Credit Card Processing

Credit card Processing and Merchant Accounts

You know how important accepting credit cards can be for the growth of your business. The fact is that businesses that have never accepted credit cards in the past will increase sales by 40% or more when the public knows they will accept credit cards. Although we will primarily setup your MasterCard and Visa merchant accounts, we will also at your request help establish your other card types. Blue Dragon Merchant Accounts is proud to be an External Sales Agent (ESA) for American Express and a Referral Agent Partner (RAP) for Discover Card. This allows us to coordinate all of the setup work on your behalf and quote you the exact same rates or lower than if you were to call Amex or Discover yourself. In addition, if you would like to accept Check/Debit/ATM Cards, we can advise you on the proper way to added it to your point of sale equipment. Please see Check/Debit/ATM Card description below.

The cost of accepting credit cards is minimal compared to the positive acceptance you will have with your customers! The bank charges a discount rate based on your firms volume of the sale amounts and the number of transactions. These discount rates are usually based on three different tiers. 1. Qualified rates happen when the customer is present and the card is swiped through the terminal and authorized. The charge for Qualified rates range between 1.55% & 1.75%. 2. Mid-Qualified rates happen when the card is not present and has to be hand keyed into the terminal. The charge Mid-Qualified rates range between 2.00% & 2.40%. 3. Non-Qualified rates happen when you have a corporate bank card or foreign bank card. The charge for Non-Qualified rates range between 2.60% & 3.10%. Electronic Terminals or Software processes the money into your account within hours. A transaction fee is charged for each terminal transaction, normally $.25 for retail and $.30 for mail/telephone/internet orders. The processing bank sends monthly statements showing all credit card activity. There is a monthly statement fee for this statement, usually ranging from $5.00 to $15.00 per month.
 

Today all credit card sales must be processed through electronic means which means merchant services. The equipment needed to process credit card transactions are point of sale electronic terminals or the bank software programs, which can be purchased outright, rented or leased from 12 – 48 months. The equipment you need is determined by how you would accept credit cards. The best value is to lease purchase your equipment and that cost can range from $24.99 to $69.99 per month. All costs for leasing is 100% tax deductible as a business expense.
Our credit policy is extremely liberal. Since we work closely with several major processors, we have the ability to approve virtually every type of business, from the home-based Internet web site to major restaurant and hotel chains. Together we will decide which one of our many programs is best for your company.

Check / ATM / Debit Cards

Check/ATM/Debit Cards are credit card-like methods of payment. They differ from credit cards in that they are issued by a cardholder’s financial institution and provide direct access to the checking account of the cardholder. The use of check/ATM/debit cards is growing tremendously in the United States. The reason for this growth in their usage is that many of the cards being issued by banks today are dual purpose credit / debit cards. Unlike a credit card transaction, there is a great reduction in the chance that a debit transaction will be charged back because funds are  withdrawn directly from the cardholder’s checking account.

By having an encrypted PIN pad a merchant who conducts face-to-face business can ask the customer if he would like to pay with debit or credit. By keying in their private four digit pin number into the PIN pad when prompted the merchant will pay a flat rate of 45 cents, no matter what the amount of the sale.

Very little additional equipment is required to add debit card processing to your merchant account. If you are currently processing credit cards, in most cases, you can add a Pin Pad to your terminal and save money by paying only a transaction fee instead of a discount rate plus transaction fees in which banks or processors usually charge. Accepting debit cards is a real convenience to many customers who cannot get approved for credit cards or prefer not to use their credit card for certain types of purchases. For the merchant it means guaranteed funds without the concern of accepting a check that might later bounce.

The type of PIN pad you will need depends upon the make and model of terminal you will use to process credit cards. Here are the three most popular PIN pads:

With Blue Dragon’s Check/ATM/Debit Merchant accounts program you can accept debit cards from all of the country’s largest regional and national debit networks.

Example:      $100.00 Transaction

Your Credit Card bank or processor is charging you 1.60% plus $.25 cent per transaction = Totaling $1.85 cost per transaction

With  Blue Dragon’s  Debit Program you will only be charged: $.45
One  flat transaction fee

If you currently accept credit cards simply fax us a copy of your latest merchant statement. Our fax number is 386-668-5984. We will analyze your statement and give you a no-pressure processing proposal.