The cost of processing payments
Sure, PayPal or Stripe is the easy solution, but it’s not the cheapest. When it comes to website integration, these giants dominate the market as they have built in integration with most ecommerce systems. In most cases, it’s just a couple simple steps and when a new business is starting out, it does make sense. But there is a threshold you need to know about as an online store owner where you can save some real money. In this story, we will explore some of the payment solutions companies and explain their benefits.
Flow Merchants
At Flow Charitable Merchant Services we offer a variety of services to cover all of your payment needs. Much like the “Big Box Providers” Stripe, PayPal, etc… we can offer online processing that fully integrates into your online retail store! The difference is we offer our superior services for a fraction of the cost.
Ease of integration isn’t always the answer, when the alternative isn’t really that difficult in the first place. Stripe has millions of dollars to throw at marketing to gain exposure, and at the end of the day the processing goes through the same banks and credit card companies that we have partnered with. I will admit that stripe has done a great job in the ease of set up and ultimately I believe that is why they have so much market share, but it doesn’t make sense to pay their high fees just for minimal effort. Let’s face it, filling out a standard business application and waiting for bank approvals isn’t really hard work especially to give away what should already be yours!
If international exposure is your game, then 2Checkout is a great alternative to PayPal. They do have a global recognition that international people might feel comfortable with, however they will also feel comfortable with a standard credit or debit checkout if it not offered at a substantial savings from 2Checkout’s sometimes 6.5% fees! We can offer standard interchange+ rates with currency exchange programs that will again lower your rates!
Authorize.net is a great solution as they integrate with just about any platform on the market. The little know secret is boutique merchant service providers such as ourselves have formed partnerships to use auth.net as a gateway to back end our services to avoid paying their standard 2.9% and $.30 per transaction fees. We will provide the lowest rates possible with 24/7 domestic human service!
In conclusion, Flow Charitable Merchant Services is merchant service provider that offers a give 2 get 1 program that contributes to your favorite charities that integrates seamlessly with online store! We don’t spend money on logos hanging on the side of office buildings or large scale marketing campaigns…we offer our lower overhead to save you the customer the hard earned money you deserve. Yes the above mentioned companies do have lower rates and products they can offer by either paying a monthly fee or by producing higher credit card volume. We offer custom tailored solutions that work best for your environment with minimal fees no matter if you are a start up a major enterprise, low volume, or high volume, it doesn’t matter we will offer you the best possible value available on the market all while giving back to a good cause!
Ryan Shipton
Owner
Website: https://flowmerchants.com
Heartland
Heartland is a wholesale core processor, they bypass the middleman and go direct to the merchant so that allows them to give a direct pass-through from the card brand interchange rates to the merchant.
Heartland is the only processor with this business model, the other core processors use banks and ISO’s (independent sales organizations) to resell their processing for them
What is an interchange rate, and what does a direct pass-through mean?
“The card brands (Visa, Mastercard, Discover and AMEX) decide annually what they are going to charge merchants to accept their cards as a method of payment, this rate is called INTERCHANGE RATE. They also determine what the cost will be per card type, ex: Visa rewards, Visa Signature, Visa preferred and Visa Debit are all different rates”
“Because there is no “middleman” Heartland can pass the interchange rate directly to the merchant without having to take profit on top of the direct rate from the card brand in order to resell it to a merchant like other processors”
Why doesn’t Heartland have a flat rate and transaction fee like Square, Stripe, toast, etc. etc…?
Heartland values itself on transparency, therefore they prefer to pass the exact rate directly instead of combining the different rates across the board, getting an average and charging one flat rate. Heartland wants the merchant to take advantage of the different card tyle rates.
EX:
Visa Rewards might be 2.5%
Visa Signature might be $1.65%
Visa Preferred might be $2.0%
Visa Debit is $.05%
Why pay a flat rate of 2.75% for all transactions when you can be paying lower rates for their card types that are lower than the flat rate?
Heartland promotes, stands by, and does business by the code of the Merchant Bill of Rights. This is another form of respecting our merchants, being transparent with our pricing and protecting the merchants we serve
https://www.merchantbillofrights.org/en
Kelley Smith
Consultant & Relationship Manager
Website: https://heartlandpaymentsystems.com
If you’re curious about saving money or want to find out where your specific threshold is for switching processors, contact us and we’ll give you the details.