Welcome to part 2 of our 12 part series – “Tell Me the Best Merchant Solution for My Business.” In this this chapter we are going to discuss the question of “What is the best merchant software and merchant equipment for my needs?”
First, there are the basics that all merchant services solutions should have:
1. Your merchant payment solution should be PCI Compliant. If they are not you will be in violation of the latest legal requirements to accept electronic payments. In addition, by accepting payments through PCI complaint merchant equipment or merchant software your customers financial data is more secure and this lowers the instance of credit card fraud.
2. If you are doing in person-transactions you want to have a way to accept credit cards through a terminal by swiping a credit card through your merchant equipment. Why?
Not only does this provide a faster buying experience for your customer – it can cut your fees to accept credit cards by about 50%. Card providers such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover charge less to process a swipe transaction because the instance of credit card fraud is much lower when someone has a card-in-hand instead of simply giving the merchant a number to key in. This savings should then get passed onto you through your merchant account provider and save your money in processing fees every time you run a transaction.
The next questions you need to ask are more tailored to your business:
1. Will most of my transactions be occurring through my website’s ecommerce features? If so, you need an ecommerce merchant services solution such as Authorize.net or PlugnPay. If your website does not have a shopping card built into it then you can use the shopping cart that comes for free with Authorize.net or PlugnPay. If your website does already have a shopping card you can plug it into Authorize.net or PlugnPay Gateway. If your business offers a recurring revenue model you will probably want the recurring billing module that comes with PlugnPay. If your business has a decent amount of credit card fraud you will want the protection of Fraud Trak2 from PlugNPay. Otherwise, both of these options are good for your business.
2. Would I like to have all of my transactions run through a PC and integrated into my account system so that all financials are centralized? If so, PCCharge may be the right solution for your business. PCCharge can handle in person transactions as well as remote phone order, or direct mail transactions.
3. Is it important that my merchant equipment offer the latest and greatest? If so, then you want something like the Vivopay 4000 or Phone Swipe. The Vivopay 4000 offers traditional swipe as well as keyed in retail transactions yet it also offers tap and go technology that enables customer to tap their credit card or smart phone against the merchant equipment with a simple tap of their “mobile wallet” against the payment terminal. Similarly the Phone Swipe, offers this technology but the merchant equipment plugs directly into your iPhone, iPad, or Droid device. For any business that accepts payments in the field, such as a delivery company the Phone Swipe is the best method of accepting payment.
4. Are you a doctor’s office, restaurant, or a traditional retail store? Then you have a broad array of options. In your case you should not be paying for merchant equipment as there are providers that will give you everything you need to accept payments for free. Merchant equipment such as the First Data FD100, the Omni VX570, or the Nurit 8020 will work great for you.
If you have questions you can continue to do research but you should also be able to talk on the phone with your merchant services provider and ask them. If they will be a good partner for your business they will talk with you through the pluses and minuses of each solution for YOU and then can then advise you on the best solution for your business.
Keep on reading. Our next chapter of this 12 part merchant service series will be “Do I need software? Do I need equipment? How much will this cost?”
