Learn How To Stop Paying Extra Five-Star Credit Card Processing Cost
What Is 5 Star Processing?
To understand what 5 Star Processing is and its service is, you should know what a payment processor is. 5 Star Processing is a US-based payment processing company that provides services to businesses in all industries. What sets 5 Star Processing apart from other payment processors is that 5 Star Processing offers to work at a considerably lower rate.
What Is A Payment Processor?
A payment processor is a company or firm (a third party) that facilitates transactions between you and your customers. That means the payment processing company keeps track of your customer's credit or debit card and communicates with both your bank and your customer's bank. The transaction will go through if your customer's card has sufficient money and is valid. And it all happens within a couple of seconds.
Furthermore, if consumers dispute and establish that your firm charged them improperly, the payment processor will handle the erroneous transaction. However, this does not imply that they will do anything for free. The consumer, of course, will not be charged, but your business will. If there is a mistake during checkout or a client is unhappy with an item and returns it, your business may be charged a fee for having to transfer money from your account back to the customer's account through the payment processor account.
How Does A Credit Card Processing Operate?
Credit card processing is a procedure that includes a cardholder/payer, a merchant, Payment processing company, card association, the issuing bank, and the merchant bank, respectively.
Let's understand the process:
- 1. The cardholder/payer uses their card to initiate the transaction for the merchant. The initiation could start from a POS system, card terminal, or an online website.
- 2. Then, payment authorization is sent to the payment processor by the merchant.
- 3. The payment processor forwards the transaction request to the particular card association, which later advances the request to the issuing bank.
- 4. The issuing bank has the power to either accept or decline the request. A bank could deny the transaction request if required guidelines are unmet.
- 5. Upon approval or denial, the issuer bank sends the message back to the merchant.
That was the complete credit card authorization process.
Now to finalize the process, it is time to settle the funds. The following steps take place:
- 1. Preferably at EOD, the merchant sends batches of approved transactions to their payment processor.
- 2. The payment processor then transfers the details to the issuing bank.
- 3. After assessing the transaction details, the issuing bank charges the account holder for each transaction.
- 4. Upon completion, the issuing bank sends the said amount to the merchant bank, interchange fees excluded.
- 5. And finally, the merchant bank transfers the money into the merchant account.
That was the entire procedure for making a credit card transaction.
Hidden Expenses
At the time of the agreement, there may be some hidden expenses. This expense is present on the contract but gets lost in the contract's tiny print.
- 1. Chargeback: When a consumer demands a refund, a chargeback fee gets charged upon the merchant account. The consumer could ask for a refund for several reasons, the most prevalent one being theft.
- 2. Network Access: Every time a consumer makes a payment, the software plays its role in connecting the customer to your merchant account to authorize, process, and complete the transaction. Hence, a fee gets levied.
- 3. Transaction Fee: Each time there is a transaction, a transaction fee gets imposed on the merchant account.
- 4. Batch Fee: At EOD, the merchant makes a batch. A batch consists of all the digital transactions of the day in a tabular form. It gets reviewed by the accountants, so a fee is applied. This fee gets charged every day the business is operational.
These are unavoidable fees that the merchant has to pay at the end of the month. You should read the documents thoroughly beforehand.
How To Cut Additional Cost
For every business, whether big or small, cutting the cost is a priority. No business owner wants to spend their hard-earned money on fees that they could avoid by following a few simple measures.
- 1. Avoid Capture fees: It is common among processor services to have a preset limit on the number of transactions per month. And an additional charge is imposed on every transaction made after exceeding the limit.
- 2. Choosing the processor: Choosing a processor is essential to the business. One must be careful while choosing their provider.
- 3. Transparency: Do a regular check on your account and make sure you have printable reports. Avoid working with a provider that does not offer transparency or clarity.
Why 5 Star Processing?
5 Star processing offers a low rate for high-risk merchants and credit cardholders, which is a rarity these days. 5 Star could help deduct the hidden fees that cost the merchant account during processing.
Other Payment Processors
New entrepreneurs often seek established big tech companies to set up their payment gateway. This is because;
- Easy to navigate and set up an account
- No approval process
- Accessible across the world
These companies fall out when it comes to service charges and additional fees. While the credit card processing costs levied by these providers may not concern a consumer or a freelancer because the overall cost is very minimal, when these fees are applied to a scaling firm, the added cost begins to sting.
Conclusion
Finding a good merchant service provider might be a hectic task in the present scenario due to various reasons. And most of the time, when you do find a good provider, you end up paying hefty amounts of fees monthly. Even though there are few options, you should choose your provider with caution.
With 5 Star Processing, transparency, clarity, and a low rate fee is what you will get in return if you get enrolled in their credit card program. 5 Star Processing recognizes the merchant's issues and is available with plans that will make this ride an easy one.