Find out why credit card processing fees exist, how to eliminate them, and how much you can expect to save by doing so.
Smart business people know that small savings add up. It’s the basic principle we try to teach our children by giving them a piggy bank: keep putting small amounts of money away to end up with a sum that’s much larger than you expected.
This same savings principle is even more effective when it comes to your business eliminating credit card processing fees. In fact, you may easily be able to save thousands of dollars per month by eliminating these pesky costs that many businesses struggle with.
We’ll explain how you can eliminate all of them. But in order for it to make sense, we’ll first explain why credit card processing fees exist.
Where credit card processing fees come from
Think about how quickly money is moved around every time you swipe, dip, or tap your credit card at a terminal. Our article on how credit card processing works showed that financial information is sent to card associations, merchant banks, issuing banks, and payment processors every time someone uses their credit card to make a payment.
Not surprisingly, these parties charge small fees for their services to make credit card payments happen. It’s these fees that you’re likely paying each month that can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars–and it’s these fees we’ll help you eliminate in the next section.
How to eliminate credit card processing fees
Someone has to pay these processing fees. But here’s the good news: it doesn’t have to be you.
You may have already noticed different businesses with a sign on their door or near their register basically alerting customers that pay with credit cards will be charged a small fee.
These businesses are also advertising their price if paid in cash. If the customer uses a credit card, it’s this price plus a small fee–the fee of processing their credit card payment. This process is called Cash Discounting and is also known as Zero-Fee Processing.
Cash Discounting is a 50-state legal system that can be implemented with any business.
Here’s how it works:
- A credit card processor helps a business implement it by making changes on their end of how the processing fees are handled
- That credit card processor also provides a different payment gateway to direct how their credit card transactions take place at the location of the business
- The business also posts a sign that alerts customers to expect an small fee if they choose to use their credit card
That’s pretty much it. Because it’s so simple, more and more businesses are using it to eliminate their credit card processing fees by having the customer pay them instead.
To understand the process even better, look at an example that shows how a business will no longer pay processing fees with Cash Discounting.
Example: Your customer wants to buy something that costs $100.
- If the customer chooses to pay in cash, the total will be $100.
- If they pay with a credit card, the business enters $100 just like any other transaction.
From there, the Cash Discounting payment gateway authorizes 3.99% to be added to their credit card transaction (this covers the business’ cost of processing the credit card).
The customer’s receipt lists an extra line item below the invoice total of $100. This line item reads “$3.99 non-cash charge (or NCC)”.
The total will be $103.99 for the customer who paid with their credit card.
How much the average business can save per transaction
As you saw in the example above, credit card fees don’t mean much to the customer–but they quickly add up for a business. That’s why more and more businesses are adopting zero-fee processing via Cash Discounting:
- If they accept $10,000 in credit card payments per month, they can expect to save between $300 and $400 monthly, resulting in a savings of $3,600 to $4,800 per year.
- $20,000 worth of monthly credit card payments would be $600 to $800 in savings per month, netting an estimated $7,200 to $9,600 yearly savings.
- $40,000 in credit card payments per month results in roughly $1,200 to $1,600 in monthly savings, which ends in $14,400 to $19,200 in savings per year.
Now simply add those yearly savings together over a decade, and you’re looking at savings between $36,000 to $192,000 for a business who uses Cash Discounting.
Summary
Piggy banks teach us that small savings add up. Zero-Fee Processing (aka Cash Discounting) shows that eliminating processing fees can result in savings that easily reach into the six-figure range over a relatively short period of time.
Ready to eliminate all of your credit card processing fees? Then contact us today. We here at Progressive Payment Solutions can’t wait to help you start saving.