If you are in the market for a Merchant Account, you must do your homework before choosing a company to do business with. They are definitely not created equal.
Several months ago, we were in the market for a merchant account and looked at a few different companies. We did not have any experience with merchant accounts and trying to learn and understand them was a bit overwhelming. It is tough comparing companies when all the information is not out in the open. There are companies that have fees and other charges that they do not share with you up front. 먹튀검증
We ended up going to our banker to find out if they offered merchant accounts. She told us that they did not but said she worked with someone that did and would be glad to set up an appointment with them in her office. We appreciated the offer and agreed to the meeting. After all, if you cannot trust your banker, who can you trust? Well, that was our first mistake. Not that our banker was trying to mislead us, she just did not know anything about START merchant accounts.
The representative of the merchant services company had developed a relationship with our banker and she trusted the representative. We trust our banker and as a result trusted the company and representative that our banker worked with. I am not saying that you should not trust anyone. We do believe that developing relationships in business in very important. What I am saying is that we should “trust but verify.” If you personally do not have a relationship with someone, you should verify what you are being told, at least until you have developed a personal relationship and are confident they are looking out for your best interest.
We have learned a lot since then and now realize that we should not have gone with the company we did. We are now, unfortunately, locked-in to a long-term contract with a company that charges us annual fees that they did not disclose in the beginning. Their customer service is less than satisfactory and since we are locked-in for four years, they have no incentive to provide good customer service.
It is our hope that sharing our experience with you will help you choose a company that you can work with without the frustrations we have experienced. There are good companies out there that will not require you to sign a long-term contract and will disclose all the fees up front. Just make sure you do your homework and get all your questions answered.
Karen Reed is the co-owner of Organic Business Strategies. We are committed to helping small business develop their “organic business strategy” to take their business to the next level.