Merchant Fee Survey?

What is your bank charging you !

[lgn]

I have always considered my merchant fees for processing credit card transactions quite low, after reading, what some people are paying.

I thought I start a little survey, to see what the norm is.

I will start:

Canadian Inperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) 2.25% (Visa & Mastercard).
Member of CFIB (Canadian Federation of Independent Business) Special rate.

[cyberax]

We were getting charged:

1.95% for Visa and Mastercard
2.245% for JCB
£0.32 / transaction - for UK Switch and Delta Debit Cards

After a few phone calls to our merchant services provider, and some increased turnover we have managed to haggle it down to:

1.67% for Visa and Mastercard Consumer Cards
1.95% for Visa and Mastercard Corporate Cards
2.245% for JCB
£0.28 / transaction - for all UK Debit Cards

[daisho]

Hey Ign,

I use Moneris (Royal Bank).

I have US Funds Visa and Mastercard. My discount rate is 3.5% :(

Are your merchant accounts US funds or Canadian funds?

daisho

[lgn]

I have both US Dollar and Canadian Dollar merchant
accounts. Both rates are at 2.25 percent.

[daisho]

Do you have to pass control to CIBC or can you accept all the info on your site and pass the infor to CIBC in the background?

I think I will need to look into them.

daisho.

[sun818]

$49 annual fee. No monthly fees or minimums. $0.50 USD plus 3.75% per transactions for Visa, MasterCard, AmEx, and Discover.

[lgn]

CIBC does not care if you use their payment gateway solution,
or someone else's, just as long as you use a
method to keep the credit card information secure.

While im surprized, by the lack of interest in
the survey. I guess everybody else is to embarassed to reveal, what they are being charged
by their bank.

From my limited data, it appears the UK is cheapest provider of merchant services, followed by Canada, with the USA being the most expensive.

Although the statistical signifcance of the above statement is very weak.

[MaxGrenk]

Well, from an Australian perspective:

we get ripped of 3.5% plus 10 GST (VAT for the UK)
plus 20 AUD min per month

Considering the low margin business we are in, on avg 10%, this is serious stuff... and considering they do next to nothing for it... we use a processing payment gateway, which charges flat 50 cents per transaction plus 30 odd AUD monthly.

I am considering not accepting cards or raising prices for CC payers, or the other way around, provide a discount for people paying by direct deposit, etc... without violating the fine print of the merchant agreement, where they can terminate the agreement if CC holders are charged a different price.

I am looking forward to any idea one can offer... :)

[heathmont]

max which bank you with?

i investigated a heap - sgb seems to be the best and most responsive bank, however they had some monthly service charge. $165 set up, $33 a month and 3.3% (but also .50 per transaction to use Eway and $199 / year service fee )

had a long talk with NAB - there was a yearly payment of $68 bucks (and $1.10 / month service fee), merchant service fee of 2.65% (and also the same as above for using eway) but it took nearly a month of negoiations (sp?) to work out the deal - initially they didn't want to have me using their service, as I was an untried and small online business. finally they got round to accepting me.

however, in the mean time i had talked with world pay. - (and no need to use eway as processing 3rd party)

now while a little bit more expensive, i emailed them asking for a better deal. this is what i came they came up with:
Annual Fee: AUD 220
WorldDirect CC MSC: 4.5%
Special Instructions: If Guarantee selected then free for first six(6) months.

Please note the following is the standard fees for all our Australian customers.

1) Set-up Fee, 200 AUD (one-off fee)
2) Annual Fee 430 AUD

3) WorldAccess (optional) 140 AUD (one-off fee)
4) FuturePay (optional) 280 AUD (one-off fee)
5) WorldPay Guarantee (optional) 40 AUD per mth plus 1% of transaction charges

6) Transactions Rate 4.5% per transaction, VISA & MasterCard
7) Interbank Transfer 2.50 GBP per transfer
8) Currency Rates First 3 currencies are free from a list of over 140 currencies, 140 AUD per currency after the first 3.

9) World Alert 0.16 AUD per transaction
10) Standard administration chargeback fee 28 AUD

so now am very happy with eway - very comparable costs to using the banks - plus i can accept payments in 3 currencies.

[MaxGrenk]

The Merchant Service Fee (MSF) depends on turnover and charge backs...

I am with WestPac, which has the fastest response: 5 working days. None of the paperwork you require with all the other banks, which is a pain if you are heavily programming to get your store online.

I was working for two months full-on 15 odd hours per day... writing a silly and useless business plan plus a risk management plan, and a P&L for the past 2 years would not have fitted into my schedule.

The store is now online, started advertising the same day, and had my first sale today afer being 14 days on-line, abd having had 400 unique visitors.

I still feel, no matter what you have to pay, basically all bank fees are a rip-off. Considering that consumer electronics have a 10% mark-up, seeing 5% going to the bank is a shocker.

Other offers I had:

ANZ
once off 104.50 AUD
annual renewal 27.50 AUD
MSF 1.8 to 7.7%
transaction 0.60 AUD

NAB
once off 350 AUD
monthly 35 AUD
MSF 3.5%
transaction 0.55 AUD

Maybe we should open a bank :)

Cheers,
Max

[bekyed]

10p per transaction - thats it.
no set up fees.

bek

www.protx.com

[insyte1]

Heathmont,

How in the world did you manage to talk Worldpay down to $220/yr?

I currently pay Westpac $20/mo but no $US transactions which is turning away business. Gateway is Card Access Services $20/mo flat (no charge per tansaction).

I need to be able to process in $US but the normal worldpay annual fe of $450 is unacceptable.

[heathmont]

nah i simply compared the nab costs (which aren't $35/mon):

this is the email i sent them:
> - just going through my figures at the moment - I like the look
> of using world pay - as we plan to offer our service in the UK and the
> US (and the ability to receive funds in all 3 incl $A) is a very
> attractive option.

However, your set up costs are exceeding high in comparison with other merchant accounts and cc processing site.

For example, using National Australia Bank and Eway as compared with world pay

If I have 120 transactions in the year

NAB - fixed
$ 81.20
Eway - fixed
$ 285.00
NAB - 2.65%
$ 248.04
Eway - .50
$ 60.00
total
$ 674.24

note: no set up fee for eway, just an annual fee of 285, NAB has a set up fee of $68 and $1.10 a month. whereas world pay Worldpay $ 630.00
Worldpay 4.5%
$ 440.40
total
$1,070.40

and 600
NAB
$ 81.20
$ 285.00
$ 1,240.20
$ 300.00
$ 1,906.40

world pay
$ 630.00
$ 2,202.00
$ 2,832.00

while I understand that you guys are going to charge a higher % per transaction (i am completely comfortably and fine with that), i simply cannot justify the 430 set up fee and that is the reason I am holding back from going with your solution. I have already spent much money on developing our product and my accountant is wanting us to go with the cheaper option - NAB. Is there anything which can be done about this set up fee, to make it a more attractive alternative for my business? I look forward to your reply, Regards, Tim.