The Longer You Stay The More You Pay

Fee Increases for Long Time Customers are Standard in Credit Card Processing

Just like insurers, cable providers and other companies with recurring charges, if you stick with the same payment processing or merchant services company your rates will likely go up every year. The pricing is convoluted and confusing, changing processors is a pain and they are betting that you will not notice the increase or switch providers.

Routine Rate Hikes

Team Merchant received an email from one of our processing partners the other day: “The monthly fees to your clients will be increased by $30/month, if you would like to opt any of your clients out, let us know.” This would allow a sentence to be hidden at the end of our client’s statements notifying them of this fee increase. You know, that paragraph of legal jargon that everybody reads so carefully?

I Bet if They Increase Your Rates You Still Won’t Switch.

What changed that the processing costs more this month? Nothing was new or different for our clients. It was not harder to process payments, there are no new regulations or infrastructure changes that would drive the costs up. The only thing that changed was how long the customers had been customers. In the payments industry customer loyalty is often penalized instead of being rewarded.

But how can that be? How can credit card and ACH processing rates increase for loyal customers? It is simple - they’re betting that you won’t even notice it., Or if you do, that you will accept the fee increase, rather than put in the effort to switch. Changing merchant services provider is a hassle. It takes time. The industry is ripe with hidden fees, bait-and-switches, and unfulfilled promises. Even if someone offers you a better price, how can you know it’s actually better? Further, if your solution is working, why fix something that isn’t broken?

Finding an honest expert or a payment gateway consultant that can make sense of everything is a real challenge. That’s why Team Merchant has created a different model. Think of Team Merchant as a fiduciary for the payment world. We review your rates and fees with you every year. We compare your current costs to our original quote to prove we deliver on our promises.

Mastercard Faces £14 Billion Suit for Overcharging in the UK

Mastercard is facing a £14 billion class action lawsuit in the UK alleging that they have overcharged in interchange fees. (www.pymnts.com). The case is brought under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which regulates anti-competitive acts by companies. It is another case alleging anti-competitive behavior, like the one that Visa and Mastercard lost earlier in June 2020 (www.pymnts.com). 

The United States has some of the highest interchange fees in the world. These lawsuits are notable because the UK and the European Union already have fees which are substantially lower than those in the US. This difference is due to how each country regulates interchange fees. The fees end up being paid by merchants, and essentially are an extra “hidden” tax by financial companies. 

(Joe Resendiz at Valuepenguin.com) 

Interchange fees are somewhat arbitrary and the only reason the US pays some of the highest fees is because the US has less regulation, allowing the credit card brands to charge higher fees. Team Merchant is an advocate of lower interchange fees and we believe reducing these fees would put money back into small businesses and help consumers pay less.