Merchant account processing services are provided by a bank or a third party processor (on behalf of the bank) to the Merchant. These services include authorization of credit cards, settlement of funds through the bank associations (MasterCard and Visa), depositing of funds to checking accounts, merchant billing and account activity reporting.
Interchange is the underlying cost that the merchant’s bank account must pay when a customer makes a credit card sale. Interchange-Plus Pricing is determined by adding a constant price margin on top of the interchange-rate. It is often considered to be the fairest pricing model, in part because any savings on interchange fees offered by credit card companies are passed along to the merchant.
Credit card processing fits into three levels: Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. These levels are defined by the amount of information that is passed along to the credit card company when completing a transaction.
Level 1 has the lowest requirements (merchant name, transaction amount, and date), and potentially the highest cost.
Level 2 data requires all of the information from Level 1, plus several additional data points (sales tax, tax ID, merchant ZIP code, etc).
Level 3 transactions require all of the information from Level 2, in addition to line item detail found on the itemized invoice (i.e. item description, invoice number, destination ZIP code, etc). Level 3 transactions are processed faster reducing the time between making a sale and when you get paid.
Providing additional transaction data lowers the risk of fraud and chargebacks. Because of this, most credit card companies will offer reduced interchange fees (subject to specific requirements regarding card type and transaction type).
In addition to sending the extra data, you also need to use a payment gateway that can pass Level 3 data, and the purchase must be made with a credit card eligible for Level 3 processing (typically business, corporate, and purchasing cards).
Serve First Solutions’ gateways will automatically fill in the necessary data for you to qualify for Level 2 and Level 3 on business cards, eliminating manual data entry.
“Discount rate” refers to the small percentage of each transaction that is withheld by the Acquiring Bank and processor. This fee is basically what the merchant pays to be able to accept credit cards. Our discount rates are among the lowest in the industry.
Integrating your payment processing solution with your accounting system or ERP allows you to save time reconciling payments, eliminate duplicate data entry, and increase accuracy.
We can integrate our solutions with a wide range of shopping cart, ERP, CRM, and accounting software. These integrations include popular software products like NetSuite, Sage 100, Epicor 10, Salesforce, and Magento, among others.
Just fill out the online application and submit it to us. Once pre-approved, we will send you the agreement to sign. This process typically is completed in 2 to 4 business days.
