The word on the street is that more and more Merchants are finding the cost of using credit card processing services to be getting too expensive. This year credit card companies have had two adjustments, one in April by Visa and one recently in Oct 1st, 2008 by MasterCard. These adjustments have created (for most merchants) a three-tiered rate charges. These rates are usually called “Qualified“, “Mid-Qualified“, and “Non-Qualified“. Now each merchant account provider deals with the interchange adjustments differently.
This has caused a real upheaval with many Canadian Merchants and their relative associations that they turn to help them negotiate lower cost merchant account fees. Derek Nighbor, senior vice-president of national affairs for the Toronto-based Retail Council of Canada (RCC) is leading a coalition group called “Stop Sticking It To Us” that is challenging the rate hikes with Canadian Merchant Account services.
The coalition includes 16 groups, including the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, the Canadian Jewellers Association, the Hotel Association of Canada and the British Columbia Restaurant and Foodservices Association.
CFIB president Catherine Swift sent out a letter to their members in Sept 2008 explain how the credit card companies want to enter the debit market up here in Canada, which would could potential drive up costs by 10,000%. An example of how a current transaction fee on debit can be as low as 9 cents, but if we followed the US debit fee structure which is based on a discount rate + plus a transaction fee and now merchants had to pay an average of 0.9% on all debit sales volumes, that same $1000 transaction would now cost the merchant $9, as opposed to today’s current fee of 9 cents. That is a pretty huge increase – could you imagine taxes going up by 1000% over night, or you gas prices…? The world would turn upside down.
These changes are real and are happening. We found another article titled “Merchants miffed by credit card fees” written by Steve Proctor that again is discussing the merchant account hikes with local business owners in Halifax. These hikes are coast to coast across Canada.
One of the biggest problems to these rate hikes is the lack of transparency. Just see what Alan a commenter on Colin’s Blog post titled, “Interchange and how it is the next new problem for consumers in Canada” has to say.
We understand that many merchants are perplexed by these changes and hope to help alleviate the burden of confusion caused by all the different levels of interchange. A good resource many of our clients have found insightful to understanding how Canadian Merchant Accounts work is by reading our FREE guide called The Critical Payment Processing Guide for Canadians.
We think it is very important that merchants ban together to keep rates and fees down. These hikes during any time can be hard to deal with, but during these economic times it can be devastating.
The bottom line is most merchants have just witnessed a 20% hike in their fees with this year’s interchange adjustments. It is essential now to know how your credit card company handles their “Qualified“, “Mid’s“, and “Non-Qualified” transactions. Then you can look at how your business processes transactions and find a company that best suits your individual business needs. The good news is, there are now many other private label merchant account companies in Canada that are looking to compete with the big five banks and now may be a good time to get a comparison quote done to make sure you are securing the most competitive rates.
