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Fight Higher Credit Card Processing Fees by Steering Clear of Fee Fighters!

After investigating Chase Paymentech, Leaders Merchant Services, QuickBooks, Costco, Sams Club, Square, Bank Card USA, and many more, nothing seems to surprise us anymore when it comes to the shady business practices of merchant account providers. We are happy to see that a few others are wising up and offering services to help small business owners discern what credit card processors are truly offering a good deal.

One such website is FeeFighters.com.

With a slick interface and easytonavigate website, Fee Fighters has created a system through which merchant account providers can bid on your business. On the surface, they seem to have built a one stop shop for small business owners to access transparent pricing (which usually includes Interchange plus pricing instead of threetier pricing). They even have a fancy take a tour feature that explains all the bids that have been provided to you. Although we applaud Fee Fighters for their benevolent efforts, you may not realize two underlying issues with their system.

Two Reasons to Steer Clear of Fee Fighters

1. Rates and fees offered by Fee Fighters are based on your processing volume.

As a merchant, you are asked to enter a few pieces of information in order to acquire bids through the Fee Fighters system including your monthly processing volume, average transaction size, how transactions will be processed, and the nature of your business. Heres the secret behind their system (and most merchant account providers)�your rates and fees are based on the amount of money your business processes. If you are a small company that processes a couple of thousand dollars a month, youll be charged a higher rate than a business thats charging $100,000 a month. The larger the business�the lower the rate. Wouldnt it be great if every business received large corporate pricing? We think so.

2. You are paying to use Fee Fighters (and you dont even know it).

With a line of customers showing up to search the Fee Fighters system, you may wonder why all merchant account providers arent throwing their name in the hat to bid on your business. Could it be that Fee Fighters actually charges credit card processors for the opportunity to place that bid? Do you realize that the companies bidding on your merchant account are paying Fee Fighters a residual commission if you sign up through their system? Thats right. You are the one paying Fee Fighters to use their system, and you dont even know it!

Although the Fee Fighters website (and accompanying mission) is quite impressive, wed suggest finding a credit card processor that doesnt provide a rate based on processing volume or pay Fee Fighters for the chance to bid on your business. Our guess is that youll be quite satisfied with a better (less expensive) option.

AUTHOR RESOURCE BOX: Danny Choi is the Founder and CEO of Best Merchant Rates a merchant account provider that "actually" cares about small businesses. Founded in 2005, Best Merchant Rates exposes the trickery of merchant accounts, educates on the truths of credit card processing, and empowers with transparent pricing.

SUMMARY: Although the Fee Fighters website (and accompanying mission) is quite impressive, wed suggest finding a credit card processor that doesnt provide a rate based on processing volume or pay Fee Fighters for the chance to bid on your business.

KEYWORDS: credit card processing, merchant account, small business

CATEGORIES: small business, business, financial services, credit card processing, merchant account