Business Owners: who do you lease your credit card terminals from? Update post #25

[weHEARTmickey]

What about the Way System terminals? We are calling around (everywhere) and one place has offered these. He said the VX-610 was terrible! Thanks!

Oh, BTW--we aren't Costco members & there's not one anywhere nearby

 

[NVDisMom]

What about the Way System terminals? We are calling around (everywhere) and one place has offered these. He said the VX-610 was terrible! Thanks!

Oh, BTW--we aren't Costco members & there's not one anywhere nearby

I've never heard of them before. A quick Google search showed that Verifone aqcuired them, which is the maker of the VX610. I would worry that they would not be supported by the majority of processsors. I haven't heard of an abundance of complaints about the vx610's from DH. He sells/lease them on occasion. The biggest complaint is cost. A countertop solution is always more economical. I think you can do Costco all by phone/fax/email. Think being the important word.

http://www.elavon.com/acquiring/costco/

 

[weHEARTmickey]

I've never heard of them before. A quick Google search showed that Verifone aqcuired them, which is the maker of the VX610. I would worry that they would not be supported by the majority of processsors. I haven't heard of an abundance of complaints about the vx610's from DH. He sells/lease them on occasion. The biggest complaint is cost. A countertop solution is always more economical. I think you can do Costco all by phone/fax/email. Think being the important word.

http://www.elavon.com/acquiring/costco/

I'm so dumb....please explain to me what you mean by "I would worry that they would not be supported by the majority of processors." (It's a wonder we own a successful business, right?)

 

[NVDisMom]

Not all machines are supported by all processors. In other words, they are not compatible for whatever reason. Sometimes, Elavon, First Data, etc will have machines that are made just for them. Sometimes small companies will make a machine, but none of the major processors will support it, but they sell it thru some small, possibly fly by night processor. Other times, its an older model that worked great for a decade but they are no longer manufactured and at some point they programming can't be updated any longer. Think of them as operating systems. Windows 3.0 isn't made or supported by Microsoft any longer, but there are computers out there still using it. But if something goes wrong you are sol. Does that help?

 

[weHEARTmickey]

We talked to another bank. What about the Nurit 8020? She offered that wireless machine & the Way System. She said she wouldn't recommend them the Way System.

Here are all the fees:

$35 one time set-up fee (x3 machines)
$127 rental per month (x3 machines) or purchase for $559 each
$19.95 wireless fee per month (x3 machines)
$0.20 authorization fee (approved or not)
$7 monthly fee (x3 machines)
$25 annual fee (x3 machines)
1.25% Qualified rate
1.95% NON Qualified rate (includes ALL rewards cards...there is no mid-qualified rate)
PCI $28 per location (unless we do the online certification-thing)
NO batch fees
NO early cancellation fees
NO contract

 

[NVDisMom]

We talked to another bank. What about the Nurit 8020? She offered that wireless machine & the Way System. She said she wouldn't recommend them the Way System.

Here are all the fees:

$35 one time set-up fee (x3 machines)
$127 rental per month (x3 machines) or purchase for $559 each
$19.95 wireless fee per month (x3 machines)
$0.20 authorization fee (approved or not)
$7 monthly fee (x3 machines)
$25 annual fee (x3 machines)
1.25% Qualified rate
1.95% NON Qualified rate (includes ALL rewards cards...there is no mid-qualified rate)
PCI $28 per location (unless we do the online certification-thing)
NO batch fees
NO early cancellation fees
NO contract

Everything sounds good EXCEPT the rates they quoted you. 1.25 and 1.95 are below, yes below, cost. Visa and Mastercard charge the processor and the processor passes that rate plus their profit margin to you in the form of their rates. Visa and Mastercard rates are public info. So, either they are willing to give away the farm, so to speak, or their will be other hidden charges. If you can get this firmly in writing that these will be the ONLY charges then go for it! You won't find too many processors willing to process for less than cost.

 

[weHEARTmickey]

Everything sounds good EXCEPT the rates they quoted you. 1.25 and 1.95 are below, yes below, cost. Visa and Mastercard charge the processor and the processor passes that rate plus their profit margin to you in the form of their rates. Visa and Mastercard rates are public info. So, either they are willing to give away the farm, so to speak, or their will be other hidden charges. If you can get this firmly in writing that these will be the ONLY charges then go for it! You won't find too many processors willing to process for less than cost.

Hmmm...interesting She did quote us 2.11% on qualified rates at first. After we explained our business & volume, she admitted they would do whatever they could to keep our business. She agreed to 1.95%. Are you saying BOTH are lower than cost, or just NONqualified?

ETA: Sorry! Just saw you said BOTH were lower than cost.
And....DH reminded me that the NONqualified was the 1.95% PLUS the 1.25%, equaling 3.20%. Sorry!!!

She was very upfront & honest & said we could have it all in writing. DH asked why we would have to pay $127 per month rental for 3 months (since it's a "short term rental") as compared to $63 per month rental (if you rent for 6+ months.) She said "Your question makes sense, but I can tell you, our bank does not make ONE DIME off of that rental fee." The reason we'd just go ahead w/ the short term rental is b/c we'll have to pay the $19.95 wireless fee EVERY month we have the machines, whether we're using them or not. So, $19.95 x 3 machines x 6 months doesn't make sense. We'll stick with short-term & only pay the wireless fees for 3 months.

She did also mention a fee that I didn't write down. She said something like NOOLA & something else? (I totally butchered that name...I just remembered it has a double "O" in the middle.) She said one fee is from MC & one fee is from VISA. Said they weren't big fees, but something those CC companies charged to everyone.

 

[NVDisMom]

That makes a little more sense. But, qualified is still below cost. Basic retail cost for credit is something like 1.54% and $0.10, debit is 0.95% and $0.20. You must do a lot of volume with debit cards run as credit with signatures instead of pin entry. That would be the only way they could make money that way.

 

[Art 1]

We do not have or use a terminal. We call the transaction in over the phone.

 

[NVDisMom]

Calling the transaction in over the phone is time consuming and expensive. It is called ARU and you usually pay about 3.5%. It is only a good solution for those that run very few credit card transactions.

 

[weHEARTmickey]

DH averages 60+ (sometimes 100+) transactions per day, per location. There is no possible way each manager could call in all those transactions as they come in!

DH did go ahead & sign the contracts (without me there) That made me super nervous!!! I'm a weeeee-bit controlling at times. Here's what he signed:

Seasonal business (March, April, May)
Card types: All Visa/MC/DISC Debit cards

Discount Rate/Per Item Fee:
Visa/MC/DISC/JCB/Diners Credit Cards 1.95%

Non-Qualified Surcharges:
Differential + 1.25%

Terminal/Network Authorization Fees:
Visa/MC $0.20
DISC/JCB/Diners $0.20
AMEX $0.20 ***(I didn't think we were taking AmEx, but this has me wondering?)
Voice Auth $0.52
ARU Auth $0.52

Miscellaneous Fees:
Monthly Service Fee $7.00
Application Setup Fee $15.00
ACH Return Fee $15.00
Chargeback Fee $15.00
Quarterly PCI Non Validation $28.80 *Fee will be reduced to $18.80 for ongoing support once compliance is validated
Wireless Setup Fee $35.00
Wireless Monthly Fee $19.95

Side note....we did purchase 2 wireless terminals. We're using an old "phone line" terminal we already had for one of the locations (that has phone access.) So, this took the rental fees off I mentioned in another post. We figured we'd take a chance that they'd work properly. If so, it will pay off for future years. If not, we will have lost about $300 by purchasing over renting for 3 months

And THANK YOU for alllllllll of your help NVDisMom!

 

[jimamily]

You can also check all terminals on merchantallianceaccounts.com