Wingman Weekly: What is the Cheapest Credit Card Processing for Small Businesses?
What is the cheapest credit card processing option for small businesses? The simple answer is that it depends on many factors. What type of business do you own? How do you take payments? Do you want to pay the processing fees? Is the provider you have transparent with their pricing? Since there is no single solution that is the cheapest, let’s break down these questions to help you understand why they are important to ask.
Questions to think about:
What type of business do you own?
What type of business you own affects how you need to take payments. Online stores need e-commerce solutions. Chiropractors need invoicing and recurring payments. A restaurant needs many point of sale terminals. Because some companies require an increased monthly cost to handle certain needs, such as a monthly cost per terminal or ACH services, understanding the business you operate impacts what solution is optimal for you.
How do you take payments?
As previously stated, your payment needs affect what solutions are optimal for you, but it also extends to Alternative Payment Methods. Google and Apple Wallets are more common than ever, and some business owners may want the luxury of offering alternative payment methods like Venmo, Cryptocurrencies, or Buy Now Pay Later to their customers.
Do you want to pay the processing fees?
Alternative Merchant Pricing, such as Cash Discount or Dual Pricing, can effectively eliminate processing fees by passing the fees onto the customer. For businesses with low average ticket prices, this can save money without increasing costs drastically for the customer. Additionally, these methods help reduce the use of cards, and increase the use of cash or ACH services.
Is the provider transparent in their pricing?
Some merchant service companies look great when you sign up with them. However, if their pricing isn’t transparent, that great price can balloon quickly. Monthly charges like gateway fees or number of point of sale terminals can suddenly appear. Some companies raise processing rates once or twice a year in your merchant statements. Long contracts can keep you locked into to subpar support, which can hurt your businesses reputation when problems arise and cause potential future income to dip.
Why looking at local merchant service providers is a good idea:
Many of the popular merchant service companies can provide you with great solutions based on your business, how you take payments, and provide transparent pricing and ways to reduce processing fees. However, they are also more structured in how they set you up, less flexible in their cost and solutions, and more hands off when it comes to support issues. By looking at some local options, you still can find great payment solutions at reasonable costs, but the added benefits are that you have a local partner in your community that can help you when you have questions or issues. Local businesses can negotiate price, provide month to month contracts, and have a personal relationship with you.
If you’d like to learn more about how Wingman Payments can be a local partner for you, read our blog on The Benefits of Local Support.
If you’d like to set up a Discovery Call with us, Contact us at 470-822-8683.