As a merchant, you have enough to worry about in your day-to-day operations. The last thing that you want to have on your mind is the fear that your merchant services provider could be less than legitimate. To assuage your fears, we’ve investigated and developed a list consisting of a series of clues that may be signs of an unscrupulous merchant services provider.
- Unfair Fees: There are informal standards for what certain fees should be among credit card processing companies. For instance, if your provider charges more than $15 a month for your monthly statement fee, it’s time to look for someone else. You’ll also want to make sure to check how much you pay per transaction and research whether or not other providers are consistently offering a lower credit card rate. As a final note, always be wary and look out for hidden fees.
- Contract Vulnerabilities: Some merchant services providers may offer contracts that they are free to amend as they want. While it’s preferable to find a provider that offers fixed contracts, their reserving the right to make alterations isn’t a problem in and of itself. If your merchant service provider does reserve this right, make sure to check for correspondence frequently so that you can dispute any unreasonable changes in a timely manner.
- Expensive Credit Card Machines: Having the wrong credit card payment solution for your business can be disastrously expensive, so be suspicious of any provider who pressures you to get machines on terms that are ill-suited for your company. If you’re going to be operating for more than a few months, you don’t want to be roped into renting terminals. If you’re a small business, you can use a mobile credit card reader instead of a traditional terminal. Find out what is ideal for your needs and don’t let a pushy provider try to con you into anything else.
- Hidden Limits: Some providers will try to bury the maximum amount you can process before incurring extra fees in hopes that you’ll slip up. If they’re giving you a hard time finding the limits of your agreement, that’s a clear warning sign.
If you’re looking for a merchant services provider you can trust, WOW Payments is just for you. They offer free processing that is safe and easily accessible. They offer the peace of mind that can only come from a trustworthy provider.