Whether you are just starting out or you have been processing credit cards in Anchorage for years, you want to know if you are working with the right merchant services provider for your local business–the one who is saving you the most money over the long-term.
A lot of factors go into saving money with a merchant services provider, but not all of them are as straight-forward as common sense Anchorage business owners would like them to be. One of the most obvious is the rate–clearly, some merchant services providers offer rates that are lower than others. Less obvious are the effects of ethics and customer support–will the same merchant services provider who offered you a low rate increase your rate later without you knowing? How will they respond when your money gets put on hold with the bank–will they take any action at all?
When searching for the merchant services provider who is the best fit for your Anchorage business, you will want to research their local customer support, read their local reviews, and make sure they have the technology you need to run your business at their rate. Let’s discuss each of these considerations in greater detail.
1. Research Anchorage Customer Support – The Most Important!
The question you should be asking is not only, “Does this merchant services provider have excellent customer support?” but also, “Does this merchant services provider have excellent customer support in Anchorage?” Merchant services providers can be located all over the country and provide support for their services from third-party groups all over the world. This can mean odd office hours and endless phone trees for you as these third-parties try to filter out unnecessary phone calls…or simply don’t care about your payment processing issue. Not receiving the support you need in time can mean weeks to months of money on hold, something that few businesses can withstand. Before you decide to work with a merchant services provider, try giving their customer support line a call–just to see what happens. As a local provider ourselves, we firmly believe that Anchorage businesses are best served by merchant services providers who are located in the area that they serve.
2. Learn About Merchant Services Tech Offerings
There are a lot of options when it comes to payment processing tech–do you want to accept mobile payments? How about EMV (chip) transactions? Would you like to have an online store? Make sure you know what you want for your business before you shop around so that you can compare your list of must-haves with merchant services tech offerings.
3. Compare Merchant Services Processing Rates
Before we get into this point, remember that low rates do not mean high value–many, many merchant services providers who advertise “low rates” or “$0 rates” (yes, they have gotten that bold!) are often the same companies who pull the wool over your eyes and increase their rates later. As savvy Anchorage business owners, we know that nothing in life is free.
So with that caveat in mind, compare the rates of the merchant services providers you are considering. First, do they seem reasonable? Second, does the pricing model make sense for your business? Here is an article about the top 4 pricing models in the credit card processing industry. By far, the most ethical model is pass-through, interchange-plus because merchant services providers are not able to hide fees under this model. However, another model may be better for your business depending on your transaction volume, so read up.
4. Read Anchorage Customer Reviews
If a merchant services provider’s reviews are written by business owners in Utah, these do not apply to you. That merchant services provider may not be giving the same level of service to their customers in Anchorage. Read local reviews if you can find them to see if the merchant services provider’s promises about rates, tech, and customer support hold true for your area.
We hope that you can find the right merchant service provider for your Anchorage business–the one who will save you the most money for years to come because they have the right mix of great, local customer support, low rates, and modern technology. If you are interested in how we at Cornerstone Credit Services are providing these benefits to our Anchorage customers, give us a call! We would be more than happy to schedule you for a free consultation to discuss your business needs.