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Education
StreetSmarts SM
Win merchants through
astute statement analysis
By Dee and Emily Karawadra in their cost; however, some mark the fee up. If merchants
Impact PaySystem are on pass-through-plus pricing, they will see this listed
on their statements.
elling merchant accounts solely based on
rates is part of the past. In our business, we Theoretically, if merchants are set on a flat rate or tiered
always push technology or service over price. pricing, this fee should be included in their rate. However,
S Nevertheless, every conversation ends up on more and more frequently, this fee is tacked into their fees
price. One of our philosophies is we will get merchants on section. If you are trying to find savings in a merchant
price but keep them with service. In the last two months, statement, look at the NABU fee. We have seen these range
Emily has analyzed more than 400 statements, and we from $.0195 to $.06 and higher. You can find savings here.
have found processors, ISOs and merchant level sales- Padding on pass-through interchange fees
people (MLSs) are hiding markup fees in several places.
This article discusses several of those. As an MLS, you know one of the most popular billing
NABU fees/Mastercard access fees methods is interchange pass-through plus the markup.
Previously, statement analysis was straightforward to
As of 2018, Mastercard set the Network Access and Brand perform for this type of pricing. Not so much anymore.
Usage (NABU) fee at $.0195. All processors include this fee We have found countless statements that indicated the
merchant is set up on pass-through plus, but the inter-
change was marked up in addition to the agreed-upon
The big sell is to reduce the cost of markup on the statement. We've seen anywhere from .05
processing by converting signature-based basis point to, in one case, 90 basis points. If you know
interchange, it's easy to spot this and see that the inter-
transactions to PIN debit transactions. change is marked up, and a discount rate is being billed.
This is enticing to merchants, as it This is another great opportunity to offer savings.
reduces the risk of chargebacks if they PCI DSS noncompliance fees
are running more PIN debit transaction PCI DSS stands for the Payment Card Industry Data Se-
than signature transactions. The problem curity Standard. It is a set of rules regarding secure credit
is that PIN debt isn't always a good fit card acceptance. Any business that accepts credit cards is
required to be PCI compliant. In addition to taking mea-
for small-ticket merchants or high-traffic sures to secure their systems, merchants are also required
businesses to fill out a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) as part
of their compliance.
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