As if you are not frustrated enough with credit card processing fees along comes another fee. Merchant Service Providers that were not charging an annual fee for PCI compliance began adding this fee to merchants statements this month. Merchants who accept credit cards that were not charged in the past now have an additional PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) fee added to their statements.

Since June 2008 it has been required that merchants who accept card payments must be PCI-DSS compliant. It is a security measure developed by the PCI Security Standards Counsel to help prevent loss of card holder information.

For more information about PCI and to make sure your business is PCI compliant visit pcicomlianceguide.org

Credit Card Processing fees are an operating expense no different from any other expense to operate your business. Looking for ways to reduce these cost will lower your overhead and increase your profits.

Work with an Account Rep that will monitor your statements to ensure you are in the correct pricing plan for the cards you receive the most. Example if you are in a tiered pricing plan and the bulk of your transactions fall in the mid qualified rate then you should do a cost comparison to see if switching to an interchange plus rate will lower your processing fees.

Look for Merchant Service Providers that don’t lock you into a one or three-year contract. Remember if you are in a contract generally the Merchant Provider will automatically renew your contract. if you plan to look at other companies make sure you know when your contract is up. Most providers do have a buy out option if you choose to leave before your contract is up, just make sure you are not signing into another one or three-year contract.

Are you in a tiered pricing plan for card processing most small to medium size businesses are make sure to swipe the card to get the lowest rate.

If you have a business that works in the field take advantage of mobile processing using a card reader with your mobile device so you get the lowest processing rate.

Interchange pricing that the banks charged for Debit Cards was just lowered this month make sure you are seeing this cost savings in your processing fees.

If you are considered a small ticket merchant make sure you are being priced correctly for your card processing fees.

Consider offering a cash discount when possible to avoid processing fees.

Taking credit and debit cards is a pain and the banks have move the consumer in that direction for years now because they make a lot of money no big surprise there. Over 70% of transactions today use a debit card to purchase goods and services. Not accepting cards today gives you a 7 out 10 chance of loosing that business to a merchant that does.

Randy Brewer

Account Manager with Capital Bankcard for more information about our services visit my website @

http://www.capitalbankcardid.com