[hackerspaces] Merchant Service Account Reccomendations

[Neil]

Hi all,

New to this list and still lurking, until I get around to an intro.   
However, some quick notes re: merchant accounts...

Beware: there are 2 general rates you get charged at -- the base rate  
and the corp/rewards/int'l rate.  The latter is higher and applies to  
any international CC, corporate CC, and any CC where the card-holder  
gets any form or reward (cash back, miles, points, etc).  And the  
catchy low rate is if you physically swipe the card vs. keying it in  
via a virtual terminal (website such as authorize.net).

In theory, I was supposed to be paying 2.9% base rate and a bit higher  
for the corp/int'l/rewards cards, but in practice (from bank  
statements) it seems that in the past year over 95% of my transactions  
are charged at the higher rate, and that works out to be ~5.9% (!!!).   
Remember there's a flat per-transaction charge also.

Most will accept MC/Visa/Disc, and Amex is usually separate/higher.

Don't forget to ask about monthly fees, annual fees (yes, some have  
both), chargeback fees, refund fees (yes, some charge a percentage to  
issue a refund), statement fees, batch fees (daily for sending the  
money to you account), and minimums.

I've been shopping for a new processor again, and so far Chase seems  
to be one of the better ones, at 2.25% + $0.20 for either base or  
corp/int'l/rewards cards.  I have a list of different rates/fees/etc  
from a handful of other companies and can get it for you when I get  
back.

Cheers,
-Neil.



Quoting Chris Hardee <shazzner at gmail.com>:

> We use our bank's merchant services along with Auth.net to process
> payments, which in turn we use freshbooks to handle reoccuring billing and
> keep track of accounts.
>
> On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 9:27 PM, Carlyn maw <carlynorama at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> So CRASH Space just tried to get a merchant services account via
>> dharmamerchantservices.com and they were cool, but their under writing
>> bank (Moneris) was freaked out by the fact that we, gasp, taught lock
>> picking and associated with "hackers." I think it is kinda funny.
>>
>> They are going to put us in touch with someone else, although it is likely
>> we'll just go with our bank and sign up with authorize.net directly, but
>> anyone have a credit card processing group they like? Anyone know anything
>> about http://beanstream.com/ ? I'm probably going to call them tomorrow
>> just to get a feel for them.
>>
>> Happy Halloween...
>> Best,
>> -- Carlyn
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Discuss mailing list
>> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Chris Hardee
> 10BitWorks
> San Antonio Hackerspace
> 10bitworks at gmail.com
> http://10bitworks.com/
>