It is very common to see an incorrect Merchant Category Code (aka MCC) being listed on a business's merchant account. There is a link on Visa's website where you can actually search your business and see if you are listed correctly. Why does this matter? Well, if you have an incorrect MCC, you could be paying much more in fees to Visa/MC/Discover/Amex for one. Secondly, you could be missing out on certain card types that you can accept. For example, you might be a laser hair

I wanted to take the time to write a thoughtful blog on the subject of working with an Agent for your credit card processing. I want to preface my writing today by saying that there are many wonderful employees who work in my industry and I consider a lot of them my dear friends. The objective of this article is to explain how agents do business in the credit card processing world so that those who are searching for a provider, can be educated about who is out there and what

Although I don't come across this issue often, it does come up every now and again. If you are a business owner and you are reluctant to show a merchant services provider your statement, I completely understand. This industry is riddled with unethical companies and less than truthful reps who would say almost anything to sign you up. However, I will say that it matters WHO you show your statement to. In a previous blog post entitled "4 Things You Should Expect From Your Merch

Recently, I walked into a Sprouts Grocery Store to go food shopping. As I was walking in, a clerk stocking the bread area was in front of me, so I said "I'm sorry" (as I was trying to push my cart out of his way). He replied "I'm only here because of you, you go first." It was so kind and unusual that it stopped me in my tracks. I turned to him and said "You are so sweet. That's very kind of you." We struck up a brief conversation and then I thought about what he said all day

Throughout my career, I have been truly grateful to managers who motivated me in positive ways. While some managers ignored me when I had a bad month and others micro-managed me when I had a bad month, I did have co-workers and a handful of managers who knew how to motivate me! Some of your best salespeople can actually be the people that get under your skin at times but they are no less valuable than the ones who appear to be consistent (hitting quota every month). The "cons

Although the title of this blog may be self explanatory, let me explain who my audience is on this particular post. I am not speaking to my competitors who choose to lease credit card terminals to business owners. If my competitors choose to do that, it is obviously their choice but it's never been a choice I've made in my entire career that I've been setting up and servicing merchant accounts. I truly don't believe in leasing credit card terminals and here are the 8 reasons

In my career doing credit card processing, nothing upsets a business owner more than when you "hold" their credit card deposits. What I learned very quickly is that a good offense is better than a good defense. If you setup a merchant account correctly up front, it mitigates many of the reasons (but not all) as to why your credit card deposits might be held. Here are just three reasons why credit card processors might hold your credit card deposits: 1. An Inexperienced Mercha

I am finding more and more businesses are using proprietary software. What is proprietary software you might ask? Well, it's a software that is specifically created for a certain type of vertical. For example, you might have a gym software that allows a gym owner to take payments for memberships OR you might have a dental software that runs your practice for appointment scheduling and payments. Many software companies realized that if they have a niche market, why not make th

Recently, I received a phone call from my business bank that handles my business checking account for Ark. The lady on the other end of the line identified herself and then asked if I had authorized a charge. I told her that I had authorized Verizon to auto-debit my checking account for my cell phone bill. She went on to say that the bank was going to go ahead and pay Verizon despite the fact that I had inadvertently added an extra digit to my checking account number when set

I was reading a book years ago and the author said that a man by the name of Gil Bailie was told by his mentor: "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." It saddens me to hear that people think that they can't work and do what they love. Maybe you don't love your job or your career but that doesn't mean you can't go do things that make you come alive! This coul

I recently attended a leadership conference and one of the speakers was talking about "Being vs. Doing". He was saying that we need to "Be" first and "Do" last. In other words, work life balance. Or as a networking friend said to me last week, "life work balance." A couple of notes that I took from the leadership conference said this: If you find yourself "doing" without the priority of "being", you will end up "frying". When you're too busy "doing", you lose your "being". L

While there are dozens of things I could list in regard to this topic, I have narrowed it down to 4 things that you should expect from the representative that will be facilitating your merchant account for your business: 1. EXPERIENCED – Although everyone has to start somewhere, the sad reality is that most people who sell merchant services know just enough to be dangerous. These are the people that at best, they basically know the minimum to get by, but once your business ru

The short answer as to whether you should get PCI Compliant or not is absolutely yes! Although answering the PCI SAQ Questionnaire and getting the quarterly ASV scans can be tedious and let’s face it, not all of us are IT professionals; this questionnaire can help you understand how to keep your business safe from an intrusion. The good news is that you don’t have to achieve PCI Compliance alone. If you get stuck on any of the SAQ questions or have trouble scanning your compu

Up until September 15th, 2017, I had always worked for someone else. While being a W2 employee gave me many opportunities and skills that I never would have learned any other way, I knew it was time for me to start my own company. One of the things that I love about the merchant services industry is that nearly every business has to accept credit cards, so there is always an opportunity to help someone! It was only natural for me to stay in the industry in which I had 14 year