Comparing Merchant Services for Small Businesses in Phoenix Arizona How to Choose the Right One for You

Small Business Merchant Services Comparison

Like many other states across the U.S., there are many providers and many options for obtaining a merchant account for credit card processing.  The trick is finding a small business merchant services that makes sense for your business. To do that we’ll be looking at several different aspects to help a business owner feel confident about their decision.

The Phoenix Merchant Service Landscape

As most people already know, the Phoenix business landscape is comprised of small to mid-sized businesses.  The local area merchant service landscape follows the same philosophy in that there are mostly small to mid-sized providers.  For purposes of this article we’ll not include any out of state providers and only focus on local area companies.  

The local providers can be categorized into two different groups, banks, and independent organizations.  Banks such as Wells Fargo or Bank of America have dedicated staff who get paid a salary plus bonus pay structure to help and sign up companies for credit card processing. While on the flip side, independent organizations typically do not get paid a salary and work on commissions.  Obviously, there are pros and cons to both sides so just understand the motivation behind both types of representatives.

Important Product Features

When it comes to your business, there are many aspects to look at when it comes to processing credit cards.  For this article, we will provide a high-level overview of a point of sale systems, the transactions, fees and costs associated, as well as the various programs that you should be aware of.

POS Systems

Two of the Point of Sale systems we typically recommend is Miros POS or Clover POS.  Both of these systems are great for retail environments and can help an owner manage their entire operation.  We suggest spending time researching not only their functions but online feedback produced via a Google search.

Fees associated with credit card processing

There are two components of credit card processing, monthly fees, and processing rates.  Monthly fees associated with a merchant account can range anywhere from $15.00 to $30.00 a month.  Credit card processing rates can range from 1.00% to 3.50% depending on the setup of your account.  The processing rate is typically driven by the types of cards being accepted as well as if they are swiped or hand-keyed at your business.

American Express Opt Blue

A few years ago, American Express introduced a new pricing program called Opt Blue.  The program is based on transaction size, and they have aligned themselves closer to Visa/MasterCard type pricing.  As part of the Opt Blue American Express program, transactions are settled with your Visa/MasterCard batches, so no separate statement is mailed.  Consolidation of the settlement batches is a huge benefit for businesses because all the receivables from the prior day are now in one batch.

Merchant Account Scams

These days we hear all the time about fraud, scams, or identity theft and as a business owner in the Phoenix area, we need to pay particular attention.  Large data breaches in recent years have made data security a priority for large organizations.  It used to be that we couldn’t go a week without hearing about another major breach.  However, times have changed in that these large organizations have strengthened their internal processes, so the fraudsters are now looking towards smaller businesses.  

Since Phoenix is a big area for small to mid-sized businesses we’re prime for being an area of focus.  As a business owner, make sure you are watchful for credit card skimming devices, securing your networks, or locking down your websites.  If you haven’t heard of PCI, then do some research.  PCI and the SAQ questionnaires were created to help business owners protect themselves so take them seriously by making sure your business is compliant.

Relationship Is Key

When looking for a credit card processing solution in Phoenix, find a representative that you feel comfortable with.  Have the representative come out to your business so you can meet them face to face and don’t limit yourself to just one meeting.  

The Phoenix area is big, but the representative has your best interest in mind, they will be willing to drive across town no matter how small or big your business is.  Also, having more than one meeting will allow you to garner gut feelings about how comfortable you feel with that person. Credit card processing has become a commodity, but always keep in mind that your business receivables are at stake. Having a representative that you can trust when murphy’s law shows up, can make all the difference in the world in trying to fix the situation or get someone to answer your call.

For more information about these topics or any other topics relative to credit card processing, feel free to reach out to us.  An honest, straightforward, unbiased, representative can save you hours of frustration and headaches and will help you streamline your business. To learn more about how Digital Financial Group can help you and your business, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] or call 623-764-7471.