Your Money
What is in Your Counter? Easier Credit Card Processing. What are you paying for your Credit Card Processing? Do you really know what you are paying for your credit card processing services? While this is an important and essential service to bring in, maintain and keep your customer base growing, like all services, it is essential that you know what your cost is. Over my fourteen years in the industry I continue to hear this as a pet peeve, and a bone of contention and concern from many Merchants. Unlike other services and hard items that a merchant might consider a “cost of doing business expense” such as linens in a restaurant, fixtures and shelves to a retail merchant to display their goods, or phone and internet services, credit card processing is generally viewed as a necessary evil, even though for most businesses in today’s marketplace credit and debit card sales make up nearly 70% of their overall sales.
Jo knows merchant processing is a matter of dollars and sense. Hunter Lipton started Eagle Point Financial, a credit card processing company back in August 2008; by chance, Hunter had lunch with a good friend, in a similar business, who I had just met with to discuss some potential opportunities. Although Hunter had already started Eagle Point, it never occurred to this mutual acquaintance to put us together until that day and the rest is history. Hunter knows the world and I know credit card processing. It was a partnership made in credit card processing heaven. Josephine was a stay-at-home Mom opening and managing several small business ventures; including home decorating and improvement and another one designing and selling terrariums, all honing her entrepreneurial skills. Jo re-entered the work force in 1985, beginning her career in financial operation at a Gulf & Western subsidiary, after which she worked for Showtime Networks, as Director of Financial Operations, and then at First Data Merchant Services as Director of Credit Accounting managing 30 employees and a portfolio of $800MM. Jo splits her time between New York City and Long Island. We have been in business for almost two years, growing while we continue to pursue our goal and promise to our clients which is to offer fair and transparent pricing for our credit card processing services, while providing superior customer service. Our hope is that this article will provide you with a little more knowledge and information then you currently have on the subject. Knowledge is power and what you do with it is up to you.
I am confident that after you read our article you will no longer feel this way. Our hope is that we will provide you with the information you need to have a better understanding and be more comfortable with the ins and outs of credit card processing and pricing. Our goal has always been to educate our Merchants. We believe that education and knowledge allows our customers to see the value in our service. Your Credit Card Processing Statement Even with my extensive experience in the industry, it never ceases to amaze me how creative some of the credit card processing companies can be with their monthly statements. This is not to say that they are charging unfairly or at an exorbitant rate, only that the credit card statement is often indecipherable even to a trained eye like mine. At the heart of the issue is that this industry is not currently regulated and a Processor can charge the merchant whatever the market will bear. Often time the credit card pricing offered to the merchant is a result of the geographic and economic climate of the merchant’s location (inner city, rural, high end) as well as, the existence and level of competition or options for the merchant to choose from. In addition to the multitude of pricing types, Tiered, Bundled, Enhanced Bill Back and Interchange Plus, confusion can reign when it is not clearly displayed on the monthly processing statement, or not outright explained to the merchant. For example, Tiered pricing is generally at three different pricing levels with a low Tier 1 or qualified rate, with much higher pricing for Tier 2 and Tier 3 sales. Needless to say the majority of the sales will fall into the higher tiered categories, thereby costing the Merchant more for this service. Bundled pricing pretty much speaks for itself, in that all the fees are bundled into a few categories, and are not clearly stated, making it impossible to understand true cost.
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I would like to explain to you how Eagle Point treats our customers and tell you a little bit about the competitive and transparent pricing structure we offer. What does that mean to our Merchant? Unlike some of our competitors, our monthly merchant processing statement is clear and concise with transparent pricing. I’m sure you are wondering, what transparent pricing is, and how it differs from Tiered or Bundled. First, there are no hidden or unexplained fees making our pricing structure transparent to our customers, this is also referred to as pass through pricing. With transparent pricing we pass through the hard cost of fees that Eagle Point pays to Visa, Mastercard and Discover. In addition to the hard cost we pass through to our merchant, Eagle Points charges a marginal mark up. In these current economic times, where business owners are watching every dollar, we need to make sure that we understand exactly what we are paying to our essential vendors to control costs and overhead. Eagle Point’s assurance to our customers is that without fail you will know exactly what your costs are for our service. Eagle Point consistently shows our clients a savings of between forty and fifty percent over cost after we perform an analysis on their current credit card processing statement. The analysis is free and we are so confident in our pricing that if we cannot meet or beat your current price, we will give you a $500.00 Visa/MC debit card. Eagle Point has a vast array of merchants using our services around the country, with our highest concentration of clients in New York City and the Connecticut area. Our client base extends from a 100 location parking garage in New York City to many luxury brand retailers, as well as, famous and well known restaurants nationwide. Of course my personal favorite is the fabulous beauty salons we have in our client base. As a lady with a few years behind her, (and for you folks that are not in this category it’s when they start to call you wise or learned, or worse someone calls you Ma’am) it is always a wonderful experience to go to the Valery Joseph Salon on Madison Avenue and get a great hair cut and color experience. Revi Roman the owner of Valery Joseph has three other salons in the City, which I like to frequent as often as possible, and one in Bridgehampton for the summer months.
Eagle Point is growing our business one merchant at a time by building relationships with our local venders and long distance through our network of Sales Representatives. Eagle Point believes in supporting the growth of our merchant’s businesses by dining at their restaurants, parking in their garages and enjoying their salons.
We pride ourselves on superior customer service and added value products, to support most any need our client may have, thereby giving them the ability to grow and support their clients’ needs. In the next issue I would like to talk about our “added value products and services” and how they can help you to grow your business and client base. After reading our article if you should have any questions regarding your credit card processing, or would like us to perform a free financial analysis, please do not hesitate to call us. We can be reached at 212-207-3427, my extension is 116.
Our Sales Manager, Brian Feeley, has cultivated and grown his relationship with many merchants in Fairfield County and neighboring Connecticut areas. When we speak to his customers it is clear they love Brian’s home town style and how he supports their needs in a very personal way. They also know that he has the might and support of a large corporation behind the scenes to assist him and his customers whenever needed.
Fairfield County Woman