Today, I sat with a business owner as we met with a credit card processing company that sold them $600 worth of equipment on a 48-month lease for $400 per month.

The business owner had been having problems with the credit card swipes on their Revel POS system and they took a call from a local company claiming to be the best credit card processor in the world. Unfortunately, when the business owner met with the credit card services agent, the agent made everything sound amazing and got him to sign to get new equipment.

A week later when the equipment arrives, the merchant realizes that the FD-130 credit card terminals don’t integrate with his Revel POS system and that he unknowingly signed a lease for equipment that doesn’t work with his system.

As I sat there across the table from the company that trains agents how to scam merchants, I realized why business owners like you should never meet with another credit card processing company.

IT’S COMPLICATED

The first reason is the industry is far too complex for a business owner to understand how to make a quality decision on which provider is going to be best for their business. This is why merchants switch processors year after year and never quite find what they are looking for. In addition to it being difficult to understand, payment processing agents, even the least educated ones, can be very persuasive and promise significant savings without caring if the merchant sees the results they promised. By the time the merchant gets their merchant statement, they realize the savings never materialized.

You would think that this problem would be solved with POS systems like Revel, Toast, and Clover offering their own payment processing solution, but it hasn’t.

IT’S NOT REGULATED

The second reason you should never meet with another payment processor is because there are no consumer protection laws that protect you from being scammed by a credit card processor. This means if you sign the wrong agreement, the laws in your state, or the Attorney General will likely do nothing about it.

When I worked in the insurance industry, I had to pass a background check that included a financial review and credit report. The merchant services industry is not scrutinized or regulated in the same way which is why there are so many dishonest business practices prevalent in the industry.

IT’S YOUR SUCCESS AT STAKE

With an industry being complex, and unregulated you don’t want to give your most important financial information to the wrong company. This can wreak havoc on your business and can cost you a significant amount of money and frustration. As a small business owner, or business of any size, it’s never in your best interest to lease a $200 credit card terminal for 48 months regardless of how sweet the rates sounds. That’s a routine bait and switch deal that has been going on in the merchant services industry for years. You don’t have time for that!

WHAT TO DO INSTEAD

After meeting with hundreds of merchants and listening to what frustrates them about merchant services, we have created a service that allows them to never meet with another payment processor and it’s called Concierge.

For a monthly fee, we manage and monitor the merchant services for business owners so they don’t have to deal with evaluating bids and reading through their merchant statements every month.

If you’re tired of having to evaluate your payment processing, being in the dark about your rates, or not knowing who to call when you have question, give us a call or start a conversation with us.