What Merchants Should Look for with the Federal Debit Card Ruling

What Merchants Should Look for with the Federal Debit Card Ruling

Last month US District Judge Richard Leon made a ruling declaring that the Durbin bill debit card regulations had sided to much with banks.  Two important parts came from his ruling.  First, the debit fees should be capped at a lower rate by the Fed.  Second, there need to be multiple network options available to the merchant.  These both look to change the payments industry in separate ways.   First, lets look at the fee caps.  The original cap in the Durbin amendment looked to cap rates around $0.22 per transaction.  Ultimately we...

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What to Expect when Applying for a Merchant Account

What to Expect when Applying for a Merchant Account

Accepting credit cards is very common and a necessity for most businesses.  Applying for a merchant account has also become a much quicker process.  Many processors operate with the expectation that you know the process and don’t take the time to explain what is required.  This raises the question;   What should you expect when applying to accept credit cards?   Once you’ve decided to apply for a merchant account with a processor you will need to provide some information about your business.   Be prepared to...

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AMEX One Point

AMEX One Point

An exciting new product is now available for any merchant accepting Credit Cards.  It is called Amex One Point. By enrolling in Amex One Point any merchant can combine their Merchant Processing Account statement with their American Express Statement.  The exciting part is that American Express transactions are now funded in the same time frame that Visa, MasterCard, and Discover transactions are funded.  This reduces the 7-10 business days that merchants wait for American Express funding down to 1-2 business days. On top of this merchants...

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What does your business need to do to be ready for NFC?

What does your business need to do to be ready for NFC?

Mobile payments via Near Field Communication (NFC) has been a very popular topic in the processing world recently.  Many groups feel adoption will be fast, but it definitely will not be here tomorrow.  The question on most business’ minds is “What do they need to do to be ready for NFC?” No business ever wants to lose a sale because they can’t accept a payment, but it’s not likely that next week customers will be waiving a phone at you wondering why you are not smiling and handing them their purchase.  Many...

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Stripe Payment Processing

Stripe Payment Processing

A new online processor is called Stripe.  They are being presented as a new easy way to accept payments online.  All a merchant needs to do is add a few lines of code to their website and they can accept credit cards on their site. Pricing is set at 2.9% of volume and $0.30 per transaction. This company is very similar to PayPal (as it is owned by some of PayPal’s creators) and is set to grow quickly. We have gotten quite a few questions about it so here is our take: First, wow that is high pricing.  Yes it nice and simple, and as...

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How does the decrease of credit cards and increase of debit cards affect your business?

How does the decrease of credit cards and increase of debit cards affect your business?

CNN Money reported this week that the next generation has a different method about how they will spend their money.  Due to the recession and credit issues, 20-29 year olds are using almost only debit cards.  Most own only one credit card.  This change coupled with a migration of other generations to debit cards during the recession has seen over a 500% increase in the use of debit cards for payments since 2008. To clarify debit cards are any card that directly ties to a bank account.  Every business that accepts credit cards does accept...

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