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Every business that takes online payments has to have a service to take payment information and transfer funds from customer to business. While some payment processing costs are not under the business owner’s control the cost of using a payment processor or a merchant services provider can be cut with some smart shopping.  

Understanding the Full Cost of Payment Processing 

As with any business service, processing electronic payments costs money. While the fees seem small, they can also add up over time. If you sell $2,000,000 in goods and pay 2%, you spent $40,000 on processing those payments. The bank may add a fee on top of the credit card fee and the payment processor’s transaction fee.  Some payment processors charge a flat fee and a percentage, such as 2% plus $0.28 per transaction. A $40,000 expense can end up being a $50,000 expense because of flat fees and percentages.  

Your payment processor likely charges one or more of the following fees as well: 

Monthly or annual account maintenance fee – Some companies charge administrative fees to host and manage an account. 

PCI-Compliance fee – You may have to pay these fees if the payment processor needs to confirm your compliance with credit card security standards.  

Account Setup – This is a common fee charged for creating a payment processing account. 

Minimum Account Activity fee – You may be charged a fee if your purchases don’t reach a minimum amount spelled out in the contract. 

Statement fee – The company may charge a fee to produce either printed or electronic statements.  

NSF fee – Transactions rejected due to non-sufficient funds may incur a processing fee.  

Chargeback fee – If the customer requests a refund on a transaction, this may incur an additional charge  

The fees may be small but they can still make a significant contribution to the cost of taking credit cards and debit cards. The choice of a merchant services provider can, in short, save or cost a company thousands of dollars a year.  

Nashville-based CoreCommerce offers a complete online payment processing solution. Their merchant service solution comes with no set-up fee, no monthly fee, and minimal per-transaction pricing.  

Finding a Better Payment Processing Solution 

If you are opening an eCommerce business or want to trim some spending by finding a new payment processor, CoreCommerce can help. CoreCommerce uses a simple process to find cost savings for their clients.  

Step 1: Review your current fee structure to look for savings opportunities.  

Step 2: Use the information from Step 1 to create and present a plan that saves you money. 

Step 3: Implement the plan by integrating our processing page into your platform.  

Step 4: Operate your site and continue to save.  

Vendors who take advantage of this process stand to save money in administrative fees and transaction costs.  

CoreCommerce offers a variety of additional services for both online-only businesses and combination businesses. They can supply mobile credit/debit card terminals for a brick-and-mortar store. In addition to processing electronic payments, CoreCommerce offers hosted, white-labeled payments and shopping carts. You can integrate your CoreCommerce site with Quickbooks as well.  

DevDigital ‘s team has worked on hundreds of business and eCommerce sites over the years, providing everything from design consulting to custom development to search engine optimization.