Hey, When I started my business I was paying processing fees of about 2 percent and this was 2 years ago. Now they have gone up to 2.35 percent and I hear talk about another increase. For small businesses, this really cuts into our profits. How high do you think Visa, Mastercard and Amex will hike there fees without them being worried about there merchants leaving them to find alternative payment methods like Cash, Money Order, etc.. What is acceptable in terms of fees to you guys?
Visa/MC raise their rates usually 2 times per year, April and October. These increases generally are not across the board but apply to specific types of transactions. For example, they may raise rates for ecommerce transactions, or grocery store transactions one time, and next time for retail businessses or something else. The problem is that many processors bump up rates across the board when the Visa/MC fees go up even though the increases may only apply to a small percentage of transactions.