Sam's Club and Costco Card Processing?

[jsinger]

I see that Costco offers processing for 1.67% plus about 20 cents an order. I presume that Sam's deal is similar.

Anyone have experience with these?

[Corey Bryant]

Costco resells for Nova and Sam's Club (1.64%) resells with First Data. Both are large transaction processors. 1.67% is about the normal rate for swiped transactions - nothing really too special about that.

-Corey

[jsinger]

Those rates are better than what we pay now thru the Bank of America, We're a fairly high volume B&M operation. Yes, I see from Costco's site that they sell Nova. They don't say exactly how they handle online sales or what their online rates are.

Any one else have experience with either.

[otnot]

We have been using Costco for a year now for both swiped and online sales and have no complaints.

[LifeinAsia]

Signed up with NOVA through Costco several years ago. Online processing rates are a little higher (as with any processor).

Customer service has been very good (haven't needed it much), although they can be a bit strict on chargeback documentation.

Only hiccup was a few months after we started we received one chargeback (customer error and he later withdrew his dispute). NOVA decided they "needed" to keep what amounted to about 75% of our monthly processing level at that point in a reserve fund.

We switched to another processor, but eventually went back to them. New processor suddenly decided they woudln't work with travel companies any more, and we couldn't find any other processor to work with travel companies. NOVA welcomed us back, without any reserve requirement.

[Corey Bryant]

Actually it does state on there. Their rate it lower than average but usually possible to get with any MAP with high volume

-Corey

[corbing]

We looked at Costco when shopping merchant services last year but when you start digging in and looking at the fees, it wasn't nearly as interesting or competitive. Out of everyone we looked at, BofA had the best overall rates and fees, however we had issues with them about some of the electronic products we sell (they claimed high fraud rate) so Wells Fargo, who was a close second to BofA, is our new provider.

It's been a while and I can't remember exactly what the turn-off with Costco was, but I seem to remember very high non-qualified rates (which includes business/corporate/government cards and is a big portion of our business) and also high transaction fees. If you're really interested, I could dig it up in a spreadsheet somewhere. However, it may be different for you jsinger since you have a B&M operation.

[moose606]

We have been using costco/nova for more than three years., with no problems. Very easy to set up, and a pretty competitive rate.

[Corey Bryant]

Costco post a 2.02% while most processors post a 2.39%. (I did nt see anything about a gateway or gateway fees and Nova (like First Data) is usually the transaction processor). While this is a significant posted difference, most agents can / will attempt to get 1.99% on some merchant accounts. Others will not want to be bothered unfortunately. It all depends.

You just need to talk to some of them. And also make sure that it is on the contract when you sign it - otherwise, you will not get that rate

-Corey

[jsinger]

Hilarious experience with the Bank of America today.

I phoned them to find out exactly what we were paying for CC processing and quickly got some friendly young girl who said our discount rate was 2.36%.

"For example," she added, "if you had a $100 sale, your charge would amount to..." She stopped dead and explained that her calculator was misplaced!

Eventually she gave up on locating her calculator. She apologized and told me she reckoned the amount would be "about $5.00!"

[topguy29]

I pay 1.99% for one merchant account and 2.14 for another. The 1.99% has higher volume of course.

[ispy]

JSinger, if you had emailed the Bank of America rather then calling you would have recieved an accurate discount rate quote and probably would have saved the girl her job from the telephone screening spies a the bank.