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Streamlining Your Payment Processing

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How many businesses do you know that don’t accept credit cards? They’re few and far between, and if your company wants to grow, you’re going to have to accept cards as a part of daily life. This method is not without problems for merchants, though. A credit card payment is one that comes with its own fees and potential for fraud, and even if you use the best payment processing service in the world, you’re still going to find costs involved that you just didn’t expect. How can you streamline the experience and make certain you’re paying a little less with every single transaction? These tips can help.

Implement Fraud Protection
Businesses deal with thousands in fraud every single year, and with a few simple steps, you could protect your company and move forward fraud-free. Do some research about the types of fraud you’re most likely to encounter in your industry and make sure your online payment services if you accept orders over the internet, are up to speed and working to protect your company.

Know Your Business
Understand what types of payments customers are most likely to present, and the kinds of cards they typically use. Mastercard and Visa, for example, are processed very differently than American Express. Debit cards are cheaper for your company to process than credit cards. Some kinds of transactions mean higher rates. The key is to know exactly what kinds of payment methods your customers prefer and where your costs are going to be.

Choose the Right Processor
As you shop for payment processors, make sure you’ve selected the one to meet your needs. You’re going to find companies that offer flat fee payment processing that looks like a good choice, but the chances are astronomical that unless you’re dealing with really low transaction totals on a daily basis, you would save more with a company that offers a different structure.

Interchange passthrough rates, for example, tend to be far lower, as they pass the interchange fees on to you, so you can see exactly what you’re paying for every single time. Because there are so many different processors out there, though, and they all charge you differently, the key is to understand exactly what you’re getting.

Learn more about Y2Payments payment processing solutions, contact us today at 888-693-1850.

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How Interchange Plus Pricing Can Save Money

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Looking to save money on your payment processing? You’re not alone. This service is one of the most often cited headaches for small business owners, and it’s pretty common to look around for different payment processors to help lower those fees. The reality, though, is that it may not be the payment processor you’re frustrated with. Instead, it may be the pricing model itself.

Four Very Different Models

As you begin to consider different payment processing companies, you’re going to see four main models. The first is the most common – tiered pricing. It sorts your transactions into three different tiers: qualified, mid-qualified, and non-qualified. Transactions meet various requirements to fall into a given tier (processors call these ‘buckets’). For example, if the card is present and it’s processed on the same day, it might fall into the qualified category. If it’s an online transaction, it may fall into an entirely different category.

Tiered pricing simplifies things considerably, but you don’t get a chance to see what the processing company is really charging you. Subscription pricing is the second model, and in this case, you pay a membership fee as well as a per transaction fee. It can be a fairly inexpensive way to process your payments, but not very many companies are willing to offer it.

Flat fee payment processing is the third type, and it’s a bit like tiered processing, but it generally takes the three tiers and blends them to offer you a single even rate. That rate, though, can be a bit high. Interchange-plus pricing is the most transparent of these models. It breaks down every single charge you pay, both those that go to the issuing bank and those that go to the processor. This tends to make things more complicated in terms of reporting, but it usually costs less.  

The Right Online Payment Services

So, which one is right for your company? You’re going to have to think carefully about the various kinds of transactions you move through on a regular basis. You may also have to see which payment processors are competing for your business to see what’s available to you. While tiered and flat fees seem easier to deal with, interchange pass through services are typically the cheapest option. Searching terms like “what is interchange plus pricing” is likely to yield several examples that will help you put some numbers on potential transactions you might use in your store, which may help you make a solid decision.

To learn more about interchange plus pricing and have all of your payment processing concerns answered, contact us today.

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Watch Trends in Online Payment Processing

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The world of online payment services has changed rapidly. Many of these changes could be seen coming years back. Others seem to take hold at surprising speed. What are the biggest online payment processing trends that can be seen taking shape today?

Methods of Payment

Credit cards are still popular in the realm of online shopping, but they no longer dominate the field. They account for 42 percent of online shopping payments. Electronic payments are just behind at 39 percent. The remainder is taken up by debit cards, but you can see just how much electronic payments have narrowed the gap with credit cards.

Third Parties

Younger shoppers continue to support third parties. They have more knowledge about how to protect their bank account information in online payment services settings. This makes them better equipped to identify safe ways of doing this, which makes them more flexible and more intelligent spenders online than older generations.

Interchange Pass Through

 Interchange pass through pricing has clearly become the most transparent form of credit card processing pricing. Interchange pass through allows the actual processing cost to be passed directly to your business.

Cryptocurrency & Blockchain

You’ll continue to see cryptocurrency normalized as a form of payment. Be careful with how and when you accept these forms of payment. Cryptocurrency values are extremely volatile and represent a high risk. Many online payment systems will still decline their use, but cryptocurrencies will only continue to expand into the realm of online payment methods.

When new technologies enable new approaches to online payment systems and online payment methods, they really do take hold fast. Expect blockchain technology, the digital ledger in which cryptocurrency exchanges are recorded, to reshape much of the field in the next five years. It’s estimated it will reduce the cost of accounting reconciliation up to 70 percent in that time.

There are a number of online payment processing trends that you’ll see coming. You also need the flexibility to adapt quickly to the ones you don’t see coming. Ensure that you trust reliable online payment systems that offer interchange pass through, accountability, and provide thorough service.

For more information on payment processing, contact Y2Payments today.