There are a couple of aspects a small business will need to consider, some of these include:
- MSC – Merchant service charges – Generally a fixed charge on every debit and credit card transaction.
- The rental charge for your card machine rental – This is generally a monthly or quarterly charge and will vary on the card machine supplier you go through and the length of period you enter into.
- Authorisation Fees – Additional charges may apply for every authorisation on each card transaction.
- PCI DSS – If you are a small business owner and your small business intends to accept debit and credit card payments, whilst processing and transmitting cardholder data, you will need to host your data securely with a PCI compliant hosting provider. This is a monthly charge.
- Set up fees – This won’t apply to everyone, but some merchant acquirers will charge to set up a merchant account.
- Minimum monthly spend – The minimum monthly spend is a minimum fee which will be applied by an acquirer where their merchant service charges haven’t been met. This will be detailed in the application.
- Termination fee – If you think there is a possibility you may end the agreement early we would advise checking on what fees would apply if your small business was to end the agreement early.
- Chargeback Fees – What admin and charge back fees will you incur in instances of a customer or individual requesting a chargeback.