How merchants are handling the most recent Wells Fargo processing rate increase notice If you are processing credit cards with Wells Fargo bank you may have recently received a processing rate increase notices from them. First, MerchantFeeSavers believes Wells Fargo is a good company. We believe they want to be fair to merchants while at [...]

In November 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York preliminarily approved a proposed settlement agreement with Visa and MasterCard. As part of the settlement, Visa and MasterCard were required to allow merchants to surcharge certain credit card transactions beginning January 27, 2013. The surcharge is being called a “Checkout Fee.” [...]

Please make sure your Merchant Account Provider has correctly entered your Tax Filing Name and Taxpayer Identification Number so your provider isn’t forced to withhold 28% of your card processing volume per the IRS merchant reporting requirements in section 6050W. IRS 6050W The new reporting requirements from the IRS are described in section 6050W.  Under [...]

In the card processing world there are also two things you can count on – Interchange rate changes and the possibility that some merchant account providers will take advantage of their merchants because of the interchange rate changes. Card companies generally change credit card and signature debit card interchange rates in April and October.  PIN [...]

Here is a brief review of the Visa and MasterCard settlement On July 12, Visa, MasterCard and 13 of the country’s largest banks have agreed to pay $7.25 billion settlement with retailers in a lawsuit over price-fixing on credit card transaction fees.  The settlement, on behalf of about 7 million retailers, could be the largest [...]

What is FANF (Fixed Acquirer Network Fee)? FANF (Fixed Acquirer Network Fee) is a new fee charged to acquirers by Visa beginning April 2012.  Your merchant account provider will certainly pass this cost on to you the merchant. Note: An acquirer is either your merchant account provider or does the processing for your merchant account [...]

I audit hundreds of credit card processing statements every year. I have audited statements from virtually every merchant account provider and probably every industry. I have audited so many statements that I can pretty much determine if a merchant has obtained a good processing deal by simply looking at the merchant account provider’s name on [...]

This may seem strange since I claim that my company, MerchantFeeSavers, fights for merchants. However, I am seeing a slew of companies claiming to be on the merchants’ side that I feel are anything but. To me, some of these companies appear to be nothing more than fronts for merchant account providers. Others actually sell [...]

Many merchants think card processing is pretty simple, not realizing how interchange rates (issuer and card association fees, dues and assessments) drastically  affect their bottom line. They think the customer’s card information, obtained during an on-line purchase, is sent to one of the card associations — Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express. They think the card [...]

The Durbin Amendment which is part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 takes effect on October 1, 2011.  One of the key points in the amendment requires large financial institutions to cap their debit card interchange fees.  The cap is set at a maximum of 22 cents per transaction [...]

Refunds – Know How Much Your Merchant Account Provider Charges You Merchants should always ask how the merchant account provider handles refunds (customers being credited back for products they purchased) before signing the agreement. Merchant account providers are refunded a large portion of the interchange rate when the merchant credits the customer. The amount refunded [...]