s a business owner, when
you set up a merchant Qualified Discount Rate – a
account to enable your percentage is paid from each
customers the ability to pay for dollar charged.
your products or services using Mid-Qualified Rate – does not
credit cards (or debit cards with apply to merchants that manually
a Visa or Mastercard Logo), you enter transactions.
will have some fees associated Non-Qualified Rate – added to the
with the credit card qualified rate n certain
transactions. transactions. Also get billed
this higher rate if you don’t use
The specific fee amounts that you address verification service
pay will depend on the merchant (AVS) when you manually enter
account provider you select to transactions.
provide your credit card
processing service; however, Other fees many merchant account
there is a list of typical fees providers charge their business
that the majority of providers customers include, but are not
charge business owners in limited to the following:
exchange for the ability to
accept credit as payment. Reward Cards- most merchant
providers charge higher rates if
Discount Rates the consumer pays using a reward
card.
Visa and MasterCard have what is
called “interchange” rates. They Transaction Fees- a specific,
range in price- so in order to flat rate that is paid on every
make it easier, the merchant sale processed through the credit
providers created three card processor. (Sometimes the
categories. transaction fee is called the
interchange fee, authorization their monthly costs of operation
fee, or per inquiry fee). (paying their customer service
team for example).
Address Verification Service
(AVS)- merchant account providers Monthly Minimum Fee- some
charge a small fee for the merchant account providers
validation service to ensure that require you process a minimum
the billing address provided in amounts of sales per month, or
the online checkout process you pay a monthly minimum.
matches the issuing bank’s Monthly minimums tend to range
records. Not using this service between $15 and $40 per month.
will result in hefty charges on
the processing of the card for Gateway Fees- for some merchant
that sale. accounts, there are fees for
internet and mail order merchants
Batch Fees- most merchant account to use an internet gateway
providers require that customers service such as Authorize.net,
close out their transactions a although some merchant providers
minimum of one time each day. will cover this fee on their
The batch fee pays for expenses customer’s behalf as part of the
for the gateway or software that package deal. If you are solely
accesses the credit card an internet business, you’ll want
processing network. If you don’t to look for an internet merchant
have transactions to process, account that includes the gateway
there is no batch fee to pay. service as part of the package.
Monthly Statement or Customer Annual Fees- often charged by
Service Fee – most merchant merchant account providers-
account providers charge a particularly the merchant account
monthly fee in order to cover providers that offer free
terminal equipment. There are contract agreement of one or two
numerous merchant account years and if you cancel early,
providers that do not charge an you are likely to be charged a
annual fee, so you may want to termination fee.
shop around if the first few you
look at require an annual fee. Chargeback/Retrieval Fees- When a
Sometimes it would be cheaper to customer requests a refund (or
purchase the equipment than to the customer’s credit card issuer
pay an ongoing annual fee. requests a refund), merchant
account providers typically
Cancellation/Termination Fees- charge a “chargeback” fee.
Most merchant accounts require a
About the Author:
This article has been provided by Creditor Web. Creditor Web has the articles and other credit card processing resources to help you choose the right provider.
Read more articles by:
Debbie Dragon
Article Source: www.iSnare.com 
