Brian Piper
Account Executive
Direct Connect
How much Does a FREE Terminal Cost Your Business?
There are many banks and merchants who offer free credit card terminals to their clients. But how “free” are these terminals?
The newest terminals on the market offer significant improvements in function as well as security. These terminals connect faster, some even use broadband internet connections or wireless connections, process faster and even print faster. By using an older-technology terminal you sacrifice not only speed and reliability, you may still have to use a dedicated phone line (usually not free) make your customer wait longer and even have to use specific paper, provided for a fee by your processor. Hopefully, the terminal provided to you is brand new, but this is often not the case.
Even if it appears that your terminal is free, you may be subject to a monthly maintenance fee for the life of your contract. And of course, most merchant will just build your equipment fees into the cost of your processing.
For a free 15-minute review of your credit card operating expenses, email or call to schedule an appointment. For a vast majority of my clients, 15 minutes could save you a considerable amount of money.
Preliminary numbers for the first quarter show a decrease of just under 18% in credit card processing volume for my portfolio compared to same quarter results last year. Good news, you say? Actually, the good news is that processing fees decreased closer to 30% from same quarter numbers. So, while processing volume is down, fees are down tremendously. The MAIN REASON fees are down is directly attributable to the increase in the use of debits cards as the main form of payment. Industry-wide, Q1 of 2009 was the first quarter ever when debit card processing volume exceeded credit card processing volume for Visa.
All great news, but where’s my sales pitch? Processing debit cards is only less expensive if you have a debit rate. I still see a larger percentage of merchants that still pay the same rate to process debit and credit cards. Most processors don’t give their merchants a separate (or low enough) debit rate. All my merchants take advantage of lower processing rates for debit cards. This is only one of the ways that I can help reduce your overhead. Call me for more ways.
Another great article (by me) here on hubpages. This is an in-depth look at the questions most merchants DON’T ask when considering changing credit card processors.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Merchant-Accounts-that-HELP-your-Business