Abstract: visa merchant accounts
Tag: Visa Merchant Accounts
Imposing surcharges on credit card transactions is illegal, and
it will only lead to problems. The secret to beating the credit
card processing system is not charging extra for credit card
sales, but instead is charging less for cash sales. It may sound
like the same thing, but there is a big difference.
The increasing costs associated with accepting credit cards are
leaving many merchants searching for ways to pass along at least
a portion of processing expenses to their customers. Card
originators such as VISA and MasterCard are becoming wary of
this new trend and are enforcing strict regulations specifically
designed to hinder any such efforts by merchants to impose
surcharges on credit card purchases.
Discount fees, transaction costs, and other expenses associated
with the acceptance of electronic bank cards (credit and debit
cards) are putting a strangle hold on to the NET profits of
businesses of all sizes. To help minimize the impact that
processing costs are having on profits, many businesses are
charging a surcharge to customers that choose to pay for
products or services using a credit or debit card.
Card originators such as VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and
Discover have a lot to lose if the practice of imposing
surcharges on credit card transactions becomes popular among
merchants. When merchants impose surcharges on credit
transactions, they make purchasing on credit a less appealing
option to consumers, and many consumers choose to avoid the
additional cost by simply paying with cash or a check. A
decrease in the use of credit cards by consumers translates
directly into lost revenue for processing banks. Not only do
banks lose out on the processing fees that they would have
collected from the merchant, but they lose any finance charges
that would have been incurred by the customer as well.
You may wonder why so many businesses still choose to place a
surcharge on credit transactions, even though it is strictly
forbidden in the processing agreement they had to sign when
opening their merchant account. Quite frankly, many business
people choose to ignore this clause in their processing
agreement and impose a surcharge anyway. This approach is not
recommended. When and if these businesses are discovered, their
merchant accounts will be terminated, and they may even be
placed on the Terminated Merchant File (TMF) which will make it
nearly impossible for them to acquire another merchant account.
Card originators and banks have control over credit card
(bankcard) transactions, and they can legally ban a merchant
from imposing surcharges. However, they do not have any legal
control over other forms of payment such as cash and checks. The
largest card originator (VISA) has even published information
stating that, “You may, however, offer a discount for cash
transactions, provided that the offer is clearly disclosed to
customers and the cash piece is presented as a discount from the
standard price charged for all other forms of payment”.1
Most merchant accounts operate on a tiered discount pricing grid
and, ironically, the secret to beating credit card processing
fees is to impose tiered pricing on your products and services
as well. The old saying, “if you can’t beat em’, join em’”
applies perfectly.
While you can’t charge extra for credit card sales, you can
charge less for cash as long as all prices are clearly stated to
customers, and the cash price is reflected as a discount from
the original purchase price. For example: if the price tag on an
item states that the item costs $10, the cash price must be
represented as a discount from that price. The price tag for
this particular item should look something like this:
Price: $10.00 5% discount for cash payment @ $9.50 5% Discount
for Check Payment @ $9.50
By utilizing a tiered pricing grid, merchants can alleviate the
cost of accepting credit cards, while still providing their
customers with the freedom to choose their preferred method of
payment.
1. Published by VISA in the Card Acceptance and Chargeback
Management Guide for VISA Merchants, ©2004
About the author:
Jack Lang is the senior contributor member at MerchantCouncil.org.
The Merchant Council is a free resource dedicated to assisting
businesses obtain and manage credit card processing and merchant
account services. A wealth of merchant account
information can be found at MerchantCouncil.org.
Crooks don’t need plastic to ’skim’ your credit cardNew York Daily News, NY – 3 hours agoShortly after returning from what seemed like a perfect vacation in California, a New York woman was shocked to discover a $450 charge on her credit card .
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