By Lowering the Credit Card Fees You Pay.

Many merchants don’t realize the ramifications of skipping past prompts on their credit card machine or POS system costs them money.

The rate you pay as a merchant depends on:

The type of card presented: Check/Debit, Credit, Rewards, Business or International and how it is processed; swiped, keyed with enhanced data, keyed without enhanced data.These all affect the Interchange rate of the transaction. Interchange is the portion of the discount rate that every processor must collect and pay to the bank that issued the credit card. It is the same for every processor in the country. The more data presented with a transaction, the lower the Interchange rate.

For Example:

Skipping the address on Visa cards, for example, will cost 0.15% more on Check/Debit, 0.50% more on Credit, and 0.55% more on Business cards. On business cards skipping the Customer Code and Sales Tax prompts costs you 0.90% more!

Based on our sign & graphics portfolio, 68% of your industry’s transactions will be business cards.

It is very important that you always key the Customer Code (use Invoice number), Billing address and Zip, and Sales Tax when prompted on your terminal. If you’re using the Cyrious software with CapitalQ, then this data will be sent automatically. You just need to make sure that you click Send Billing Address on the payment screen when keying the credit card.

The security code prompt is important as well.

There is no additional cost at Interchange if it is not present, but it will protect you against chargebacks if you have a match. Please note that some processors will charge more if there is a security code or address mismatch. CapitalQ does not.

Tips provided by Edwin Moore at Capital Q. For more information on Capital Q's services, visit their website at www.capitalq.com