Anna Lynn Dizon

Credit card processing fees are a necessary cost of doing business, but it doesn’t have to take more of your business profit than it should. By analyzing one’s business model, customer preferences, and current credit card processing fees, merchants can adapt simple strategies to effectively lower costs without disrupting operations. Here are six things merchants…

A cash discount program allows merchants to implement cash discounting, a zero-cost payment processing strategy that ultimately passes on credit card processing fees to customers by building processing fees into standard pricing. While it is legal in all 50 states, some merchants find cash discounting more work to set up, run, and stay compliant than…

Cash discounting is offering a discount on a product or service to customers who pay with cash. Businesses use cash discounting to avoid credit card processing fees. It is seen more commonly with small or mom-and-pop businesses, especially those with a lot of customers already paying in cash or those with particularly tight margins. How…

Running a cash-based business is completely legal, and there are, in fact, certain business types that thrive with purely cash transactions (i.e., vending or laundry operations). Cash-only merchants are free from the burden of merchant account applications and the monthly fees associated with them. However, growing a cash-only business in an increasingly cashless economy and…

A credit card surcharge (or cc surcharge) is an extra fee applied when a customer chooses to pay via credit card instead of cash or check. Merchants have to pay payment processing fees to accept credit cards, and surcharging is when a business passes that fee on to the customer. Surcharging fees average around 2%–3%…

QR stands for quick response and refers to the black-and-white square graphic label that looks like a bunch of large pixels. Each graphic contains unique information that lets you visit a website, place an order, and make a payment by scanning the image with an app on your mobile device. How Do QR Code Payments…

Shift4 Payments is a merchant services provider offering card payment processing for retail, restaurants, and ecommerce merchants. Like most large companies in the industry, it has gone through numerous high-profile mergers, which include Harbortouch (now its proprietary POS) and 3dcart (now Shift4Shop). While Shift4 has some good software solutions (including its retail POS and ecommerce…

Worldpay (formerly known as Vantiv) is a global merchant service that supports over 300 payment types in about 145 countries. Acquired by Fidelity Information Services (FIS) in 2019, it is one of the largest in the world, integrating with hundreds of third-party applications for payment processing of all types. In our review of best merchant…

Payanywhere is a payment services provider with strong solutions for in-person and mobile transactions. It comes with features such as invoicing, inventory and employee management, and free same-day funding. Payanywhere also allows merchants to process split checks, open tabs, and tips used in restaurant payments. In our review of the best merchant services, Payanywhere earned…

Adyen is a merchant services provider, acquirer, payments processor, and payment gateway service based in Europe. It offers international and local payment methods for 37 countries worldwide for online and in-person sales. While there are no monthly fees, Adyen imposes a $120 minimum transaction fee. Rates are a mix of interchange-plus pricing for major credit…

A credit card authorization form is a formal document that a customer signs to approve a charge to their credit card. It states that the cardholder agrees to the charges set forth by the merchant. You can use credit card authorization forms as documented proof to validate credit card transactions and protect your business from…