Becoming your own cc processor?

credit card processor

[grandmf]

Ive read that if you spend more than 15K - 20K a year on credit card processing fees it is better to become your own cc processor. Right now, I go through TransFirst as the CC processor and use Authorize.net for the gateway. Each month we spend 5K - 6K on fees. Anyone familiar with the costs and steps associated with becoming your own CC processor and getting rid of the merchant account and gateway and go directly to the CC companies? Ive searched around on each credit card company's website and the web, but have not come up with anything.

[robjones2]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you might mean setting up your own direct merchant account, as opposed to going through a 3rd party payment processor - which is probably what you're doing at the moment.

If you want to go direct to Visa/mastercard, you really do need to be multi-million $ operation before they'll speak to you, the formalities are long, and authorisation requirements are strict.

Search around for "merchant accounts" and there's quite a lot of providers out there.

[Corey Bryant]

You will need to have an acquiring bank.

But with what you posted, that is maybe only about $100,000 a month in volume? Not that much for a lot of banks unfortunately.

Keep in mind though - the buy rate right now is 1.85%. So that is what Visa / MasterCard takes as its share of processing

-Corey

[grandmf]

we do 300K - 500K per month and its increasing every month. This is why we are looking at this option. So you say it is 1.85% to go directly to the bank? Right now through the merchant account (TransFirst) it is 2.2x% plus some other fee's. What do you mean by an aquiring bank?