How long have you been using the same credit card processor? If your merchant account is more than a year old, then it’s time to start shopping your rate. There is almost always a better deal waiting for you to find it.

You probably shouldn’t use your bank to process your credit card payments. It rarely offers the best price.

I talk to lawyers who pay 3% or more for credit card processing. Some firms pay even more when they’re dealing with clients using business or reward cards. Even lawyers getting better rates are paying a variety of additional fees for processing batches or a swipe fee for each charge. Some are getting hit with double fees when they run a “card not present” charge for a client calling a fee in over the phone.

The fees can easily get out of hand. A firm running $500,000 a year on credit cards may pay as much as $15,000 to the credit card processor every year. That’s a big chunk of money.

Credit card processing charges can easily become one of your top ten expenses each year. You’ve got to keep an eye on what you’re paying for this service.

How to Get the Best Processing Rate

My experience with credit card processors usually goes like this:

• We realize we’re paying more than we like.
• We call some new vendors.
• The vendors examine our bills and provide quotes.
• We pick the lowest-priced vendor after negotiating free machines and software.
• We feel better about what we’re paying.
• Time passes and somehow additional and/or new fees appear.
• We realize we’re paying more than we like.

The cycle typically takes us about a year, and we go back to work with shopping the account.

We’ve never reviewed our account and compared it to other options without saving some money. There is always a better deal. Many years, we’ve saved thousands and thousands of dollars over what we were paying our old vendor. It’s time to go shopping.