Canadian Merchant Accounts | Canada Merchant Account

Every business owner understands how to negotiate on the basic rates and fees for merchant account services, but many merchants are not savvy enough to keep up with the fine print in most merchant account service providers agreements.

Here is what you MUST NOT forget to ask:

1. What is the length of the terms?

Most credit card processing companies have a 3 year agreement. Also, most agreements auto renew on the anniversary date, unless you give them written notice with 30-60 days that you want to terminate your services.

2. What are the early termination fees?

Most companies charge 200-300 dollars for an early termination of an agreement, but it can also be much higher.

3. Are there separate termination fees for each card and section of the agreement. Many times there is more then one service provider involved that providers you services and many times each of them has their own agreements and stipulations. For example, you could have leased your point of sale terminal, in which case, they almost always have nothing to do with the Merchant Account Service Provider, yet they will have there own terms too. And when it comes to ISO's many times there debit and credit card agreements are also separate because they too are two companies coming together to provide the card processing services for your business.

4. What is the exact rate for:
- Non Qualified Transactions
- Qualified Transactions
- Corporate/Business Card Transactions
- International Card Transactions

Many Merchant Service Companies will only advertise and state their card present transaction rate, but not disclose openly the rates you will be charged on different anything that is not a 'card-present' transaction.

5. READ ALL THE FINE PRINT.

Just because a sales rep states the rates will be 'such & such rate', does not mean in the agreements it states this those rates he quoted. If there is ever a dispute, the issue will be decided on the basis of the printed contract, not by what the sales person told you. This is why it is essential that you take the time to read ALL the fine print.

A good reference guide is the Critical Payment Processing Guide.