Merchant Account FAQs
These numbers are important to the merchant services underwriting department, as they are granting your organization a line of credit up to this amount. If your organization suddenly sees a large jump in these amounts, it could be due to the fraudulent use of credit cards and the credit card underwriter is at risk of charge-backs, fees, and fines associated with these types of transactions.
Please attempt to accurately assess your average monthly sales volume (online registrations or donations for non-profits) and be prepared with these figures when submitting your application. If you are not certain as to what these may be given an upcoming fundraising campaign, please assess what your projected totals are. These figures may be changed at a later time by contacting us.
This information is used by the merchant services underwriting department, as they are granting your organization a line of credit up to this amount. For businesses, the primary owner’s financial history is run through one or more of the major credit bureaus. For non-profits, there is normally no signatory and a federal tax ID and proof of 501(c)3 status is required.
Yes, your merchant account can include an American Express account, but American Express payment processing is different than Visa and MasterCard payment processing. As such, you can optionally choose to add an American Express account when applying for your merchant services account. American Express reviews each application independently and will grant approval within about 48 hours of submitting your merchant services application. American Express determines it’s own fee structure, but rates generally range from 2.09 to 3.5%. There is no additional monthly charge for this service. We recommend that you accept American Express credit cards, as many consumers prefer to use these cards due to their established loyalty program.
The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard is a worldwide standard for payment card and consumer financial data protection. It incorporates the requirements of the Visa USA Cardholder Information Security Program (CISP) and the Visa International Account Information Security (AIS) program, the MasterCard International Site Data Protection (SDP) program, as well as the security requirements of American Express DSS, DiscoverCard DISC and the Japan Credit Bureau (JCB). VISA and MasterCard now require all merchants who process credit cards to adhere to the PCI security standard.
Interchange refers to the fees or costs charged by Visa and MasterCard to process their credit and debit cards. Interchange is charged to all merchants who accept credit cards and must be paid by the merchant services provider immediately upon accepting a credit or debit card transaction. Read more here on interchange.
Monthly fees are debited between the first and fifth of the month and will include fees that occurred in the month prior. For example, January’s statement fees will be debited between February 1st – 5th.
A batch contains all the credit and debit card transactions that occurred since the last batch was run. Typically, businesses close out (or batch out) their batches at the end of each business day. Each batch will incur a small fee.
A chargeback is a dispute by a cardholder of a transaction which is returned to the acquiring bank. The cardholder is refusing to pay for a charge and wants the charge reversed on their credit card statement. Resolution by the merchant is imperative to minimize loss.
AVS is built into the credit card authorization process to help prevent fraudulent transactions. The numerical portion of a consumer’s address (ie 123 in 123 Main Street) and zip code are matched against the address on file with the consumer’s credit card. A response code is sent back with the approval or decline indicating whether the numeric information matched that of the cardholder’s. This match (or mismatch) is provided to the merchant in order to make an informed decision regarding the status of the transaction.
The use of AVS for businesses can reduse the potential for fraud. Its use is highly recommended.
You will provide your bank account for deposits and fee withdrawals as part of the merchant account application process. Global Payments is our end processor and will make debits as well as deposit funds directly into your bank account. Transactions will come from: GLOBAL STL GLOBAL PAYMENTS CCD (or similar). Deposits occur daily and will be deposited approximately 2 business days after the transactions have been made. Fees are charged between the first and fifth of the month and will include fees that occurred in the month prior.
This is a common merchant services fee which guarantees that you will be paying a minimum amount of processing fees each month. With DMS, we do NOT charge a monthly minimum.
For Total Merchant Services (TMS) US clients, you can access your online statements at https://merchantintel.com/groovv-ms. Note that you must call the number listed on this URL to register your account before accessing statements. You can also select to have these mailed to you, for the fee of $2 monthly. Just send us an email if you are currently set-up with online statements and would like your statement mailed. For all TMS Canadian clients, a statement is mailed and a statement fee applies.
For NAB clients, you will choose your statement type during your application process. Mailed statements carry a $1 monthly service fee.
We have created this simple checklist to help you determine if a merchant services account is right for your organization. Read more here.
Visa introduced the Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF) in April 2012. This is a monthly fee that is assessed on all merchants that accept Visa’s credit and debit cards. Please see this PDF for more information on the fee and how Visa determines the fee.
