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Payment Processing in Toronto - 3 Key Pitfalls to Avoid When Setting Up Merchant Accounts in CanadaDo you own a small to medium sized business in Toronto? Then most likely you will require payment processing services. Many small business owners are bamboozled by fast talking merchant service sales reps who unethically omit important details resulting in higher then expected fees. How can a new small business owner protect themselves from these merchant account wolves...? Here are three major pitfalls to avoid when reviewing a payment processor:One: Ask what all three rates will be for 'qualified', 'mid-qualified' and 'non-qualified' discount rates. Qualified means transactions that are face to face and usually are consumer based cards. These Qualified rates are usually the lowest rates and the most quoted. The problem with this is for new owners this is the ONLY rate quoted and this can be dangerous if your transactions are NOT consider 'qualified'. You may be hugely surprised at your REAL rates once you receive your first bill. Mid-Qualified rates are usually considered business/corporate card transactions and manually keyed in transactions. Non-Qualified are usually international cards. Two: Ask for referrals and then actually call them. Many merchants may ask for references or even read testimonials, but the REAL test is calling that merchant and asking how they find the services. Asking how long they wait on line for tech support. Asking if their rates have been hiked over the years. Many times when a merchant gives a testimonial it was at the beginning of the agreement and there had not been a chance to for any customer support issue to arise yet, many times if you call more recently you may discover that that companies services may not be up to par. Three: Watch out for sneaky creative discount structuring. One company may be offering rates at 1.29% and on the surface it looks like an excellent discount rate, but they are padding it with a high per transaction fee like 25 cents or back ended with tons of monthly administrations fees. Currently today as I write this, a card present buy rate from Visa and MasterCard is around 1.7%, so if this is true, then why would a company give you a discount rate of 1.29% - does any company go into business to purposely lose money...? No, of course not. They are making up for it somewhere. So, there is your three Key Pitfalls to Avoid When Setting Up Merchant Accounts in Toronto, Canada. There are many more pitfalls to fall into and that is why having a good merchant account broker to help dot all your "i's" and cross all your "t's" can be a huge benefit. Toronto business owners click here for a payment processing quote. |
