7 Tips to Choose Best Merchant Service Provider

Choose Best Merchant Service Provider – According to the recent market performance studies, 96% of the Americans prefer online shopping for some reasons or the other. Online shopping is a very convenient and hassle-free way to measure out your priorities in an open market space. Credit cards and debit cards were there in the market for a very long time but were not used very frequently for shopping in a traditional retail store.
With the boom in online shopping, the use of a credit card, debit card, and various other cards that enables you to make the payment has become common in the marketplace. As a business owner, whether you’re selling your items online or traditionally, it’s very necessary for you to have a merchant account to be capable to accept the payments done by different cards online or otherwise.
A merchant account is an account, which allows a business owner or in other words ‘merchant’ to accept payments done by the customer by various cards, debit, and credit card most of the time. Now, the problem lies in understanding how to choose best merchant service provider. Choosing a merchant account is not an easy task, you need to be aware of the services before opting for a provider. Not every merchant account provides the same kind of service level. In this article, we will try to focus on some important factors that can help you to choose best merchant service provider for your business.

1. Clear and Transparent Fee Rates

This is the most important thing to study before selecting a merchant account. Many a times, a provider will charge you very less processing fees to entice you to open an account with them but may charge very high fees in the name of other fees. A PCI fee is one such fee that a merchant has to pay to safeguard both merchant’s and customer’s account information. So, you need to consider all the rates and then finally choose best merchant service provider with transparent fees structure.

2. Study the Fraud Detection Program

We have seen a lot of evidence of fraud happening in the cyber world in the recent times. Fraudsters are now moving toward the small and medium-sized merchants because they are considered to be and ‘easy target’. So, one need to be aware of the data breach security program covered by the service provider.

3. Stay Away from the Misleading Advertisement

Advertisement can really be a disguise. The basic idea of an advertisement is to enlighten customers about a company’s product with proper information. But it doesn’t seem to be happening all of the time. Many a times companies hire individuals’ agents having no relevant educational background or no interest. Well, there are other reasons too, which led them to promote their product in a non-transparent way. So, try not to fall into any such trap. Conduct a proper internet research and choose the best merchant service provider, which fulfills all of your needs.

4. Post-Sales Customer Service Assistance

It’s not just about your hardware or software products that you require a customer service assistance after the purchase of the product, customer service for presales and post-sales is required for almost each and everything that we buy or buy from. It can be in various forms. Some companies will assist through email and chat, some may even provide you with a dedicated representative for your account.

5. Ask the Average Fund Processing Time

You might miss this thing while you are seeking information about various other things related to your provider. But a predictable time is always very necessary to have an idea to have a proper cash flow. So, if you are into any such business, which requires a continuous fund transfer then research about the average time and choose best merchant service provider accordingly.

6. Software Compatibility to Manage your Data Digitally

Gone are the days when you need a separate rack to store your sales receipt as today is the day of the cloud-based system. It stores our data digitally without even consuming any memory. All you need to have is an internet connection and an electronic gadget and you can trace your data from anywhere in the world. There is much software in the online market for the same purpose. Virtual terminals, authorize.net, CDGcommerce are few names.

7. History of the Merchant Account Provider

Last but not the least, you need to figure out the behavior of the merchant account provider with the proper market research. A proper market research will guide you in terms of examining the previous background of the provider. So, we hope that this article will give you a good idea on how to choose best merchant service provider for your business.

Merchant stronghold specializes in high risk and offshore merchant account. For more information on merchant services, payment gateway services, credit card and shopping cart services you can reach out to us via 24/7 email support at info@merchantstronghold.com .You can also call us at our toll-free number+1 (727) 330 – 3944.