It’s The End Of The Year

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It’s The End Of The Year

Time To Review

Here is your to-do list:

  1. Make sure your rep is reputable.
  2. Understand common pricing models.
  3. Know what customer service is available to you.
  4. Get up to date with your equipment and software.
  5. Understand your existing contract terms.

Ask the right questions.

  • Are you being charged an annual fee?
  • Are you paying a monthly minimum penalty?
  • Are you signing a contract term and what is the early termination fee?
  • What is the monthly service fee
  • What is the statement fee?
  • What is the batch fee?
  • What is my American Express transaction fee? More importantly ask if they are on the new Opt Blue Program – they should be.
  • Is there a setup fee?
  • Is there an application fee?
  • What is the PCI compliance fee?
  • What are my funding times?
  • Will my fees be debited monthly or daily?
  • What type of online reporting will be made available to me?
  • Are there fees to reprogram my existing equipment or payment gateway?  How about integration fees?

If you have any questions, let our experts answer these questions.  Call us today!

Headquartered in Pinole California, MerchantZoom, Inc. was founded by Wally Arakozie. Previously employed by one of the largest merchant processing companies here in California for nearly a decade. Since the company’s beginnings MerchantZoom, has grown into a reputable national merchant provider.  Along with delivering state of the art technology and competitive rates, MerchantZoom, thrives on personalized local customer service and support. In order for your business to ZOOM!

 

Address

759 Appian Way Ste 1A
Pinole, CA 94564

E-Mail Us

Info@mchzoom.com

Contact Us

1-844-624-9666

Website

www.mchzoom.com

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/mchzoom

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mchzoom

Twitter
https://twitter.com/mchzoom

 

Content Release Date Dec 11 , 2017 – MerchantZoom Inc.

Press Release by 72 Charms LLC, content is the responsibility of MerchantZoom, 72 Charms simply does it’s work for hire, contact us if you need to promote your business, otherwise, contact, MerchantZoom at http://mchzoom.com to take care of your processing needs.    If you need social media content management or WordPress design reach out us at www.72charms.com

Why Choose Merchant Zoom Inc over them?

Why choose us

Absolute Custom Solutions

Providing card payment acceptance solutions, delivering high performance transaction authorization, routing and settlement acquiring platform across industries. The complete Merchant Services solution provides a competent and cost-effective platform that accepts card payments, safely and securely.

• Superior operational performance
• Superior service level delivery
• Advanced risk + fraud management
• Value added services to make you life as a merchant easier.
• Getting it made easy. Seriously. This is our business. Can we take care of you?
• Call me back and actually get a human in your local area to call you – well – back!

Superior operational performance

Excellent service

Merchant Zoom Inc has demonstrated a more resilient transaction routing and authoirzation platform, due to:
• First Data’s investment in world class systems and a dedicated team of in-house developers and operational staff with 24hr monitoring capability when combined with our local on the scene support team.

Add in Calculators, Rates, Equipment Options, and years upon years of experience you got a solid choice for your business with us. You’ll pay less. Make more. Spend less time. Enjoy better service. In short we do what our name says, make your, Merchant Zoom!
Call us today!

Headquartered in Pinole California, MerchantZoom, Inc. was founded by Wally Arakozie. Previously employed by one of the largest merchant processing companies here in California for nearly a decade. Since the company’s beginnings MerchantZoom, has grown into a reputable national merchant provider. Along with delivering state of the art technology and competitive rates, MerchantZoom, thrives on personalized local customer service and support. In order for your business to ZOOM!

Address
759 Appian Way Ste 1A
Pinole, CA 94564
E-Mail Us
Info@mchzoom.com
Contact Us
1-844-624-9666
Website
www.mchzoom.com
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/mchzoom
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mchzoom
Twitter

Content Release Date Dec 04, 2017 – MerchantZoom Inc.
Press Release by 72 Charms LLC, content is the responsibility of MerchantZoom, 72 Charms simply does it’s work for hire, contact us if you need to promote your business, otherwise, contact, MerchantZoom at http://mchzoom.com to take care of your processing needs. If you need social media content management or WordPress design reach out us at www.72charms.com

Pricing Models: Tiered Vs. Interchange Plus

In this blog we go over two of the most common pricing models: tiered pricing and interchange plus pricing.

Pricing Models

In this article, I’ll go over two of the most common pricing models: tiered pricing and interchange plus pricing. There are other pricing models available, such as flat rate and subscription, but they’re essentially variations of these two models, so it’s important to have a solid understanding of tiered and interchange plus.

Tiered Merchant Account Pricing

The most popular method because it’s easy to sell and the most profitable for the processor.

Tiered merchant accounts work on a system of “qualification” to determine which rate tier a merchant’s transaction falls into. These are also called “bins,” “rate buckets” or “buckets.” So, a very simple example might look like this:

  • Qualified Discount Rate: 1.XX%
  • Mid-Qualified Discount Rate: 2.XX%
  • Non-Qualified Discount Rate: 3.XX%

 

At times this is complicated with debit variations creating 4-5-6 tiers  depending upon the processor.  Doesn’t matter, the concept is the same all around if there is a flat 1 tier or 6 tiers or the standard 3 tier.

 

Transactions are frequently “downgraded” to a lower level of qualification, meaning a higher cost of transaction. Whether it’s a private or business card, cash back or rewards card, keying the credit card number as opposed to swiping the card and now days even swiping vs. dipping a chip.  Oh, and lest we forget the zip code or 3 digit code on the back of the card or even the billing address will often cause a downgrade. What’s more, the various rate tiers obscure the actual interchange fees being applied.  It’s impossible to know for certain, and difficult to estimate which rate bucket a transaction will fall into until after the transaction has taken place. That also makes it impossible to avoid paying unnecessary fees when using a tiered merchant account.

Interchange Plus Pricing

Traditionally, Interchange Plus pricing accounts have only been available to businesses that do a high volume of credit card sales — usually $25,000 or more per month. However, the market for merchant accounts is more competitive these days, and now smaller businesses (even startups) can get accounts that work on this pricing structure.  So if Interchange clears at $200.00 then you pay that $200.00.  Plus you’ll then pay your agreed “PLUS” price which would be for example let’s say “$0.25” a transaction and “0.25%”  So you’d simply take your number of transactions by the $0.25 and add that to the total volume you ran times the percentage 0.25% of the volume and add those fees back to the $200.00 interchange and you understand your bill.  99.9999% of the time it will be much lower than any Tier type pricing.

Keep in mind, though, that interchange plug pricing by itself is not a silver bullet. It sets the stage to get competitive pricing, but you’ll still need to ensure you have a competitive quote.

Headquartered in Pinole California, MerchantZoom, Inc. was founded by Wally Arakozie. Previously employed by one of the largest merchant processing companies here in California for nearly a decade. Since the company’s beginnings MerchantZoom, has grown into a reputable national merchant provider.  Along with delivering state of the art technology and competitive rates, MerchantZoom, thrives on personalized local customer service and support. In order for your business to ZOOM!

 

Address

759 Appian Way Ste 1A
Pinole, CA 94564

E-Mail Us

Info@mchzoom.com

Contact Us

1-844-624-9666

Website

www.mchzoom.com

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/mchzoom

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mchzoom

Twitter
 https://twitter.com/mchzoom

 

Content Release Date Nov 27, 2017 – MerchantZoom Inc.

Press Release by 72 Charms LLC
If you need social media content management or WordPress design reach out us at www.72charms.com

Dealing With A Local Company Vs A Large Out Of State Company

Small local businesses have many advantages over their larger out of state competitors. Larger companies are not as nimble and swift as small businesses.  Small businesses can also be more innovative and try new things because they are not slowed by past experiences and accomplishments. The pace of a small company is often very fast, and this speed is frequently an advantage in getting new products to market.

 Close to the Customer

Being close to the customer is important for success in business, and a small business is frequently much closer to the customer than a large one.  A small business can meet with the customer more frequently and develop more of a personal relationship than a large company. A large company has many layers and departments and often has procedures that prevent close contact with the customer. Customer complaints can be handled faster and on a more personal level in a small company, making long-term customer relations easier and more profitable.

Lean Structure

A small business is, by nature, very lean. There are fewer employees than in a larger organization and also fewer layers of management. With fewer employees, a smaller company has less need to lay off associates in hard times and can keep business operating more efficiently. Having fewer layers of management makes decision times much quicker, allowing for flexibility and adaptability that a larger company does not have. Your lean structure means that every employee can be much closer to the business and the customer, allowing for both an understanding of how your company works and increased customer satisfaction.  This also means that you can often deliver the product at a cheaper rate because you have less overhead than the larger national companies that are forced to carry the overhead of large offices and real estate burdens.

Last but not least.  Your support of a local business puts money back in to your community which in turn is spent three more times in your community.  This will help you in your business and your customers in their jobs.  It’s just smart.  So support Small Business Saturday this year and move  your processing to Merchant Zoom Inc if you are in Northern California.

Headquartered in Pinole California, MerchantZoom, Inc. was founded by Wally Arakozie. Previously employed by one of the largest merchant processing companies here in California for nearly a decade. Since the company’s beginnings MerchantZoom, has grown into a reputable national merchant provider.  Along with delivering state of the art technology and competitive rates, MerchantZoom, thrives on personalized local customer service and support. In order for your business to ZOOM!

 

Address

759 Appian Way Ste 1A
Pinole, CA 94564

E-Mail Us

Info@mchzoom.com

Contact Us

1-844-624-9666

Website

www.mchzoom.com

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/mchzoom

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mchzoom

Twitter
https://twitter.com/mchzoom

 

Content Release Date Nov 11, 2017 – MerchantZoom Inc.

Press Release by 72 Charms LLC, content is the responsibility of MerchantZoom, 72 Charms simply does it’s work for hire, contact us if you need to promote your business, otherwise, contact, MerchantZoom at http://mchzoom.com to take care of your processing needs.    If you need social media content management or WordPress design reach out us at www.72charms.com

Tis’ The Season For Rate Reviews

With credit card interchange fees constantly changing, many merchants have some difficulty reading and understanding what they are paying for their credit card processing.  How much time do you spend looking at merchant statements?  If you are like most merchants the answer is probably almost never.  Be honest, do you even open the statements, or stack the envelopes in a pile?  Ok, maybe you aren’t that bad.  But hey, this is one of those no fun tasks of being a business owner.  It’s kind of like going to the dentist, no one wants to do it.  Your annual checkup should be now.  Let me tell you why:

 

The holiday season is upon us.  2018 is fast approaching.  We just completed the first month of the fall Interchange rate hike in October.  The next increase won’t be till Spring 2018.  That makes this the season to have your October 2017 statement reviewed by your credit card merchant services professional.  You need to do it now, in order to maximize savings.

 

Getting your statement analysis done is free and without obligation.  All you need to do is give us a call and will discuss your business and how you take payments.  Next, you’ll fax or e-mail your statement from October 2017 (any will do but this would be preferred as it shows the rate increase) over.  Give us a little bit and we’ll be back in touch with your results.  If you like what you see you can take advantage of the savings.  If not you’ve got peace of mind that you already have the best rate.  You nothing to lose and everything to gain.

 

Let’s face it, it’s easy as a business owner to make mistakes when buying and maintaining credit card.  We service merchants anywhere in the USA.  Contact Merchant Zoom today and we’ll consult with you on your best options.

Headquartered in Pinole California, MerchantZoom, Inc. was founded by Wally Arakozie. Previously employed by one of the largest merchant processing companies here in California for nearly a decade. Since the company’s beginnings MerchantZoom, has grown into a reputable national merchant provider.  Along with delivering state of the art technology and competitive rates, MerchantZoom, thrives on personalized local customer service and support. In order for your business to ZOOM!

Address

759 Appian Way Ste 1A Pinole, CA 94564

E-Mail Us

Info@mchzoom.com

Contact Us

1-844-624-9666

Website

www.mchzoom.com

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/mchzoom

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mchzoom

Twitter https://twitter.com/mchzoom

 

Content Release Date Nov 11, 2017 – MerchantZoom Inc.

Press Release by 72 Charms LLC, content is the responsibility of MerchantZoom, 72 Charms simply does it’s work for hire, contact us if you need to promote your business, otherwise, contact, MerchantZoom at http://mchzoom.com to take care of your processing needs.    If you need social media content management or WordPress design reach out us at www.72charms.com

Merchant Zoom Is Back!

We’ve been hard at work on a project overseas for the last few months.  We are back in the USA and will be resuming our weekly blog posts on Monday, Nov 13, 2017.   Thank you for your continued support and following our blog.

Is EMV from Slowing Your Transaction Times?

Have you upgraded your POS system in accordance with the Europay/MasterCard/Visa (EMV). Have you already done so?  EMV is good for the merchant.  By allowing you to process chip-enabled cards and, in turn, protects you from financial responsibility for fraudulent card-present transactions completed in your establishment(s).  There is one big complaint, chip-based card transactions can take longer to process than transactions via magnetic stripe cards.

Take these steps to reduce transaction times:

Select the proper hardware with the right connection:  Select EMV equipment that can be connected to broadband internet with a telephone backup.  If you use a terminal on a telephone line your magnetic swipe time of 3-5 seconds will jump to at least 15-20 seconds on average.  EMV is heavily encrypted and is therefore transporting much more than the card number.  Choose a fast always-on broadband Internet connect and a modern more high end router with more capacity than needed.

There are currently two main speed standards for LAN ports: Ethernet (also called Fast Ethernet,) which caps at 100 megabits per second (or about 13 megabytes per second), and Gigabit Ethernet, which caps at 1 gigabit per second (or about 150 MBps).  Most modern high end routers, those around $100.00 or so have the 1,000 meg ports (1 gigabit), this kind of speed will ensure top connection speeds no matter what your store traffic is like.  Of course, that means you’d have to “wire” that with a LAN cable.  In turn you have to make sure you have a new LAN cable that can handle the 1 gigabit speed, some older (and most cheap ones) will throttle back your speed to the 100 meg speeds because they aren’t rated for the 1 gig speeds.   Lan cables a cheap, even the high end ones, don’t go skinny on this, get good cables.

Ok, you hate wires – and who doesn’t.  If you got a modern terminal or POS that will allow you to connect via Wi-Fi that’s wonderful.  Let’s explore those options.  First, let me say, follow the recommendations for the Internet and Router.  Second, each Wi-Fi 802.11b offered up to 11 megabits per second (Mbps) 802.11a and 802.11g offer up to 54 Mbps.  The minimum you’ll want to consider is “g” standard.  If you are lucky enough to have a POS or terminal that can go faster, let’s look at those speeds.  1.3 gigabits per second (Gbps) is the speed most commonly cited as the 802.11ac standard. This translates to 166 megabytes per second (MBps) or 1331 megabits per second (Mbps). It is vastly quicker than the 450Mbit per second (0.45Gbps) headline speeds quoted on the highest performing 802.11n routers.

Next week we’ll be discussing other things you need to do, such as contactless payment configurations, the effects of employee and customer training.

Contact Merchant Zoom today and we’ll consult with you on your best options.

 

Headquartered in Pinole California, MerchantZoom, Inc. was founded by Wally Arakozie. Previously employed by one of the largest merchant processing companies here in California for nearly a decade. Since the company’s beginnings MerchantZoom, has grown into a reputable national merchant provider.  Along with delivering state of the art technology and competitive rates, MerchantZoom, thrives on personalized local customer service and support. In order for your business to ZOOM!

 

Address

759 Appian Way Ste 1A Pinole, CA 94564

E-Mail Us

Info@mchzoom.com

Contact Us

1-844-624-9666

Website

www.mchzoom.com

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/mchzoom

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mchzoom

Twitter https://twitter.com/mchzoom

 

Content Release Date July 31, 2017 – MerchantZoom Inc.

Press Release by 72 Charms LLC, content is the responsibility of MerchantZoom, 72 Charms simply does it’s work for hire, contact us if you need to promote your business, otherwise, contact, MerchantZoom at http://mchzoom.com to take care of your processing needs.    If you need social media content management or WordPress design reach out us at www.72charms.com

Social Media For The Retailer

For Generation Z, those born between 1995–2014, they’ve grown up in a world where the internet has always existed.  There was never a time that computers didn’t exist, then internet handsets came out and this generation held  the internet in their hand.  On June 29, 2007, the first iPhone was released.  Social media is the most effective way to reach these consumers.

80 percent of Generation Z use social media when shopping, while, 74 percent of millennials, 58 percent of Generation X, 41 percent of baby boomers.

Generation use the new social media sites, via their favorites: 44 percent Instagram, 32 percent YouTube, 21 percent SnapChat.  Gen Xers use Facebook at 44 percent.  The older baby boomers use Facebook at 38 percent.

Most social media, once engaged by your shoppers, simply take the customer to your website.  At that time a shopping cart and online gateway with a merchant is needed to make the purchase.  Facebook can be reached by certain popular shopping carts and do the selling inside Facebook, like a normal shopping cart you have to have a eCommerce merchant account hooked up to that in order to collect the payments.

Contact Merchant Zoom today and we’ll consult with you on your best options.

Headquartered in Pinole California, MerchantZoom, Inc. was founded by Wally Arakozie. Previously employed by one of the largest merchant processing companies here in California for nearly a decade. Since the company’s beginnings MerchantZoom, has grown into a reputable national merchant provider.  Along with delivering state of the art technology and competitive rates, MerchantZoom, thrives on personalized local customer service and support. In order for your business to ZOOM!

 

Address

759 Appian Way Ste 1A Pinole, CA 94564

E-Mail Us

Info@mchzoom.com

Contact Us

1-844-624-9666

Website

www.mchzoom.com

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/mchzoom

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mchzoom

Twitter https://twitter.com/mchzoom

 

Content Release Date July 24, 2017 – MerchantZoom Inc.

Press Release by 72 Charms LLC, content is the responsibility of MerchantZoom, 72 Charms simply does it’s work for hire, contact us if you need to promote your business, otherwise, contact, MerchantZoom at http://mchzoom.com to take care of your processing needs.    If you need social media content management or WordPress design reach out us at www.72charms.com

Payment Processing Lifecycle

  • Consumer uses a credit card for payment. The merchant enters the cardholder data into their payment system, (either point-of-sale terminal/software or e-commerce site).
  • The acquirer / processor receives card data from merchant. The credit card data is routed through the payment system for processing.
  • The acquirer /processor sends the data to the payment card brand (Visa, MasterCard, Discover). The credit card data is then forwarded to the issuing bank for verification.
  • Credit card is verified by issuing bank / processor. Card verification checks for sufficient funds and account status.
  • Upon verification, a payment authorization number is generated by issuing bank. The authorization number indicates acceptance of transaction and is routed back to the payment card brand.
  • The acquirer / processor receives the authorization number from the payment card brand.
  • The acquirer / processor sends the authorization number back to the merchant.
  • Merchant completes the sale. Customer receives the goods or services.

The Payment Industry, and in particular, credit card processing, is complex. Merchants are faced with confusing statements, hundreds of various payment processing fees – including costly layers of discount rates, transaction fees and surcharges – in addition to the numerous processing options offered by merchant service providers, payment gateways, and other payment processing entities

Contact Merchant Zoom today and we’ll consult with you on your best options.

Headquartered in Pinole California, MerchantZoom, Inc. was founded by Wally Arakozie. Previously employed by one of the largest merchant processing companies here in California for nearly a decade. Since the company’s beginnings MerchantZoom, has grown into a reputable national merchant provider. Along with delivering state of the art technology and competitive rates, MerchantZoom, thrives on personalized local customer service and support. In order for your business to ZOOM!

Address
759 Appian Way Ste 1A
Pinole, CA 94564
E-Mail Us
Info@mchzoom.com
Contact Us
1-844-624-9666
Website
www.mchzoom.com
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/mchzoom
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mchzoom
Twitter

Content Release Date July 17, 2017 – MerchantZoom Inc.
Press Release by 72 Charms LLC, content is the responsibility of MerchantZoom, 72 Charms simply does it’s work for hire, contact us if you need to promote your business, otherwise, contact, MerchantZoom at http://mchzoom.com to take care of your processing needs. If you need social media content management or WordPress design reach out us at www.72charms.com

Avoid Common Mistakes Part 4

Continuing on our 4 part series of mistakes made by business owners when buying and maintaining credit card processing services, here is part 3.

 

  1. Before and after the sale Unfortunately it’s common in this industry for a representative to “add” extra fees and charges after you’ve signed the agreement. Worse, the monthly statement that most processors give you is so confusing you most likely never notice it.

It’s not like most any other industry where a provider actually delivers on a price that is quoted.  Verify it for yourself.  When you sign the contract application insist on a photocopy of it.  If you signed a digital copy, insist on an e-mailed copy of it.  Print it.  Read it.  Verify it.  When you get your first statement verify if all the prices are correct and call the 800# to customer service, not your representative, to get it fixed as you have 30 days and the contract and rates “stick”.   If you don’t understand the statement,  call your representative or customer service and have them explain it to you.

  1. Biannual rate increases Every spring Visa and MasterCard adjust interchange rate structures which means that rates usually go up. It’s a common practice to not only pass along the increases but increase their margins. It’s  fair that merchant providers pass on the interchange increase with nothing extra added. It’s not fair to tack on a “padding” to increase their profit margin and blame it on Visa and MasterCard.  So called “Cost Plus” or “Interchange Plus” should insulate you from  these “additional increases” for the most part.

Thanks for reading our 4 part series.

Contact Merchant Zoom today and we’ll consult with you on your best options.

 

Headquartered in Pinole California, MerchantZoom, Inc. was founded by Wally Arakozie. Previously employed by one of the largest merchant processing companies here in California for nearly a decade. Since the company’s beginnings MerchantZoom, has grown into a reputable national merchant provider.  Along with delivering state of the art technology and competitive rates, MerchantZoom, thrives on personalized local customer service and support. In order for your business to ZOOM!

 

Address

759 Appian Way Ste 1A Pinole, CA 94564

E-Mail Us

Info@mchzoom.com

Contact Us

1-844-624-9666

Website

www.mchzoom.com

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/mchzoom

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mchzoom

Twitter https://twitter.com/mchzoom

 

Content Release Date June 26, 2017 – MerchantZoom Inc.

Press Release by 72 Charms LLC, content is the responsibility of MerchantZoom, 72 Charms simply does it’s work for hire, contact us if you need to promote your business, otherwise, contact, MerchantZoom at http://mchzoom.com to take care of your processing needs.    If you need social media content management or WordPress design reach out us at www.72charms.com

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