so I got my cc statement today and shocker there was another rate increase.
I use RBS world pay. (reminds me of sysco)…
I started out with 1.25 for tier 1? with a .15 rate pretty great!!!
I am now up to 1.25 and .28 a transaction.
tier 4 Which is about 1/3 of our transcations. same .28 slide
Here is the calculation for your actual rate 412.10/12178.48*100=3.38%
I would say that is a high rate but I live in a different country so I can not be sure how it stacks up.
Your actually not that bad there, Ron. I’m at high 2%'s. Try to get into Interchange Plus Pricing. The tiered system sucks and you get raped by it. Give them a call and tell him that your going to leave unless you get interchange plus pricing.
I just got mine from Mercury Payment Systems and it went up as well. I did a similar $12,992. My fees where only $327.00 though. Which is 2.5%. I have interchange plus pricing.
hate to sound naive, what exactly is interchange plus?
what’s the plus I should leverage for?
Interchange Plus is the same as cost plus. You get charged what they get charged. The rates will vary because of the different kind of reward cards. They can range for .95% up to 2.50%… Most of my sales are Visa/Mastercard Debit cards which are about 1.15% + .15 for each transaction. The processor makes their money on each swipe plus any kind of batch fees and a statement fee.
If you are on Tiered pricing, you probably are paying a set rate per transaction 1.25%. If the transaction gets downgraded (Keyed in) the % jumps significantly. With Interchange plus pricing, you pay what they pay. Not a penny more.
Ron, you can take your business anywhere if your doing over 10K a month in credit card sales.
The rates vary significantly depending on the nature of your business. In our delco, about 80% of our CC sales do not have a card swipe. We take the number over the phone. This has a higher rate than a “swiped” transaction. Our total cost of CC transactions is 2.7% of those sales. We use Heartland and have been very pleased.
We pay interchange + 5 cents.
At another (unrelated) business we own, the CC business is about 98% swiped with an average transaction of roughly $150. CC costs are 1.6% also with Heartland.
I was afraid my massive amount of keyed entries were hammering us on our credit-card rates, now I’m sure of it.
Have and delivery-heavy shops looked into the portable cellular card imprinters recently? Last time I checked into them, the cost of the machines + the “access fee” on the calls more than gobbled up any savings we could see for eliminating keyed entries. I’m wondering if it’s gotten significantly better recently?
There is no reason any restaurant (pizza or otherwise) should be on a three or four tier pricing plan. Every restaurant should be on cost plus/interchange plus pricing. There are many companies that offer fair pricing and good service (including me) for restaurant owners.
hey solutions gal pm me
RBS LINK told me to day that I need to do 50,000 a month to quailfy
We have RBS. On our last statement they started charging us a per transaction fee. After calling they lowered our rates. We are on a 4 tier. No per transaction fee, no monthly fee or statement fee. We pay a .20 cent batch fee. Our total avg rate will be around 2.6 down from 3.0. Not to mention they sent us a free machine for signing a contract (which is fine we have been with them for 15 years)
He suggested we get a pin pad to save even more but we have table service and think it would be a bit tacky to switch it.
I do know with rbs you have to call every 6 months or so and they will work on your rates.
Kris
I just checked my last 2 months RBS stmts…2.2% on interchage plus $.09…only other fee is $.20 batch fee
Famous and Kris, what percentage of your cards are swiped vs keyed? I’m using RBS with interchange + 8 cents and end up paying right at 3.1%. But over 90% of the dollar value of the credit cards are keyed. I’m just wondering if they have found a way to cheat me despite the interchange plus setup.
Paul, not sure exactly…i counted about 35 different rate %'s on my stmt…the majority of my charges are at the lowest rates 1.6% and less if that helps
Whats your split of sales between dine in/takeout and delivery. In theory the only sales you are keying in are your delivery orders correct?
Also when I look at my RBS statement I too have 40+ catagories that are priced differently. On each I am getting charged a percentage rate, an item fee, an assessment and a processing fee(the 8cents over interchange). Are you getting charged the assessment which is either .0925% or .095%? I’m not really sure what that is.
The .0925% and the 0.95% is the “dues and assessments” charged by Visa and MasterCard. When you have interchange pass through plus pricing, your statement will show all the different categories of card types your business takes and the interchange (percentage) Visa/MC charges for those categories. They also have the “per item” transaction fee associated with the item and then the dues and assessments. We have restaurants doing as little as $5000.00 per month on interchange pass through plus. FYI, we have seen many statements come across since the April increase and processors are hitting businesses hard on increased rates. We, however, are sticking to our plan of low rates and good service. I’m here, talk to me!
I was wondering if anyone would be interested in a webinar about interchange pass through? It might help you understand what your statements really mean.
Solutions Gal:
I would definitely be interested. I’m definitely looking for a way to lower my cc fees
I am putting together a webinar format for the end of the month. I will let you know how to dial in to attend the session. We like to limit attendance to 10-12, so everyone can ask questions. Once I have a firm date and time I will post it on the forum. Thanks for your interest.