Comments on: Comparing Merchant Services Across Wholesale Clubs

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 08:29:24 +0000

Bob and Monica,

You nailed it right on the head, Tier pricing results in a mis conception to the merchant & far to many “Buckets” as they call em….rarely the merchant gets a fair deal, all they ever remember is the “Quoted” qualified rate, and then if they see the other they would rather avoid the conversation and just pay, Sad really ….

By: monika

monika — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:36:48 +0000

You are absolutely right Bob. Unfortunately, wholesale clubs still offer tiered pricing. The more sophisticated buyers and ISOs like Trinity understand the value of interchange plus pricing.

By: Bob Wilson

Bob Wilson — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:32:08 +0000

It is nice to see this broken out for those who are interested in accepting credit cards or who already accept credit cards at their business location. The problem with the program listed above is it is still offered at a 3-Tier pricing schedule. (Qualified, Mid-Qualified, Non-Qualified) By pricing it this way, the processor groups around 300 card types into 3 categories and the merchant ends up paying too much on certain card types, one being rewards cards. If they wanted to really save their customers money on their processing, they would offer Interchange Plus Pricing, where you are priced directly from cost. For example: A rewards card, which would be considered a Mid-Qualified transaction, would be priced at 2.64% – 2.83% using the model above. With Interchange Plus Pricing, the merchant would only pay 1.85% on this transaction. A huge savings condering that a majority of cards that are seen today are in fact Rewards cards.

By: anandkgoel

anandkgoel — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 14:01:17 +0000

Costco has a partnership with Elavon. I used to work at Elavon so I know this for a fact. BJ’s had a partnership with Chase Paymentech at the time of this study but since the breakup of First Data and Chase’s joint venture, BJ’s now goes to First Data. It is correct that BJ’s and Sam’s are with First Data, but Costco is still with Elavon.

By: Tony Collards

Tony Collards — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:30:53 +0000

They are all the same company actually: First Data

By: tom wells

tom wells — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:25:06 +0000

my average ticket is $115…

By: tom wells

tom wells — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:24:11 +0000

I want a good and reasonable merchant services account to transmit my credit card transactions..with a low discount rate…