Merchant Account Blog & Credit Card Processing Blog

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Getting The Best Merchant Account Rates

Understanding your merchant account rates, is the first step in insuring that you get the best rate. Most merchants do not understand the rate structure of their merchant account. The majority of merchant accounts are on a Tiered System, as Visa & Mastercard charge different rates for certain business types and transaction types. This is called “Interchange” and is extremely complicated. Between both Visa and Mastercard there are at least 100 different Interchange Catagories, here are the current interchange rates from Visa Interchange and Mastercard Interchange, as-of this writing. As you can see, Interchange Rates are extremely complicated.

The popular Tiered System tends to simplify this extremely complicated formula used by Visa & Mastercard. Most merchant accounts use a Three Tier System for Qualified, Mid-Qualified, and Non-Qualified Transactions with different rates for each. Basic understanding of each, is key to getting the best possible rate for that particular transaction type.

GETTING THE BEST RATE:

Alway’s swipe the credit card, when possible.
Use AVS & CVV2 when keying a transaction. ( Address, Zip Code, Last 3 On Back )
CLOSE YOUR TERMINAL BATCH DAILY !!!!!!!!

Majority of your transactions should fall under Quailfied Transactions, by following the above proceedure. Any Rewards Cards process will probally fall under your Mid-Quaified Tier. Finally any of the following card types will fall under the Non-Qualified Tier….Foriegn Cards, Business Cards, and any hand-key transactions with a retail account.

Larger businesses that process above $37,500 per month, may qualify for Interchange Plus pricing which is Interchange Cost, plus a flat rate of 0.27% above interchange cost. This is actually much simpler and you will receive a monthly break-down of where each transaction fall’s under the complex Interchange Structure. This option is reserved for higher volume merchants, currently processing credit cards. Call us today, to see if you qualify as a high-volume merchant account. Your 3 most recent credit card processing statements are required.

Both Visa and Mastercard offer special Supermarket Rates for grocery stores that:

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