British Columbia Merchant Account Services

With the ever demanding Asia-Pacific market on its doorstep, the 2010 Winter Olympics just around the corner, and continued business growth, the city of Vancouver and province of British Columbia, Canada continues to make a name for itself as a chic and hot destination for investors and people looking to relocate to B.C.

This means huge sectors of small businesses like accommodation/food and beverage, tourism/retail, finance/insurance, health care and social assistance and real estate will all continue to explode right on through past the 2010 Olympic date. 

As we know with new and existing small business growth comes the need for payment processing solutions for British Columbia business owners.  Over looking the importance of setting up a solid merchant account can be a huge mistake. What you don’t know can hurt you. 

As interchange becomes harder and harder to decipher in Canada, and merchants continue to be hit hard with overly aggressive merchant account sales people sending them in to a dizzy head-spin, is not so surprising that so many small business owners are being over charged for their debit and credit card services.

A good resource for any small business owner who is looking for a payment processing solution that fits their business and wants to make sure they are receiving the most competitive rates may want to reference the article title: ‘The 17 Essential Questions Every Small Business Owner in Canada Must Ask Before Choosing a Payment Processing Vendor”

 Some key questions you should always make sure are on your hit is:

1. What is the card present rate? (Qualified rate)
2. What is the mid-qualified rate? (Means keyed in on the POS Terminal)
3. What is the non-qualified rate? (Means corporate or international cards. Etc.)
4. How long is the contract?
5. Are there any cancellation fees?
6. What are the customer service hours?
7. What does the company service for free and what do you have to pay for if it goes down?

There can seem like you get one salesperson telling you one thing, and another telling you something totally different, and the information found online sometimes can be dicey at best. This can be enough to drive just about anybody crazy.  A good way to solve this is to find other local businesses in your B.C. city and ask them who they use and how they find their services.  Don’t just ask one or two, ask a half dozen merchants.  Or at least ask for testimonials and or references before deciding on a merchant account provider.