How long does a merchant have to post a debit-card transaction? Must I keep funds available indefinitely?
I recently purchased an item with my debit card but have not yet seen record of the transaction. A friend of mine purchased an item with a similar card from the same vendor and saw a post to her account immediately. I realize a transaction can take a few days to clear but how long am I required to wait? Is there a time period in which merchants have to submit transactions or not? Similarly, if I write a check that is never cashed, is someone allowed to cash that check years later or is there legal protection for consumers?
There is no record at all on my online statement of a merchant request: no hold, no pending transaction, nothing… this is why I’m curious.
As soon as you purchase the item, the merchant sends an authorization request. Your card issuer will put a “hold” on the funds immediately. When the merchants sends through the clearing draft – anywhere between 1 and 5 days, usually, the amounts will be debited from your account and posted to the merchants account. Because of the “hold”, the bank will decline any transaction that exceeds your “open to buy”. That being the amount in your checking account, AFTER “holds” are deducted.
-MM
Edited – the ethical thing would be to call the merchant and find out why they didn’t put it through.
-MM
What % rate do visa/mastercard etc. charge the co.’s that provide credit card acceptance terminals & systems?
I have one company quoting me a rate of 1.59% to accept corporate cards (an additional 1.50% for international cards) while others charge anywhere from 2.1% to 3.85% and claim that no company can offer that low a rate… where can I find out what rate Visa charges them?
Can a merchant issue a second charge for another service to the card without the cardholder approval?
I approved a charge on my credit card by telephone for my adult son at a dentist. The dentist then charged a second separate visit for additional work without asking me for approval. I am fighting this, but my credit card company is not helping much. Do I have recourse?
The dentist should have a signed authorization. Have them produce it. If they can’t then challenge the charges on that basis. Fill out the credit card company’s dispute form (it’s very important that this be done so there is a written record). You do not have to pay disputed charges until the matter is resolved.
stormpaysuxs , paypalsuxs? i heard many good and bad reviews abt them,which is true???
Payment gateway? merchant account?
getting a merchant account in my country singapore is costly? what would be advisable for a , payment gateway and merchant account for my country n0n-us? i am looking at
asia pay,stormpay,paypal which doesnt charge for a montly subscription. what other merchant accounts offers a ecard with Maestro so i can make a withdrawal once the funds arrive?
I need to be able to accept credit cards. Presently, my warehouse doesn’t ship internationally. Many of my customers are in other countries. Many of these countries do not like to use PayPal because of the high tax tarrifs and fees involved with using PayPal’s service. I’d like a Merchant solution that is affordable and does not require me to open a Commericial Bank Account. Presently, I have just a regular checking account and I’d just like to use that. Any suggestions, as to where I could go to find a solution like this that is affordable?
Thank you for your suggestions….
What accounting system do you use? If you use Quickbooks you can set it up directly through there. Otherwise I would google it and just pick a provider. The bank account shouldn’t be an issue, as long as you have one to deposit the money into you should be good. Good luck!
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What do you think of charge.com as a merchant account to set up with?
What do you think of charge.com? I’m sick of using paypal on Ebay and want to create my own merchant account. Paypal keeps freezing and putting limits on my account and now I have over $1,000.00 dollars just sitting in my Paypal account that I can’t get to because they want me to follow their rules about my money and put my money on hold. I have a small descent business and this is putting my business on hold? I need to get a hold of my money now so that I can ship and etc, and keep my business going so I was thinking about using charge.com.?
I would STRONGLY discourage anyone from doing business with Charge.com, a company which is owned or in some way connected to Pipeline Data Processing.
My experience with them was a nightmare. Fortunately, I was able to cancel the contract after just a year due to their mistake when they signed me up,.Their idiot salesman promised me that the contract would be for a year, which I was later able to prove and they had to honor that, otherwise I would probably have been stuck with them for three years.
Anyway, they do NOT stand behind you if there are chargebacks due to fraudulent activity — something their salesman promised they would do. Instead they penalized me for being ripped off!
Even after canceling the contract, they kept pulling money from my business checking account. Getting them to stop practically took an act of God.
I could go on and on about Charge.com/Pipeline Data. If you do decide to sign on with them, do your best to get a shorter than normal contract, because you don’t want to be stuck with those people.
Oddly enough, we use PayPal and have never had a single problem in the 4 years we have been with them, We went with Charge,com/Pipeline data because it integrated better with our shopping cart system and looked more “professional.”
Well, PayPal now integrates seemlessly with our shopping cart since they introduced new features which work very well. When we did have to deal with one chargeback due to a fraudulent transaction via PayPal, instead of punishing us further, after an investigation they actually reversed the chargeback and we got our money back.
I may be in the minority, but I’ll take PayPal over Charge.com/Pipeline Data any day!
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i have a merchant account that’s three digits for my pos terminal its not working did something change?
You need to contact the technical support department for your terminal. Your terminal may need an update, may be broken, or your account may be changed or suspended.
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What is the lowest eCommerce merchant account rate?
Has anyone done any research on that?
It’s hard to say what the lowest eCommerce card processing rate is, because there are so many providers out there. Until a few months ago the lowest rates were around 2.22%, now some merchant providers offer rates as low as 2.15% (http://unibulmerchantservices.com/apply-online/ecommerce-merchant-account for one).
You need to be aware that there are other factors influencing the overall processing cost and carefully review your pricing in its entirety before comitting.
Good luck!
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What are the bank of america merchant credit card processing fee’s? ?
I can’t find them anywhere on the site or through numerous google searches. I’m looking for the rates for my smoothie shop doing $2-6 transactions in the range of 20-50 credit card transactions a day.
Any opinion on Costco or Bj’s merchant services? They seem pretty cheap.
They probably don’t post them because they change periodically and also want you to contact them so they can get their foot in their door and try to close the deal.
As a retail business your rates will be in the 1.60% range with a transaction fee around 20-25¢ with monthly statement fee of about $10.
Because your average ticket is so low you will want to make sure you get the lowest transaction fee possible for your merchant account. If you look hard enough you should be able to find one with a fee below 20¢ per transaction.
Use the rate/fee calculator below to figure out which rates are best for you.
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What are some good companies to open up a Merchant Account for my business?
I am in the process of opening my companies website to the public but I need a Merchant Account in order to charge customers for there orders during check out. I am sure there are numerous Merchant Companies out there to choose from but I want to be sure I pick the right one for my company. I am not sure how many transactions I will have per month because the business if very new but over time the amount of transactions will increase over time. I know that some Merchant services charge you on an estimated amount of transactions per month, and if you do not reach that level you will be charge additional fees.
If someone could give me some helpful information on what Merchant Companies are better than others, who has good rates? no monthly fees? cheaper monthly fees? etc…
As much information on this topic would be appreciate, even if you can point me in the right direction I would be appreciated.
Thank you for your time
Check with your bank. Most banks offer Merchant Account services, and if you have an account, you may get a discounted rate.
Other than that, Paypal does offer a pretty good Merchant Account, and it’s bundled with a payment gateway (which is something else you’ll need if you want to accept credit cards online, along with an SSL certificate).
Probably the largest & safest provider is Authorize.net. Most of the decent Merchant Service providers are just resellers for them, so it might pay to check with them directly, first.
Our website currently accepts Google Checkout and we thought that we accepted credit cards until authorize.net finally contacted us and told us that we need a merchant bank as well.
As you may already know, the only way to get a merchant account is to have your business incorporated. How do other online businesses accept credit cards!!? Surely they all aren’t incorporated? We cannot use Paypal. Please help us!
That’s not true.
I got my first merchant account while operating as a sole proprietorship. You simply need to have your business registered and show your business registration documents (in addition to a credit check and othe requirements). Otherwise, partnerships or LLCs or sole proprietorships cannot operate on the Web and accept credit cards if your claim is true
Go talk to your bank. Banks often give the best rates (and lesser hidden fees such as statement fees, etc). Ask them about procedures for getting a merchant account
Or if you are a Costco Executive member, you can also get good rates from them
Or you can get it from third party providers such as Card Service International (though some of their rates are pricey http://www.cardservice.com/ )
Read the reviews of merchant account providers http://www.100best-merchant-accounts.com/merchants.html
We are starting up a business, and as everyone knows credit cards are very common. We have no idea how to go about searching for credit card terminals, the going rate per transaction or anything about the process. Does anybody know how to get further info? I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
Terminals and processing are two separate issues. You may decide to purchase your terminal from your processor, but make sure that it suits your needs and that it is priced competitively. A nice standard choice for a retail endeavor is the Omni 3750. It is universally certified by nearly all merchant processing companies and offers many upgrade options including IP, gift card, smartcard and more. It’s really a workhorse. If you decide to go in another direction, make sure that the equipment you purchase is not proprietary and allows you the flexibility of being used by muliple service providers. Another option altogether is to set up a POS system or other processing software on your network or PC.
As to actual processing, this is an excerpt from an educational article I wrote for a local merchant group. Merchant processing isn’t really exciting, so it is kind of dry, but it should help you ask the right questions when you look to make a decision on a new processor.
Visa and MasterCard, the card associations, receive the majority of the fees that merchants pay for their processing services. The remainder of the fees, or the margin, is what the merchant processor receives. The card associations have designated over 240 different card categories that each merchant processor must recognize and process. Every merchant processor, no matter how big or small, is charged the same rates and fees by the card associations and every merchant processor differentiates each card category utilizing exactly the same card category name as designated by the card associations.
The card categories are designated in the following manner:
1.) Industry – Retail, Restaurant, Hotel, Government, Utility, Service Industry, Gas Station, Supermarket, etc.
2.) Type of Card – Personal Visa or MasterCard, Visa or MasterCard Debit, Visa Rewards, MasterCard World, Commercial Visa, Corporate MasterCard, etc.
3.) Method of Processing – Face-to-Face (swipe), Mail Order/Telephone Order, Key Entered, E-Commerce, etc.
4.) Processing Efficiency – Address Verification, Authorization/Settle Match, Timeliness of Settlement, etc.
These categories are as diverse as they seem. If a cardholder uses the same card to buy something from a retail establishment, lunch at a restaurant and pay their electric bill, all three of these transactions will be designated as a separate card and rate category. If a retail establishment accepts two different types of cards (ex. – a Visa Debit Card and a Visa Rewards Card) for a purchase of the exact same amount, both of these transactions will be designated as a separate card and rate category. The same is true for a Face-to-Face transaction as opposed to a telephone order. Furthermore, if a merchant does take a telephone order and doesn’t enter the required cardholder information, the transaction will be downgraded to a higher priced card and rate category than a properly executed telephone order.
So what does all of this mean to you?
For many merchants, the hardest thing to do is accept the fact that the merchant processing system, to some extent, simply is what it is. There really are that many card categories. There really are that many different rates and fees. Your merchant processor deals with and manages this system – they do not have the power to change it. Any merchant processor who claims to be dealing with a better or more advantageous system than other processors isn’t being honest.
Sure, some merchant processors offer a simplified statement format with bundled categories, but only to keep from disclosing individual rates. The simpler the statement format the less a merchant knows about what their true credit card processing costs are or should be. A simple statement also makes it very difficult to perform an accurate comparison to other programs. For many merchant processors, their most successful customer retention tool is their customer’s complete inability to understand their services.
One of the posted answers is a great example of this issue. If Visa and MasterCard charge the exact same amount to every processor for every transaction, why would a merchant pay a higher amount depending on how they identify themselves? (To the author’s credit he reveals this nuance of his company’s pricing structure) Your profile will dictate what your effective rate should be and a merchant processor should be able to help you identify this. Make sure that you are not penalized for accepting cards outside of your normal channels.
In ancient China, one effect on government of the teachings of Confucius was the high status of
a)soldiers
b)merchants
c)farmers
d)scholars
One factor that accounted for Chinese influence on traditional Japanese culture was the
a)continuous warfare between the countries
b)geographic location of the countries
c)refusal of Western nations to trade with Japan
d)annexation of Japan into the Chinese Empire
Which statement best describes the cultures of Southeast Asia?
a)The cultures of India and China have had great influence on the religion and philosophy of this area.
b)Most ethnic groups in this area have the same language and customs.
c)European culture has had little impact on this area.
d)The major religion in this area is Shintoism.
OMG ABBY YOU CHEATER!!!!! YOU ARE IN MY HISTORY CLASS!
That is an excellent offer and should be difficult to beat. However, make sure they aren’t “making it up” somewhere else. Ask them what their mid-qualified and non-qualified fees are. These are fees you have to pay for special credit cards and for other special transactions. These happen with regularity and if their fees are high for these it would balance out the rates they have quoted you for your regular transactions.
Good additional questions as to ask are “How much will I pay for rewards cards?” and “How much willI I pay for corporate cards?”.
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