Payment processing platforms play a valuable role in supporting merchants. They allow businesses to accept credit card payments quickly, easily, and without creating worries. Unfortunately, though, not all payment processing companies live up to industry standards, and many choose to highlight how they help merchants generate revenue without mentioning restrictive policies and hidden fees.
The good news for business owners who are fed up with their current payment processors is that there are plenty of other good options out there. It’s just a matter of deciding when it’s time to switch. Check out the warning signs below to identify when it might be time to switch to a new payment processor.
1. Excessive Fees
Every payment processing company must charge some fees for the use of its services. However, not all of them disclose the full range of fees that business owners will have to pay. They bury those details deep in their contracts where they’re more likely to escape a merchant’s notice.
Once that first statement comes in, it’s usually pretty easy to tell the difference between legitimate, reasonable fees and those that are only designed to extort extra money from account holders. Legitimate fees always accompany actual services that benefit merchants or their customers. Junk fees get charged for reasons that aren’t fully clear and can’t be changed easily.
2, Inflexible Pricing
Most payment processing companies base transaction costs on interchange fees. Those fees are charged by credit card associations and banks, so there’s nothing payment processors can do to lower them. It makes sense that companies use these fees as the basis of their pricing plans.
What doesn’t make sense is to offer inflexible plans that make it challenging for merchants to scale up their businesses without spending a fortune. It’s best to avoid tiered pricing plans because they oversimplify interchange fees by lumping many kinds of transactions into one category. The payment processor then charges its clients based on the most expensive processing rate in that category. Think about switching to a new payment processor when the contract expires.
3. Poor Customer Support
Payment processing companies are supposed to make it easier for their clients to accept different types of payments. When something goes wrong, there should be a representative available to help. If there’s not so much as a means of placing a support ticket, it’s time to look elsewhere for help.
Online FAQs and help guides can be incredibly useful resources. However, they’re not a replacement for actual human intervention when something is seriously wrong. Don’t wait until a disaster strikes to find out how the credit card processor handles customer support. Look into the processor’s practices now, and if there’s no way to contact a team member quickly and easily, think about switching to a company that offers better customer support.
Is It Time to Make the Switch?
Already know it’s time to make the switch to a more effective and efficient payment processing company? If so, it’s time to start investigating companies like BlueSnap that provide comprehensive payment processing services at reasonable and transparent rates.