What's your rate?

A lot of people always ask “What is your rate”, unfortunately, it is not that simple. There are over 800 different options.

If we break down the fees one keyword to know is Interchange.

Interchange is a set of fees that have been added by the card issuer. The network will collect the fees and pay them directly to the bank who issued the card.

When someone uses a card to make a purchase, Visa and other card companies do the transfer process from one bank to the other. In order for them to do that they add their fees, which are referred to as Interchange, or dues, fees, and assessments. The card companies then pay the bank and collect their network fees.

So, look at it this way, you need to take the subway from A to B, you have to pay the fare. If you had forgotten something important at home and had to go from B back to A, you again, pay the fare. Once you have gotten the things you needed and head back to the subway to go from A to B again, you still have to pay the fare.

That is the easiest way to explain what interchange is and how it works. Each time the banks transfer money, there is a fare charged to send and receive that information. If you are not taking cards correctly, that process starts all over again and it charges another fee. This is why it is so important that Merchants are doing their best to make sure they have all the correct information and running the cards the correct way to minimize all the transfer fares.

The card issuers determine what those rates will be, which they vary from card to card. They also decide which type of card goes through at a higher rate, such as; debit, credit, rewards and corporate cards. So, knowing how to take cards correctly is a big deal when it comes to security and savings.

There are a few different areas of compliance, PCI is one of them. Merchants really should make sure that they are compliant with their own protection. If they are not compliant, the liability all rests on their business if fraud were to happen. I have heard from so many people, “Oh I'm fine, it rarely happens, no one I know has been effected” etc. Well, the problem with that is you’re fine until you're not. Why take the risk when being compliant is a very simple process and needs to be done once a year.

It's a huge risk for a business to take on, in the chance that there is a breach or fraudulent card, most businesses’ would not be able to recover from that devastation. In addition, risking the chance of a penalty by the card issuers for not being compliant.

At Platinum, we offer a monthly protection plan and account monitoring to make sure that our clients are always protected from the increasing instances of fraud and data breach. Talk to one of our Professional Consultants today on how we can help!