharing your thoughts in the comment section below.

Video: It’s Time to go Interchange Plus! (October Rates Changes)

Watch this video to learn about changes to Interchange coming in October and why, if you have a merchant account with tiers (qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified), it is time to switch your account to an Interchange Plus price model.

Check back here in the next few days for more specifics on the coming changes to Interchange.

Video: Merchant Accounts - What to Look For and Ask About , Part 1

Watch this video and read this post to learn what to look for and ask when you are shopping for a merchant account.

What watch out for:
Super low discount rates – the lower the advertised rate is the greater your effective rate typically will be.
Free terminals or gateways – in business nothing is free in the [...]

Case Study: Napa Valley Winery

Case Study - Winery
Business Type: Napa Valley Winery (specific name withheld)
Initial Status: To the untrained eye this merchant account statement looked just fine; here are a few of the problems that stood out to me:

One merchant account for both their tasting room and wine club
25% of there Visa transactions going to a “non-qualified” status
Transactions being [...]

Video - It Could Happen to You! - Save 22%!

Watch this video and save significant money on your merchant account.

What is Straight Pass Through - Video

If you would like to lower your merchant account fees by switching to a “straight pass through” account go here, fill out the short form and we’ll have you saving money in no time.
If you would like us to analyze your current merchant account and show you how much a “straight pass through” merchant account [...]

Straight Pass Through as a Lifestyle?

When I first thought up the name of this blog as "Straight Pass Through" (SPT) my focus was merchant accounts alone.  It was all about exposing the truth behind interchange and how it affects a business’s bottom line.
However, in the year this blog as been up my understanding of that phrase has been expanding.  SPT [...]

The Three Price Points of a Merchant Account

How challenging can managing a merchant account be? I review 5 – 10 merchant account statements each week and almost everyone one starts out looking like it is written in a foreign language!  Some statements have fees from three separate months!  Other statements are extremely vague and seem to be intentionally hiding information.  So the [...]

What is up with the CVV2 Code?

Many merchants believe that adding a cardholder’s three or four digit CVV2 code for a “card not present” (CNP) transaction will help qualify the transaction for a lower discount rate. However that is not the case; the CVV2 code is only valuable to protect against credit card fraud and has nothing to do with [...]

April 2008 Interchange Changes

I have been seeing competing merchant account providers raising their rates because Visa and MasterCard are making some adjustments to interchange rates. So what is really going on? Are the interchange rates really increasing? Here is what I know:
Visa
Effective April 2008 Visa is raising their "Signature Preferred - card [...]

An SPT Processing Statement is a Sales Tool? What?

by John Robinson
We know you’re successful business people. (I mean, you’re reading StraightPassThrough.biz, right?) And this means you probably have a pretty good idea who your customers are.
But what if you could use your processing statement to really market to specific customer groups? What if your statement was a powerful sales [...]

What is Straight Pass Through?

Straight pass through has to do with merchant account risk. Visa and MasterCard have set specific rules to deal with these risks. For example, a keyed in transaction is a higher risk than a swiped transaction, because many times the card holder is not physically present. For keyed transactions, processed correctly, Visa [...]

Merchant Accounts for the Rich and Famous

Have you ever wondered what kind of merchant account the rich and famous businesses of the Fortune 500 have? Just in case you have the answer is Interchange Plus .

What is Interchange Plus?
First lets start by defining Interchange . Interchange is the set discount rates from Visa and MasterCard for various [...]

What is EIRF?

No, EIRF is not a cousin of the once popular Smurfs. In fact EIRF is not any where close to being a nice, soft, smiling, blue cartoon character. On the contrary, EIRF is disagreeable, hard, frowning and black! If you have it you most certainly are wondering what it is, how you [...]

Tip of the Iceberg - Missing Debit Card Rate Reduction

I am reviewed three merchant account statements today and they all have one thing in common - these businesses are not receiving a reduction in rate when a customer uses a debit card. On one statement there is no debit card activity noted at all. So just in case you have not heard [...]