PayTrace EMV benefits:
Improves consumer security at the point-of-sale and reduces merchant liability of fraudulent card-present transactions
Greater profitability through lower Level 2 and Level 3 interchange rates
Reduces risk of charge-backs
Accept payments from multiple offices, websites and devices
5-Star service - LIVE experienced payment professionals answer support calls within 20 seconds

Our sales partners will be interested to learn:
During EMV testing PayTrace processed an average of 11,500 transactions per month, settled on average over $4.6M per month, with an average transaction size of $402.97
Merchants loved greater profitability by lowering interchange rates for qualified Level 2 and Level 3 transactions
We have replaced other EMV products
EMV is in high demand for multi-office automobile dealerships

Next Steps:
Please review important EMV on-boarding requirements found here. Information about ordering EMV devices can be found on Paytrace site.
Operations staff - schedule a 30-minute class recommended in order to board and service new EMV accounts
We can help train your sales team, contact salestraining@paytrace.com to schedule a 30-minute class preparing your team for EMV conversations with merchants

Did you know PayTrace will conduct EMV demonstrations for interested merchants? Maximize your time, let us explain EMV and help you close sales. Forward this email to other members of your operations and sales staff, then schedule a class that works best for your team.

We understand the hurdles and complexities of EMV adoption. Merchants will benefit from your leadership. We also appreciate your trust as we help you and your merchants navigate the transition to EMV. Let us help you deliver an EMV solution that makes merchants happy.

The post PayTrace EMV has arrived! appeared first on Veteran Payment Systems.

Every April and October payment processors decide to change or add additional fees, and its carefully calculated to coincide with the biannual Interchange adjustments announcements by Visa and MasterCard, which conveniently happen in April and October. Many processors see this as a prime opportunity to blame Visa and MC for a rate increase, when 99% of the rates associated with Interchange have fluctuated by +/- 0.01%. The last notably large increase or decrease was back in 2011, this was when the "Durbin Amendment" went into effect and drastically reduced the the fees associated with accepting check/debit cards issued by major banks, these rates went from 1.25% to below 0.10%. Many processors did not pass this discount through, until competition forced them to, leading to massive profits to their bottom lines.

Rate increases are not the ONLY thing that we see this time of year, there is also an onslaught of made up/scare tactic/warranty/junk fees added to small business merchant accounts. A brief history of the junk fees I have seen over the last 13 years is listed below.

- Breach Protection Fee - these fees started to pop up around 2010, after data breaches became the new norm in the payments space (fee varied from $9.99/month to $39.99/month)
- PCI Validation Fee - this has been around for years, if you didn't complete a PCI questionnaire, you are assessed this fee, its nothing but a "slap on the wrist fee" (fee varies from $14.99/month to $29.99/month)
- Regulatory Fee - with the rollout of the Durbin Amend we discussed before, processors felt they had a chance to charge for the new regulations. (fee varied from $5/month to $15/month)
- PCI Third Party Fees - these are billed by the processor to pay for services like Data Guardian, TrustWave, Security Metrics and many others, while there is a cost for these services they are marked up heavily by the processor for additional profits. (fees vary from $5/month to $25/month or billed annually for a few hundred dollars)

This list could go on for a long time, but all of these fees are still around today, just look at your statement for anything resembling them.

One of the newer fees we are seeing right now revolves around EMV (chip cards). We have obtained statements from many processors with fees like "Non EMV Acceptance", "Non EMV Enabled", "Non EMV Compliance". The actual fees that are being charged vary from a fixed annual fee upwards of $300 to charging a percentage on your sales volume each month. Lets do some math on both of these scenarios using a hypothetical processor's portfolio of merchants.

Example: XYZ Processing, has 400,000 merchants and processes $500 billion annually for those merchants.

Let's say that maybe 10% of their customers cannot accept EMV cards for whatever reason, maybe their POS doesn't have the ability or their sales person has not sold them a new payment device.

- Fixed annual fee ($300)... 40,000 merchants (400k x 10%) multiplied by $300 = $12,000,000 added to the processor's bottom line annually.

- % on volume... $50 billion (10% of $500 billion) multiplied by 0.08% (pricing we have seen) = $40,000,000 added to the processor's bottom line annually.

In both above listed scenarios the profits to the processor are huge, and that's not fair to the small business owners they serve. Instead of penalizing a small business, why not assist them by sending them a $300 terminal (since they're already billing it in scenario #1)?

Billing practices like this are all too commonplace in the "merchant service" world, we don't stand behind it and fight against these bogus charges to local small businesses. Stop letting your processor dictate what they charge to you, just because fees sound "official", doesn't mean they do any good for your business.

Know your competition.

-Article Provided by James Engimann, Business Development VPS

The post October has come and go, did your rates increase? appeared first on Veteran Payment Systems.

Wells Fargo is facing a fresh lawsuit contending the bank’s Merchant Services Unit overcharged small businesses for the payment processing of their credit card transactions.

According to a news report on CNN.com, citing a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Wells Fargo also hit business owners with “massive early termination fees” and targeted business owners who weren’t as savvy, by using “deceptive language.” The lawsuit contends the 63-page contract was designed to confuse them.

CNN reported an ex-employee of Wells Fargo was told to target less sophisticated small businesses. “We used to be told to go out and club the baby seals: mom [and] pop shops that had no legal support,” the unnamed employee told CNN. He said during his employment from 2011 to 2013, it was nearly impossible for business owners to get out of their merchant agreement.

Queen City Tours, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said it was hit with a $500 early termination fee for doing that. It also alleges Wells Fargo Merchant Services Unit charged a $20 to $35 monthly credit card fee for not meeting a certain number of transactions. That comes even with the contract stating there were not credit card fees of that nature. Patti’s Pitas, another plaintiff in the lawsuit, contends it was “pounded by excessive fees” even after closing down in May of 2017.

“We deny these claims and intend to defend against [it],” Wells Fargo said in a statement to CNN. The company said it believes its “negotiated pricing terms are fair and were administered appropriately.” The bank wouldn’t comment on the specific claims the ex-employee made regarding mom and pop establishments, noted the report.

This comes as yet another blow to the beleaguered bank, which recently disclosed it may uncover more cases of fake accounts than previously thought and is facing new allegations in its auto lending unit, which sold customers car insurance they didn’t want or need.

The post Wells Fargo Gets Caught Again… appeared first on Veteran Payment Systems.