The Ins and Outs of Credit Card Processors in 2013

In years past accepting credit card payments used to be an expensive and extraordinarily complicated process. Generally, you had to apply for a merchant account with your local bank, then you had to take out a lease on an expensive credit card processing unit.

You also had to pay an enormous setup fee, pay forward for upcoming billing cycles, and to top it all off you had to pay fees on every single transaction that you processed. Today those outrageous obstacles are a thing of the past, as credit card processing apps for mobile devices has drastically reduced the costs involved, and to boot the process has gotten way easier to deal with.

The latest mobile credit card processing plans offer pay as you go options, meaning you only have to pay a fixed rate per transaction, as opposed to paying flat monthly service fees. It’s true that these per transaction based fees are slightly higher than the rates offered under the older more traditional plans, however, many small businesses simply wouldn’t be able to stay profitable paying exuberant monthly service fees that are generally only suitable for highly profitable, large transaction volume enterprises.

Now small businesses don’t even have to lease the expensive, bulky, and outdated card processors, as the new replacement devices are usually free and can literally fit into your pocket. All you have to do is just plug the credit card processing unit into your mobile device, and then you’re ready to start processing payments like a seasoned processional. Some of the big dogs in the payment processor space currently are SquarePayAnywhere & Intuit GoPayment.

Selecting the Right Warranty

square reader
Square makes accepting credit cards easier than ever.

Now that all sizes of businesses and entrepreneurial enterprises have access to affordable credit card processing plans, the difficulty is reduced simply to the act of finding the right plan for you. Choosing the right plan is important, as choosing the wrong plan could deeply cut into the profitability of your business. Most pay as you go plans charge roughly $2.75 per transaction swipe, which is extremely cost effective for small businesses dealing in high margin retail goods and services.

If your business is high volume, then you’re likely to benefit more from a monthly subscription plan, rather than one that is per transaction based. Monthly credit card processing plans for high volume businesses generally charge a low fee of 1.7% per transaction on top of a $15 monthly service fee.

When choosing the right plan for you it’s important to consider where your business is at today, and which plan will leave you the most profitable at the end of the day. It doesn’t take long to cross compare all of the processing plans out there, and it’s definitely a must do for anyone that wants their business to succeed over the long haul. It’s also important to realize that transitioning from an existing plan to a new plan is very simple.

If you’re using a plan more tailored towards very low volume business, but your business is beginning to grow rapidly, then you can upgrade plans quite easily and without causing a disruption to your day to day payment processing activities.

It’s also important to note that in order to qualify for some payment processing plans, you may be subject to a credit check. If you have bad credit then you might not be able to qualify. In cases where bad credit is an issue, then you can look to credit repair companies, such as Lexington Law. Lexington Law reviews damaged credit scores and can help to get your score back on the right track.