REPAY Blog

Top 12 Features to Look for in Integrated Payment Processing

Written by David Harper | Mar 28, 2019 3:03:00 PM

How to find the best Integrated Credit Card Processor for your business 

As a merchant, you know the importance of getting the most out of your credit card processing and merchant services provider.  You may have already discovered there is a lot to consider when looking for the best integrated payment processing provider for your business. Most merchants agree that it is important to get the best rates but there is a lot more to consider. If you ever had a bad experience with a disreputable credit card processor, you know it is also important to work with a processing solution that you can trust. Savvy merchants know to avoid companies with aggressive and misleading sales tactics, deceptive rate quotes, confusing merchant statements, long-term contracts, cancellation penalties, manual processes, and/or horrible customer service. More than that, merchants need their merchant service provider to be their trusted friend and guide through the payments industry. With that in mind, REPAY Payments would like to present the top 12 traits of the best processors so that you can always be informed and attentive.

12 preferred qualities to look for in an integrated credit card processor

  1. Rate Savings and Fee Reduction - Credit card processors offer different rates such as flat rate, tiered, and interchange plus.
    • Tip: Make sure you are not paying for unnecessary fees.   
    • Why REPAY Payments? With interchange plus pricing, you see exactly what MasterCard or Visa charges (the interchange fee), plus what you’re paying the processor but a flat rate may help simplify complex rates for small businesses; it can be hard to know how to get the best rate for your processing needs. The good news about REPAY is that we are experts in the payments industry and can analyze your merchants statements to see which of the options available is the best pricing model for you and your business. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for every business but you can rely on our thorough analysis to help find the most cost-effective solution.
      • REPAY does not charge batch fees, support fees, PCI compliance fees, settlement fees, clearing fees, Level 3 data fees, or return discount fees.  In addition, REPAY also does not charge 3rd party gateway fees, hidden fees, or cancellation fees.
  2. Next day funding for improved cash flow - One way to increase your cash flow is to reduce your funding time.  The settlement or funding time is how long it takes for you to get paid by the bank for the credit card transactions you accepted. The industry standard for settlement of funds is 48 hours although some processors promise 24 hours.
    • Tip: Find out how long the processor takes to get your cash in hand.  
    • Why REPAY Payments?  REPAY Payments’ next day funding program guarantees funds are available by 8AM for all transactions processed the day before by 9PM EST on weekdays. Our competition rarely can send funds to your account within 24 hours, let alone in 11 hours like REPAY!
  3. Simple and seamless integration - You have a business to run and we know that. The best credit card processing companies work to make accepting credit cards hassle-free. Does your credit card processor have an integration with your current accounting system or ecommerce shopping cart? How about both, allowing you to transition and flow information seamlessly between them?
    • Tip:  Make sure your credit card processor makes it easy to accept credit card payments and reconcile payments within your accounting system. This will help you get paid faster and reduce double entry. Also, ask the processor if you will be going through a gateway which subjects you to extra per transaction fees and/or monthly fees.
    • Why REPAY Payments?  REPAY Payments integrates seamlessly with over 100 ecommerce and accounting solutions, including AccountMate, Acumatica, Adagio, Sage 100, Sage 300, SAP B1, Magento, WooCommerce, QuickBooks, and more. With many natively-built, end-to-end solutions and in house development customizable to your individual business needs - including tying your accounting system to your shopping cart, eliminating gateway fees, and more.
  4. No application installation, set-up, or maintenance fees – Some processors will offer you low rates but tack on extra fees that are often hidden or unexpected, such as annual fees or PCI fees.
    • Tip: Check on the time to get up and running and make sure you will not experience downtime as a result of switching.
    • Why REPAY Payments? When you switch to REPAY Payments, there is no charge for installation, set-up, training, maintenance, or support. There is no time-consuming mapping or manual data entry required. In many cases, we will pay you up to $500 when you join to cover your cancellation fees.  
  5. Secure 24/7 online transaction reporting – Not all processors make it easy to get reports and have access to the right data at the right time and some will even charge a monthly fees just to get your data.
    • Tip: It is usually because they want to hide their fees from you and make it difficult to dig too deep.  
    • Why REPAY Payments? REPAY Payments believes in transparency and fairness with reasonable fees and intuitive access to your data anytime, anywhere.  In our free discovery, one of our representatives will explain to you line by line what you are currently being charged and the potential savings you could have by making the switch to become one of our merchants.
  6. Daily, automatic batch reporting – Batch processing allows you to close your daily credit card transactions at one time.
    • Tip: Does your processor offer automatic batch processing or do you have to manually close each batch? A good processor is flexible to suit your needs and helps save you time with automation. Does your processor charge a fee each time a batch is closed?  
    • Why REPAY Payments?  REPAY Payments gives you the ability to automatically run daily batch processing when real time approvals are not required at no additional charge.
  7. Level 3 payment processing - Level 3 processing is a set of specific additional line-item detail data (item descriptions, quantities, tax detail, etc.) that both VISA and MasterCard prefer on business to business transactions along with the required standard transaction information. In return, they significantly lower the interchange rates (.50% to 1.00% lower) on eligible B2B transactions.  
    • Tip: Be sure to ask if manual data entry is required for Level 3 because some processors do not populate ithe numerous fields necessary to qualify, such as the Summary Item, Commodity Code, and zip code information.
    • Why REPAY Payments? Our REPAY Payments Level 3 option allows any business that has B2B or B2G transactions to have much lower interchange rates from the card brands. When you enter the transaction into our Level 3 Gateway, REPAY Payments auto fills this information in the appropriate fields.  You will receive significant savings, sometimes as much as 1% off the total processing fee. Many REPAY Payment customers get up to 70% savings compared to their previous processing costs.
  8. Security that you can trust – Merchants need to trust the payment processor to protect the business from liability.  Payment gateways work behind the scenes to securely transfer sensitive credit card data from an online payment to the payment processor.  
    • Tip: Don’t forget to ask the processor if there are additional gateway fees.
    • Why REPAY Payments?  REPAY Payments has its own state of the art gateway “REPAYPAYS” and interface with many more gateways such as Authorize.net and PayPal. We have built direct integrations with REPAYPAYS into several ERP products, including Sage 100 and Acumatica. In fact, the REPAY gateway has an Authorize.net emulator and no additional gateway fees.
  9. No-cost PCI-DSS compliance assurance – The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) is a set of requirements, enforced by all major credit card companies, that all businesses must adhere to in order to accept credit cards. The purpose of PCI -DSS is to ensure the security of cardholder data and help prevent fraud, credit card hacking and many other security issues.  
    • Tip - Ask your payment processor whether there will be any separate PCI compliance charges such as a PCI service fee. Some companies charge a monthly fee for this.
    • Why REPAY Payments?  REPAY Payments features the REPAY Vault which securely stores all your credit card information. You have access to a Customer Service Department dedicated to assist you becoming PCI compliant at no extra charge.
  10. Tokenized credit card data simplifies PCI-DSS compliance - Tokenization takes the primary account number (PAN) and issues a different number called a token.  
    • Tip: If your data is compromised, cyber-criminals will have no use for the tokens.
    • Why REPAY Payments?  REPAY Payments’ tokenized credit card data simplifies PCI compliance.  This is in conjunction with the standards of cryptography and virtual currencies (cryptocurrencies) utilized, to ensure all data is being transmitted with the highest levels of security.
  11. Additional cost savings with American Express OptBlue program - With one deposit daily, the American Express OptBlue program offers credit card processors “wholesale” rates similar to Visa and Mastercard’s “interchange rates,”  simplifying reconciliation.
    • Tip: This gives credit card processors the discretion of adding a markup fee.  Look for a service that has low mark-up rates for merchants and you will undoubtedly save money with OptBlue.  
    • Why REPAY Payments?  REPAY Payments offers American Express OptBlue to simplify card management, save money, and reduce funding time.
  12. Innovative technology – Merchants and consumers prefer credit cards because they are convenient and safe.   Credit card processors with innovative technology that supports Omni-Channel payments help merchants lower the processing fees with automation and seamless integration.
    • Tip: You may need to ditch the old technology and outdated hardware to increase your efficiency, savings, and profits.  
    • Why  REPAY Payments? REPAY Payments is a leading integrated credit card processor because we leverage the best technology for reporting either stand alone or via your e-commerce, or accounting software integration.

The REPAY Payments Difference  

When selecting a credit card processor, there’s a lot to consider. REPAY Payments is so convinced we’ll help you save money that we will pay up to $500 for your cancellation fees as long as you choose to process with us.  Our merchant statements are easy to read with all the detail you need. REPAY Payments helps you save money with Level 3 processing for US-based accounts. REPAY Payments is a fully PCI-DSS compliant credit card payment processing solution for added security against fraud. We help remove the headache of compliance, automate integration, and reduce fees. We seamlessly integrate to your ecommerce or ERP system for free and there are no setup fees. No customer is too big or too small to save money on fees!

Contact REPAY Payments today for a free discovery call!