MERCHANT ACCOUNT RATES

Any merchant will have to meet many fees and charges when they set up merchant accounts. Such charges will differ from provider to provider, depending upon the type of merchant account that is in question and what type of services the merchant is expecting out of the provider. However, these rates are not a compulsion, and the merchant has the final say on whether or not to make the payments or find alternate ways of handling those services.

The various fees involved in maintaining a merchant account are as follows:

• Application or set-up fees – this is a one time fee charges by almost all service providers, sometimes priced at the beginning before the account is established, and sometimes adding it on to the purchase cost or the lease costs at later stages. There are very few providers do not charge such fees at all.
• Hardware or software fees – this fee can be made either as a lease or on a regular monthly basis or even purchase the equipment in the beginning itself. The third option is considered most effective, as then you would have the equipment to yourself and you do not need to make any additional payments. When you lease the hardware or software, you end up paying a lot more than the original price month after month.
• Programming – these fees are specific to the retail merchants, when they switch providers. Though it is basically a very easy task, it does involve high costs at times if you do not keep a close eye on the bills. This may be due to the fact that the new providers don’t get the chance to loan or sell you their equipment.
• Discount rate – this amount is the fee that will be deducted from your purchase cost. It a fixed percentage, that is a payment for the acquiring bank. Retail accounts will have a lower discount rate than MOTO (mail order or telephone order) and internet businesses. This difference is due to the fact that frauds with credit cards are much lower in retail businesses.
• Transaction – a transaction fee is also reduced from the purchase price along with the discount rates. Similar to the discount rate, this fee is also lower when it comes to the retail merchant accounts, and higher for the MOTO and internet operations. Another fee called the AVS or address verification can be made a part of the transaction cost, or charges as a separate fee.
• Monthly minimum – this is a fee that depends upon your sales from the credit card every month. The bank will charge a minimum rate per month, and if the transactions fees and discount fees collected by the bank exceeds this amount, then there wont be any extra payment to be made. But if it falls short of the minimum, then the merchant will have to pay up the difference.
• Gateway access – when the merchant uses a separate payment gateway provider for their transactions, they get charges an additional fee by such providers which is the gateway access fee.
• Statement fee – this is charged in order for you to receive a statement from the bank at the end of each month detailing all your transactions.
• Annual fee – this is charged by certain providers as an extra means of making up costs of maintenance and up gradation to your systems.

       Setup a credit card processing merchant accounts to accept credit cards today!