by Trisha Echols
Putting up a profitable merchant website requires that you subscribe to credit card processing service. It’s a must. This will allow your online customers to browse, shop, and pay using their credit cards. Without credit card processing, merchant websites will not able to handle online customers.
However, you should exercise care in choosing your credit card processing providers. The business world is filled with bogus and fake credit card processing companies You stand to lose your business if you make mistakes in your choice of processors.
To help you out, here are some credit card processing mistakes and how to avoid them:
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FALLING FOR A N INCREDIBLY LOW PRICE TAG
To get your attention and patronage, some credit card processing companies would lure you with incredibly low-priced deals. The offers are just too good to be true. With glib, smooth-talking sales personnel, they would sweet-talk you into signing the contract immediately. But beware. Many merchants lost their business in the first few weeks after dealing with these unscrupulous companies.
To avoid this, you should do some background search on credit processing providers. And as we have emphasized in practically all credit card processing articles, deal with reputable processors.
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NEW PLAYERS OR INEXPERIENCED PROVIDERS
Ok. Let’s face it. Some companies could be reputable. However, they just started operation recently. In other words, they are complete newbies and do not have the necessary experience to help you with your merchant needs. As a result, your business will not grow as you expect it to.
To avoid making this mistake, consult your Better Business Bureau and deal only with credit card processing companies which have long been in the market.
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GETTING A CREDIT CARD PROCESSING SERVICE RECOMMENDED BY A FRIEND
While we value our friends’ suggestions, sometimes their recommendation does not just fit with our business circumstances. This holds true with credit card processing service. Only trained business consultants or dependable credit card processing company can give merchants fitting advice best suited to the nature of business.
To avoid making this mistake, graciously take your friends’ recommendation so as not to hurt his/ her feelings. But make your own research. After all, it’s your money’s that is at stake here and not your friend’s.
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BELIEVING CREDIT CARD PROCESSING COMPANY PERSONNEL PROMISES
Don’t sign a contract based on a verbal assurance from sales people. Too often, these are just sales talk to persuade you into signing a deal with them. You’d be put in a bad spot if you take their word hook, line, and sinker. Many business floundered because of this naivety. To avoid it, bring along your lawyer to read the fine print and deal only with what’s written on the contract.
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NOT KEEPING THE CONTACT INFORMATION OF YOUR CHOSEN PROCESSOR
So you finally settled for a particular credit card processing company. Good. You bookmarked their website and recorded their email information. But what would happen if you encounter problems and find that your processor ’s website is down? You can not ask for assistance and you have nowhere to go. You will lose important sales
To avoid this sad scenario , always take note of telephone, fax, cellphone numbers aside from email address and Instant Messaging address. In this way, you will several fall back options for your emergency communication needs with your processor in case a glitch occurs in your credit processing protocols.
( Trisha Echols currently is a long-time financial consultant with established consultancy offices in Amsterdam, Halifax, Malaysia and other key cities. Her clients belong to the top 500 companies in England and in the United States. Miss Echols serves as business consultant for a number of credit card processing companies, including www.creditcardprocessingexperts.com. She does lectures on strategic business practices and also writes for various magazines on business matters.)
