Bronze Solutions Partner

Free analysis of your credit card processing fees could lead to substantial savings

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Twice annually, in April and October, Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover announce and implement adjustments to their programs that can impact card acceptance requirements and rates.

Like many businesses, the card brands held off implementing adverse changes in 2020. 

However, this month, both Visa and American Express are rolling out their planned updates.  These updates include increases to interchange rates that will directly impact your card processing fees.  MasterCard and Discover have postponed their updates until April 2022, which is good news.

Gina McCollum, CEO of Business Payment Solutions, said this is a perfect time to "take a look at how you're processing credit card and ACH payments for all circulation and advertising touchpoints, and evaluating those costs.”  

In fact, one area that is often overlooked are the types of cards used to purchase advertising.  Business and purchasing cards represent 40-60% of those payments.

"When newspapers are looking at opportunities to reduce costs, ensuring card payments qualify for the lowest published rates is critical," McCollum said. "Depending on the type of business card, the savings can range anywhere from half of a percent to more than 1%.  So, if you have large advertising purchases for display, digital or legal ads, the savings can add up very quickly.”

"Our integrated solutions ensure those payments qualify without any programming or additional data entry requirements," she said. “It’s fully automated.”

The company's payment solution is integrated with popular industry software, including: Vision Data, Brainworks, Newscycle/MediaSpan, Advanced Publishing Technology and more.

In fact, she indicated some clients have benefited from savings in excess of $100,000 a year, just on their commercial card payments.

Business Payment Solutions offers a no-obligation analysis to help identify cost savings opportunities, where you may benefit from gateway/merchant account consolidation, and a simplified option to manage annual PCI Compliance requirements.

In some cases, an analysis may reveal that everything looks good and “we really can't do any better than what you're already doing," McCollum said, unless you simply want to make a change due to a service-related issue.  If a business is qualifying for the best rates with their current provider, that's an affirming thing to hear, she said.  But, in many cases, she expects to uncover a savings opportunity.   

Her clients range from small independently owned newspapers to papers that are part of larger corporate groups.  

Learn more about the services offered by Business Payment Solutions

To request a free analysis of your processing fees, contact Gina McCollum at gina@mcvisa-processing.com.

Business Payment Solutions