Assessing Those Assessment Fees

I work for a small MSP in Miami that processes through Vital. I would like to find out what the consensus in the industry is on how processors handle the Visa and MasterCard assessment fees when it comes time to price out a buy rate for an ISO.

Is it bundled in with the interchange rate, or is there another time that they receive compensation for these fees? Can you elaborate further? Thanks.

Cesar Pedrayes

Cesar:

We have published many articles on this subject. Please check our Industry FAQs, specifically the section on card acquiring: www.greensheet.com/industryfaq.html

Additionally, please see the article "A Primer on Card Acquiring," which appeared in issue 03:04:02: www.greensheet.com/ PriorIssues-/030402-/030402.html

Editor

Processing in Manhattan

Thanks for all of your interesting words on a raft of interesting subjects. Always informative.

I've had a "Please Help Us" request from some friends of mine who have a tourism boutique in Manhattan. They've been in business nearly eight years, do processing with American Express and have requests for Visa/Mastercard.

I've explained that they're in mega high risk territory, future delivery, yada, yada, yada. Is there anyone who will write them? Or do they have as much chance as a snowball in a place very far south of the border? Thanks for your help!

Doug McLaughlin

Doug:

Post your question in the MLS Forum at www.greensheet.com. One of our readers may be able to assist you. I also suggest that you do a search in the Forum. There have been a number of threads in the recent past on high risk merchants.

Editor