What To Consider When Choosing A Business For Payment Processing
Every commercial enterprise aims to make money. Being able to accept multiple forms of payment from customers gives you more opportunities to do so. Whether you are a first-time business owner or an established company looking to make a change, choosing a payment processor should be a big decision. There are several payment processing solutions available on the market today but not all are created equal. Here are some things to consider before picking the right one for your business.
What Are The Basic Services That All Payment Processing Solutions Should Perform?
The basic function your business should be receiving from any payment processor is the authorization (or rejection) and processing of payments. The steps that are taken to do this generally looks like this:
- The customer’s billing information and credit or debit card information are verified.
- Ensures that there are an adequate amount of funds available to make the purchase.
- Payments are then approved or denied.
- Those funds are then transferred from the customer’s bank to the account of the business.
There is also an encryption process used during these steps to protect the customer’s sensitive information.
Some payment processing solutions do only these things, but there are a few companies that offer more services that can be very beneficial to your business. BAMS is a leading provider of payment processing solutions that goes above and beyond in giving businesses of all sizes tools they can use to gain more efficiency and competitiveness in the marketplace.
Before choosing the payment processor you’ll use, make sure to ask these questions:
Can They Help With Keeping Your Costs Down?
Your overhead costs are always a primary source of concern, so when choosing a payment processing solution you at least want to keep that cost to a minimum. But can any payment processing company help save you money elsewhere?
BAMS makes this a part of their mission, and with their 5-Step Merchant Account Price Comparison, they can give you a quote to show you just how effectively it can be done. All you need to do to begin is to send them your most recent merchant statement. That will have a detailed breakdown of customer transactions you’ve processed with any associated fees. It should show details of the fees paid out to credit card companies like Visa and American Express, etc., as well as other networks. along with a summary of deposits, transaction count, and other details that give an illustration of your payment processing currently.
With that in hand, BAMS performs a deep analysis of all the rates and fees you’re currently paying. They go line by line to figure out which items they can reduce or get rid of to save you maximum bucks without sacrificing any of your essential services.
Step 1: Classification Review
First, BAMS will ensure your account is set up correctly by being listed under the right industry type. You’d be surprised at how many businesses are incorrectly listed, and it does have an impact on your savings. An account misclassified during set-up will expose you to unnecessary financial risks, and checking it closely is not something every payment processor company carries out. This is why it is good to be wary of rock-bottom prices, as it can wind up costing you more money in the long run.
Step 2: Side-By-Side Comparison
BAMS will also take the time to take a look at your bills to find any hidden fees and price increases that make your expenses higher than they need to be – a task that most payment processing companies don’t bother with. Their side-by-side comparison involves a thorough perusal of your monthly bills so that they can pinpoint exactly what fees can be lowered or tossed out completely when accepting them as your payment processor provider.
Step 3: Check For Updated Regulations
Regulating authorities change the rules every once in a while for every industry. This can be a real hassle to keep up with and can potentially cause you to miss out on any changes that could affect your business’s financial situation. Most other payment processors leave it up to you to keep track of the regulating environment, but BAMS will find out any benefits that you might be missing out on with their price comparison. This is to ensure that you’re getting the full advantage of the latest pricing regulations available to maximize your savings.
Step 4: Review Your Payment Acceptance Setup
It’s not just the types of cards and form of payment you accept that are important. How you accept any payment at all through your point of sale terminal or payment gateway can have consequences either good or bad for your bottom line. That’s why the analysts at BAMS will review your current method before making a recommendation to help lower your expenses. It’s commitments like this that stand out from other payment processors – saving you as much as possible in all aspects of the process.
Step 5: You Request A Quote
Once the rest of the review is complete, it’s time to get a quote specific to your business to see how BAMS stacks up against the cost of your existing system. Their analysts will review what you’re paying now to see where you can save money, and you can compare that to what BAMS costs. If their services don’t wow you and if BAMS doesn’t save you money while providing value-added features to boost your business, you can choose another provider or stay with what you have.
Do They Offer Any Guarantees?
Another consideration to take into account when choosing a business for payment processing solutions is that BAMS is unique in the fact that they offer a Competitive Price Guarantee. They are confident that with their product selection, product availability, reliable service and delivery, and superior customer service, you’ll receive the best value and money-saving Merchant Account services out there. There’s no catch to this. If your business is offered a merchant account with a fee schedule lower than your agreement with BAMS, they will gladly match or beat the offer. All clients are eligible for a price-match with BAMS that meet three conditions:
- Comparisons MUST be from a registered financial service provider with credentials displayed clearly on their website, application, and marketing materials.
- Comparisons of merchant account fee schedules must be provided on official paperwork. Websites and proposals will not be accepted or considered for merchant account fee price matches.
- All price matching requests must be sent in writing to support@bams.com.
A competitive price guarantee is rare to find from a business in any industry, but, when you do, it shows that a company truly stands behind its products.
How Well Will Their Payment Processing Solutions Integrate Into Your Existing Systems?
If you run a brick-and-mortar store or an e-commerce site, you likely have some sort of online payment gateway or POS terminal to run your systems on. This is how you accept other forms of payment besides cash. A good payment processing company will be able to integrate with your existing systems fast and easily. BAMS can integrate with nearly every system used by merchants today, and they can have you set up for business in a matter of minutes.
E-Commerce – the e-commerce specialists at BAMS have experience working with many of the biggest online vendors, including Ubercart, BigCommerce, 3dcart, Magento, Authoricze.net, and more. It only takes 10 minutes on average for their agents to connect your online store to the payment gateway that best suits you, with no change to your checkout process. And with one quick update, you will be able to enjoy Merchant Account benefits from BAMS.
Restaurant, Retail, and Hospitality POS – most Point Of Sale systems used by the restaurant, retail, and hospitality industries can integrate with BAMS payment processing. Their payment acceptance services are connected to them at affordable rates that beat out the competition – and setup is quick and easy, too!
QuickBooks – an added benefit of BAMS payment processing solutions is they can also integrate with your QuickBooks software. For both Payment Terminal for Desktop QuickBooks as well as Payment Integration for QuickBooks POS, BAMS offers high-level features and benefits that most other payment processors don’t.
Do They Offer Any Value-Added Features?
When searching for a payment processing business, you’ll likely want to hire the one who offers the best value for your money. Most conduct their services by just offering the basics, often for a price that seems attractive. That is until you compare it to the added value a company like BAMS brings you. Consider some of their features before making a final decision:
- Chargeback defense – when payments are disputed by customers, it can not only be a big hassle but can also become potentially damaging to your reputation (and pocketbook). BAMS chargeback defense offers an all-in-one system for immediate alerts when they happen, as well as fraud detection and dispute management.
- Reporting and analytics – gain exclusive access to proprietary tools from BAMS, like IRIS CRM. This is an all-inclusive dashboard that shows you some of the most important aspects of your business’s health. You can view information such as daily deposit information and daily transactions that are broken down by card type. No matter how many businesses you manage, you’ll have access to the reports for all of them.
- Integrations – BAMS payment process services can be integrated into many existing POS systems quickly and easily – so you won’t have to change what you already have.
- PCI Compliance – no more having to stress over compliance issues. BAMS’ dedicated and personalized team of experts is always there to help get your business PCI certified.
- Next Day Funding – BAMS offers a free service to all qualifying merchant clients to access their much-needed funds in as little as 12 hours. Turn in your payment batches by 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and it will hit your account on the next business day. If you turn it in past 7 p.m., you will still receive them by the second business day.
These value-added features are a part of the principles BAMS was founded on in 2006 – giving clients the best customer service and support in the industry as well as supplying the latest technological innovations to increase their business’s profitability.
Can They Offer The Level Of Personalized Service That You Need?
How a company builds relationships with its clients is important. Most people are swayed to do business with large corporations because of brand awareness but become quickly frustrated with the lack of attention they get in return when service issues arise. Payment processing solutions are a big deal for your business, so you deserve to expect tailored, personalized assistance from your provider, and BAMS gives you that.
Their client-focused approach is designed to provide superior customer support and affordable fees with transparency, as well as top-tier reporting as the building blocks for achieving long-term relationships with them. Delivering on its promises is the true measure of success in business for BAMS, and if a potential client cannot benefit from their services, they say so upfront. It’s the needs of the customer that comes before everything else.
Choose The Leader In Payment Processing Solutions
By choosing BAMS for your payment processing solutions, your business will be armed with the best customer service experience in the industry as well as many value-added tools and features designed to save you money. Head over to their website and request a quote today to find out why thousands of clients in so many different sectors have switched their payment processing to BAMS.com.
