VMS-Washington – Accept Payments at Your Store
Looking for great merchant services rates for your business? VMS-Washington will offer rates starting at 0.30% interchange plus with 0.15 cents per transaction with our average savings of 20-50% off your current merchant services processor. For more information contact us at: www.vms-washington.com
Thank you,
VMS-Washington
800.531.8575 ext. 697
www.vms-washington.com
vmswashington.wordpress.com
This is a great video that explains Choosing the right terminal and why it’s important to know what terminal is best for your business. VMS-Washington encourages all business owners to learn more about credit card processing so they can save more money on their processing, learn better ways to processing and to know right from wrong when talking to a potential credit card processor.
If you’re interested or want more information about interchange and better rates from an “A Rated” company contact us, VMS-Washington is giving businesses the Summer Deal of the Year. For a limited time we are offering rock bottom rates for new and existing businesses. The questions we always ask business owners are:
Wouldn’t you want an A rated company that and will promote your business though their social media and monthly newsletters. For more information contact us.
Thank you,
VMS-Washington
washington@valuedmerchants.com
www.vms-washington.com
800.531.8575 ext.697
This is a great video that explains PCI Compliance. VMS-Washington encourages all business owners to learn more about credit card processing so they can save more money on their processing, learn better ways to processing and to know right from wrong when talking to a potential credit card processor.
If you’re interested or want more information about interchange and better rates from an “A Rated” company contact us, VMS-Washington is giving businesses the Summer Deal of the Year. For a limited time we are offering rock bottom rates for new and existing businesses. The questions we always ask business owners are:
Wouldn’t you want an A rated company that and will promote your business though their social media and monthly newsletters. For more information contact us.
Thank you,
VMS-Washington
washington@valuedmerchants.com
www.vms-washington.com
800.531.8575 ext.697
Business owners,
VMS-Washington is passionate about saving business owners money on their processing and cut their business costs. How do we do it? Simple, we provide you with A rated services, give you rock bottom rates, help you with better business practices through our preferred partners and educate you on credit card processing. How can we give you better rates than other merchant service providers? We process over 100+ million a day in business which means we can ask for better rates and fees. Due to the overwhelming replies we are eager to help business owners by giving you great rates and fees and with those great rates we also promote you business for free though our 44,000+ in our network. What would you do with your extra savings?
VMS-Washington helps all businesses, it doesn’t matter if you process $500 dollars a month or 500,000 a month, you’ll get great rates and fees from us. We’ll help all types of businesses, non-profits and charities. For example:
So why pay high rates when you can be with a company that will give you low rates and fees and promote your business for free. We ask potential clients these questions:
To sum it up. VMS-Washington will beat every processor out there and give you the best rates and if we can’t we’ll give you $500.00 cash! Contact us if you want to save money on your processing and help you save on other business costs.
Thank you,
Michael Roberts
VMS-Washington
www.vms-washington.com
800-531-8575 ext. 697
VMS-Washington – All About Square
Unlike most Square (squareup.com) reviews, this Square up review focuses primarily on the things that matter to merchants and business owners, instead of just focusing on the Square’s technology. Square is often called “Square up” or “Squareup” because of the domain that Square uses for its website; however, the official name is for the company is “Square.” The names will be used interchangeably in this review.
Founded in February of 2009 by Jack Dorsey who is also the founder of Twitter.com, Square has seen tremendous growth in a very short amount of time. Much of the company’s success can be attributed to the fact that Square has ingeniously broken the mold of traditional credit card processing by removing the traditional barriers to entry and bringing credit card acceptance to the individual. iPhone, iPad and Android users simply fill out a quick form, download the Square app, and then await the arrival of the Square up reader in the mail. The Square credit card reader simply plugs into the headphone jack of the phone making it a mobile credit card terminal. In fact, Square’s model has been so successful that it has attracted big name competitors such as Intuit (GoPayment) and North American Bancard (Pay Anywhere) to offer similar mobile processing services.
Another area where Square differs greatly is in how it markets and sells its service. Where most merchant account providers utilize poorly trained outside independent agents who are focused on setting high fees for big commissions, Square relies mostly on online marketing and partnerships with retailers and cell phone service providers. Nearly all of Squares customers sign up directly through the homepage of the company’s website or by purchasing a reader a store with a 100% mail-in rebate. Square has also benefited from an enormous amount online buzz and word of mouth promotion. Square’s pricing is straight forward and easy to understand (covered later in this review), however, the company fails to mention anything about its fund holding and risk mitigation policies in it marketing material and advertising. These policies have been reported to cause significant problems for many merchants and some have even complained of large financial losses. Due to the importance of these policies, and that Square fails to make merchants aware of them prior to account setup and prior to running transactions, many have complained of misleading marketing by the company.
One of the most appealing aspects of Square is that, unlike nearly every other processor, Square credit card processing has only one fee: the processing fee of a transaction. There are no other fees that are typical of credit card processing, such as activation fees, monthly fees, gateway fees, downgrade fees and early termination fees. Square has no additional monthly fees whatsoever and no monthly minimum processing fees.
No matter the card type, merchants pay a single flat rate of 2.75% for swiped transactions, or 3.5% + $0.15 per typed transaction (as of this review). Although the transaction rate is higher than the “Qualified” rate of most traditional merchant accounts, it is comparable to the “Mid-Qualified” and “Non-Qualified” downgrade surcharges that about 80% of most transactions experience in a traditional merchant account setup. The rate is, however, much more expensive than the Interchange Pass-through rate pricing model. Given that most merchants do not have Interchange Pass-through pricing, and the fact that Square has no monthly fees and no time commitment, makes it one of the most affordable credit processing options in the market. Nevertheless, Square does have some drawbacks.
Square does not verify the credit history of its customers (a benefit for some) so it sets a few limitations to avoid potential losses to fraud. When it comes to processing limits, Square states that there is no limit to the amount of money that can be accepted per transaction or per month – which is mostly true. Instead of denying transactions once a processing “limit” has been reached, the company relies on two methods to limit possible fraud while allowing merchants to accept an “unlimited” amount of credit card sales.
The first method is the most transparent and can be found with a little research in Square’s help section; however, you will find no mention of it just about anywhere else. Square place sholds on funds of card-not-present sales for 30 days if more than $2,002 is charged within any rolling seven day period. This means that if a merchant keys-in $2,100 in sales within a seven day period (either in a single transaction or multiple), instead of swiping the card through the card reader, the extra $88 will be held by Square for 30 days. This policy applies to any amount over $2,002 in any seven day time period. Merchants who regularly process more than $2,002 a week in card-not-present sales have two options to circumvent the deposit hold. With the first option, Square periodically reviews accounts and will automatically raise the limit for merchants that regularly process over the limit, have few refunds and very few to no chargebacks. The second options allows merchants to request a raise their card-not-present deposit limit by emailing Square’s customer support.
The second method Square uses to limit fraud is much less transparent and the reason for the company’s low score in this section. Merchants are reporting in great numbers that Square has randomly and without explanation, or notification, placed lengthy holds (exceeding 30 days) on their funds – even with swiped transactions. Square appears to rely on undisclosed algorithmic “risk factors” to place automatic holds on transactions that it deems suspicious. It many cases the system appears to flag a high number of legitimate transactions without notifying the merchant of the hold, or the reason for placing it. Square’s policies regarding these types of holds are murky at best and make the service highly undesirable for higher volume merchants. It appears that the company needs to do a much better job of educating merchants about the types of transactions that have a risk of being held, notifying merchants when transactions have been held, and communicating with the merchant through the hold process. Since fund holding can greatly impact a merchant’s operations, the grade for this section will remain low until Square improves the system.
VMS-Washington – All About Square
Another area that Square comes up short in this review is in its customer service. For a company that has only been around for about two years, Square is racking up a lot of complaints. The majority of the complaints fall into three areas: Practically non-existent merchant phone support, misunderstanding and non-disclosure of the $1,000+ card-not-present deposit hold policy, and complaints of random fund holding with no explanation or communication.
The company appears to rely too heavily on customer service provided by email, a Twitter support page, and a support blog. This can pose a big drawback for many merchants, especially for those who are not willing to wait for an email response. The company does, in fact, have a phone number ((415) 375-3176) but it appears to go to a voicemail system for the majority of callers. Additionally, many merchants are reporting wait times of several days before getting a response from Square, regardless of how they contacted the company. For many merchants it seems inexcusable for a financial services company to not have a readily available 800-number helpline.
Square could greatly improve its rating in this section by adding a dedicated customer support number and better communicating its hold policies.
As of this update, Better Business Bureau (BBB) is reporting an “A-“ rating. A total of 202 complaints have been filed in the last 36 months which is up from 118 as of our July 24th, 2012 update. Of the complaints, 115 are regarding problems with service, 65 with billing and collection, 18 with delivery issues, and four in advertising and sales. It should also be noted that Square has been in business for less than the 36 month reporting period. Additionally, the report goes on to say that there are three types of common complaints: Delays in deposit times, long fund holds ranging from 30-90 days, and difficulty reaching any sort of customer support or getting issues escalated to a higher ranking representative. Square has responded by quoting its Terms of Use policies and referring to the help section of its website.
Square is definitely on the right track with providing an easy credit card processing solution with no long-term commitments and no monthly fees. The service is proving to have some major drawbacks for higher volume merchants because of murky fund holding policies and poor customer support. It appears that Square is best suited for individuals who have an occasional need to accept a credit card and merchants with small ticket items and low volume credit card sales. If you’re looking for alternatives to Square contact us or check out our comparison blog: VMS-Washington – Square vs. ROAMpay
Thank you,
VMS-Washington
800-531-8575 ext.697
washington@valuedmerchants.com
www.vms-washington.com
This is a great video that explains what’s behind credit card transactions. VMS-Washington encourages all business owners to learn more about credit card processing so they can save more money on their processing, learn better ways to processing and to know right from wrong when talking to a potential credit card processor.
If you’re interested or want more information about interchange and better rates from an “A Rated” company contact us, VMS-Washington is giving businesses the Summer Deal of the Year. For a limited time we are offering rock bottom rates for new and existing businesses. The questions we always ask business owners are:
Wouldn’t you want an A rated company that and will promote your business though their social media and monthly newsletters. For more information contact us.
Thank you,
VMS-Washington
washington@valuedmerchants.com
www.vms-washington.com
800.531.8575 ext.697
VMS-Washington – Behind Credit Card Transactions Video
This is a great video that explains Fraud. VMS-Washington encourages all business owners to learn more about credit card processing so they can save more money on their processing, learn better ways to processing and to know right from wrong when talking to a potential credit card processor.
If you’re interested or want more information about interchange and better rates from an “A Rated” company contact us, VMS-Washington is giving businesses the Summer Deal of the Year. For a limited time we are offering rock bottom rates for new and existing businesses. The questions we always ask business owners are:
Wouldn’t you want an A rated company that and will promote your business though their social media and monthly newsletters. For more information contact us.
Thank you,
VMS-Washington
washington@valuedmerchants.com
www.vms-washington.com
800.531.8575 ext.697
This is a great video that explains chargebacks. VMS-Washington encourages all business owners to learn more about credit card processing so they can save more money on their processing, learn better ways to processing and to know right from wrong when talking to a potential credit card processor.
If you’re interested or want more information about interchange and better rates from an “A Rated” company contact us, VMS-Washington is giving businesses the Summer Deal of the Year. For a limited time we are offering rock bottom rates for new and existing businesses. The questions we always ask business owners are:
Wouldn’t you want an A rated company that and will promote your business though their social media and monthly newsletters. For more information contact us.
Thank you,
VMS-Washington
washington@valuedmerchants.com
www.vms-washington.com
800.531.8575 ext.697
This is a great video that explains Interchange. VMS-Washington encourages all business owners to be on a Interchange system instead of a Tier rate.
If you’re interested or want more information about interchange and better rates from an “A Rated” company contact us, VMS-Washington is giving businesses the Summer Deal of the Year. For a limited time we are offering rock bottom rates for new and existing businesses. The questions we always ask business owners are:
Wouldn’t you want an A rated company that and will promote your business though their social media and monthly newsletters. For more information contact us.
Thank you,
VMS-Washington
washington@valuedmerchants.com
800.531.8575 ext.67
VMS-Washington – Visa, MasterCard to Swipe-Fee Settlement
Visa, MasterCard and the largest banks have announced a proposed multi-billion dollar settlement with U.S. retailers in a longstanding lawsuit over swipe fees charged by the networks.
Described as the “largest antitrust settlement in history” by plaintiffs’ attorneys , the agreement would require Visa, MasterCard several major banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank and Wells Fargo , to establish a fund for $6.05 billion for roughly seven million merchants, who plaintiffs’ attorneys say have been adversely affected by the interchange fees the networks set. The case was due to go to trial in September.
“These are truly historic reforms that will help shift the competitive balance from what in the past has been dominated by the card companies and the banks over to the merchants and the consumers, by giving consumers both transparency and a choice for cheaper forms of payment ,” says Martin Lueck, a partner and chairman of the executive board at Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, a plaintiffs’ firm involved in the lawsuit.
The settlement is in line with analysts’ previously estimates, which pegged a potential agreement at between $5 billion and $15 billion.
In addition to the fund, the networks have agreed to temporarily reduce for eight months the level of interchange fees by 10 basis points, a benefit estimated by plaintiffs’attorneys be worth $1.2 billion.
Visa and MasterCard will also drop so-called “no surcharge” rules, which previously prohibited retailers from tacking on additional fees to the consumer for using a credit card.
“Now me payment payment.”
In addition, the companies have agreed to negotiate with groups of merchants collectively over interchange rates going forward.
Visa says it will record a litigation of $4.1 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, increasing its reserves from $285 million to approximately $4.4 billion, which it will fund through a preexisting litigation escrow account. The card network had previously put more than $4 billion in that account.
“We believe settling this case is in the best interests of all parties,” said Joseph W. Saunders, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Visa Inc., in a press release Friday. “We are comfortable with the terms, which we do not anticipate will impact our current guidance. Visa is well positioned to help drive the migration to electronic payments in the U.S. and globally.”
MasterCard previously agreed to pay 12% of any potential settlement involving Visa and the banks. The card network said on Friday that its share of the cash portion of thesettlements will total $790 million before taxes. It plans to add an extra $20 million pre-tax charge in its second quarter 2012 financial statements, as it had previously recorded a $770 million charge in its fourth quarter 2011 financial statements, the company said in a press release.
“Our decision to settle is based on our belief that MasterCard and our stakeholders are best served by an amicable resolution,” said Noah Hanft , MasterCard’s General Counsel and Chief Franchise Integrity Officer, in a press release Friday. “Although we have strong defenses to all claims, a settlement avoids years of litigation and uncertainties that are inherent in such cases. We believe that today’s settlements should resolve all issues with the merchant community.”
The settlement is pending before Judge John Gleeson and Magistrate Judge James Orenstein in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Due to the overwhelming replies and inquiries VMS-Washington wants to help your business out by giving you rock bottom rates for your processing. We also can help your business by giving you great rates for unsecured business loans with an 90% approval rate for start-ups and existing businesses. Call or email us if you want to know more.
Michael Roberts
VMS-Washington
www.vms-washington.com
washignton@valuedmerchants.com
(800) 531.8575 ext. 697
VMS-Washington 