Plain-English breakdowns of fees, pricing models, and industry practices so you can make smarter decisions for your business.
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Risk & Fraud Prevention MATCH list payment processing is one of the few mechanisms in the merchant services industry that can end a business owner’s ability to accept credit cards for five years. The MATCH list is a shared blacklist maintained by Mastercard and consulted by every processor in the industry before approving a new […]
Read Article →Risk & Fraud Prevention The Difference A PayPal chargeback dispute is handled very differently than a traditional card network chargeback. Claire spent years working in back-office accounting at a payment processing company. Not on the sales floor, not in customer service — in the room where disputes actually get resolved. She saw the paperwork, the […]
Read Article →The Short Answer Yes — most HOAs can charge an HOA convenience fee on card payments, and most are leaving money on the table by not doing it. Every month, homeowners pay their dues. A significant portion of them pay by credit card. And every month, without a convenience fee program in place, your HOA […]
Read Article →The Question Do I need a merchant account? Most small business owners have been processing cards for years without ever thinking about it. They signed up for Square or Stripe in ten minutes, plugged in a reader, and started taking payments. It worked. So why would you need to know more? The answer is cost […]
Read Article →Risk & Fraud Prevention A Square account freeze can happen overnight — and when it does, your business stops accepting cards until Square decides otherwise. No warning. No timeline. No one on the phone who can actually help. This post covers why Square freezes accounts, what triggers a hold, how long it typically lasts, and […]
Read Article →Payment Technology The Payment Method That Skips the Card Networks Entirely A property management company I work with collects rent from about 140 units every month. For years, they were processing those payments by card — either through an online portal or by running cards manually over the phone. At an average rent of $1,800 […]
Read Article →A web developer I know called me last year. His client — a subscription software company doing about $35,000 a month — had just had their Stripe account terminated. No warning. No phone call. An email arrived on a Tuesday morning saying their account had been flagged for violating Stripe’s terms of service. The email […]
Read Article →Payment Technology The Part of Every Transaction Nobody Talks About Every time a customer hands over a card — in your store, on your website, through your virtual terminal — something has to move that card data from them to your bank. Securely. Instantly. Without exposing the account number to anyone who should not see […]
Read Article →Square payment processing problems don’t announce themselves. They show up after you’ve been on the platform long enough to stop questioning it. I sat across from a restaurant owner in Boca Raton last spring. She’d been running her place for six years. Solid lunch crowd, steady dinner service, about $28,000 a month running through her […]
Read Article →Industry Insights PayPal worked fine — until it didn’t. For a lot of merchants, that’s where the story ends and the hard lesson starts. I want to be fair here. PayPal is not a scam. For a freelancer getting paid by a client overseas, or someone selling handmade items on Etsy twice a month, it […]
Read Article →Risk & Fraud Prevention A chargeback doesn’t knock. It doesn’t wait for your side of the story. It charges your account, reverses the sale, and hands you a fee — all before you’ve said a word. Chargeback payment processing is one of the least explained and most consequential parts of accepting card payments. I’ve had […]
Read Article →Human Nature She didn’t call them. They called her. Eight minutes later she still wasn’t sure if something was wrong — or if she’d just been sold something. You remember Sallie. Nail salon owner. Eleven years in business. The one who called her bank to ask about her processing fees and spent 24 minutes on […]
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