Business Merchant

Our customers tell us how busy they are making sure their business is as successful as it can be, with time a precious commodity and faced with many challenges. Researching, negotiating and agreeing the best merchant services facility with suppliers takes a lot of time and considerable effort. Whilst pricing and saving is important, the knowledge and depth of experience we have in all areas of card processing will also ensure we match the functionality that best fits your business and how your customers would like to pay you. We believe that you need great service and proactive advice from an expert who will always be there for additional support, no matter which supplier is processing your payments.

This will allow you to spend more time concentrating on your business.

Our knowledge and experience covers every business sector and size, from sole trader cafe’s to 100 plus retail store chains. Whether your accepting cards face to face, on-line, by phone or a combination of all three, our merchant services consultants can advise on the solutions most suitable for your business.

Being independent means you’ll have access to all the latest payment technology and solutions in the market, specific and tailored to the sector you’re in. This will enhance your payment facility and your customers experience, whilst still giving you access to a choice of merchant services provider at a lower cost.

We can access all card machines types and models for you including the latest touch screen machines which you may be surprised to hear are no more expensive than the older styles and have many additional features.

You may have previously had the painful experience of entering into a 3, 4 or even 5 Year contract on your card machines with a third party agent who then wouldn’t let you change merchant services supplier without significant penalties. With AcceptCards we can arrange your card machine independently from the merchant services supplier meaning you’re not tied into them for longer than their contract period which is typically 30 days to 12 months depending on which one you use.

If you see the words ‘Non-compliance’ on your merchant services statement you are probably being charged a penalty for failing to complete the relevant PCI DSS questionnaire. The process for doing this is straight forward and suppliers should provide assistance and support to help you become compliant.

The fees for non-compliance can be pretty hefty, ranging from £10 per month to 0.30% of card turnover. There can also be significant fines from the card schemes for non-compliance. You can find out more about what PCI DSS is on their website – https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pci_security/standards_overview

This additional charge can be significant and range from £zero to as high as 0.85%. Non-secure fees are still charged by most merchant services suppliers so when checking your statement be aware that these fees may be listed in a separate section or as a separate line in with other additional charges.

The charge is applied for payments taken over the telephone (MOTO), even when CVV2 details are recorded and for website (E-Commerce) transactions without 3D Secure or Verified by Visa.

We can ensure your new merchant services facility is set up with these charges set at £zero, reducing your costs significantly.

If you’re being charged for authorisation fees they will be listed separately to your standard credit and debit card fees and will generally be applied to every transaction, including the recent addition of contactless payments. They are typically an additional 3p or 4p and should be factored in with your main pricing when reviewing to check if you’re on a fair overall package.

We will always be transparent and explain exactly how your new charges are made up and with a clear breakdown of the savings you’ll make when using our comparison service to switch supplier.

Premium Cards are classed as consumer cards that provide additional benefits such as travel insurance, loyalty scheme, shopping discounts etc. These cards should be charged at the standard consumer credit card rate but in some cases are charged at the commercial card rate, which is significantly higher. They are usually shown as a separate figure on your merchant services statement – some show under the actual card type – i.e. ‘Visa Credit Card’, and then underneath it will list ‘Premium Cards’ others show them together i.e. ‘Visa Credit Card Premium’.

Using the AcceptCards switching service will ensure that you’re not heavily penalised on your charging tariff for the premium cards you accept from your customers.