BLOGS

5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Credit Card Processor

Published On: January 8th, 2021

Choosing the right credit card processor for your business is essential. What do you need to know before making your choice?

When it comes time to choose a credit card processor for your company, you need to make sure that you are choosing the right one. There are so many different options out there, but how do you know which is the one for you? The short answer is that you need to sit down and have a long, hard think about this. Write down everything that you are going to need from a credit card processor before you start looking, and then use this to guide you. 

By doing this, you won’t end up caught hiring someone simply because you liked how nice they were at their interview. In this article, we are going to be taking a look at five of the things that you should consider when you are attempting to choose a credit card processor for your business. Keep reading if you would like to find out more.

Accepted Payment Methods

You need your credit card processor to be versatile. What this means is that they should accept all the major credit and debit cards, prepaid and gift cards at the very least. Ideally, they should also be able to accept payment from smartphone wallets such as Apple Pay, but seeing as this is more of a recent development from the last couple of years, this might be a little more tricky. Mainly, you just need the credit card processor to accept all major credit and debit cards. This is the bare minimum, and if a company can’t even offer you this, then they are not the company you should be choosing.

When it comes to this, the most important thing that you must keep in mind is the benefits to your business. Yes, it might cost you slightly more to accept more payment methods, but it will help your business as a whole. People are more likely to pay when they can do so in whatever manner they please, not when they are limited to one option. The smarter you are when it comes to the tech side of things, the more sales you are likely to make and the less customers you will have to say no to.

Security And Protection

When you are choosing a credit card processor, one of the most overlooked elements of the decision making process is how secure they are as a company. Did you look into the security and fraud protection surrounding the processing company? If you didn’t, you have made the mistake that many businesses before you have made, but it has led to catastrophic incidents in the past.

You need to understand the security and fraud protection policies they have in place so that you are covered if anything happens that isn’t your fault. You must check that the credit card processor you are considering is compliant with PCI-DSS regulations. It must be if you are going to be avoiding any legal issues, and if they aren’t, then you need to move on to the next company.

Cost

Credit card processing has a lot of different fees attached to it. It’s not just a simple case of paying the provider one lump sum and then moving on. No, there are plenty more things that you are going to have to pay, which is why you are going to need to consider the cost as a whole before you settle on a provider. 

The first cost is the setup fees. These will depend on the company, and some don’t even charge them. It all depends on the individual company that you are considering. Then there is the monthly statement fees which covers the expense of mailing your statement to you. You are also going to have to pay monthly minimum feed. If you don’t need the minimum monthly processing fees that you agreed to with the company, then you are going to have to cover the difference. 

You should also expect to be paying interchange fees which are typically 2-3% of all transactions. Finally, there is the early termination fee which means that if you cancel the contract early, you could be charged a large amount of money for doing so.

The processing equipment also has to come into the equation. You don’t have to purchase this outright if you don’t want to, and can instead choose to rent it. Purchasing the equipment is fantastic if you have the spare money to do so, but if you don’t, then it might be better for your financially to sign a contract on a month by month basis.

Before you can decide whether or not there is room in your expenses to buy all of this, you need to consider your budget. Think about how much you want to spend on credit card processing, and then you can work out what the best option is.

Customer Support

There is of course, going to be some issue at some point seeing as you are using technology. It’s not going to be possible to avoid some kind of problem with your payment processing. This can be anything from billing statement problems, all the way to technical bugs. When this happens, you need to contact the provider and ask them what is going on and how soon they can have it fixed or sorted. It is never possible to know when disaster is going to strike though, so you need to ideally use a company that offers you 24 hour support.

When you speak to the company, you should be able to get a good feel about how they are going to be. You want to keep a close eye on the way he responds when you ask a query or voice a concern you may have. This could tell you all you need to know about the business, but it also might not.

You need to be answering questions in your head such as are they easy to reach? Are they patient with you? Are they explaining things properly and in-detail to you. If they are rushing you to sign a contract, you might want to ask yourself why. Sure, there might not be anything suspicious going on, but there still could be. 

Customer service is important. You wouldn’t offer your customers terrible service, so you shouldn’t be offered the same by someone that you employ to provide your business a service.  It is important that you can trust the credit card processing company to handle all of your concerns of queries quickly and professionally, with minimal interruption to your business.  

Compatibility With Your Business

It may very well be the case that you already have a payment processing system in your business. If this is true, then you need to figure out how you can go about getting one that is compatible with the equipment that you already had. If you don’t do this, then you are going to end up making so many unnecessary purchases that you won’t know what to do with them. You need to sit down and do the research to work out which ones will and will not be compatible with the processing method that you have right now.

You’ve also got to think about your business needs. If you are an online business, you likely rely on people being able to make online payments to get you through the tough times. You need to choose a processor then who is willing to stay open in the weather, and it’s been a couple of days since I’ve seen anybody. 

Ideally, you are going to need a processor that supports the needs that you have, instead of having you try to manage multiple at the same time. This is going to include the needs that you have for your business, and then the needs that you have for your customers. You want to be able to provide them with the best possible service, and that means that you need to be really careful when choosing a processor. The process needs to be seamless on both ends, so be thorough, otherwise this isn’t going to be the case.

It might be the case that having more than one processor breaches your contract with one party or both of them. Make sure that you read the terms and conditions correctly before you sign the contract, so that you fully understand what you are getting into by signing it. 

Now, you should know five of the things that you want to consider when you are choosing a credit card processor. Make sure that you have taken all of the information on board, and be careful with whatever company you choose. Whatever you do, you need to make sure that it is compatible with your business and can provide the service that you require. We wish you the best of luck, and hope that you choose the right credit card processor for you.