Plain-English breakdowns of fees, pricing models, and industry practices so you can make smarter decisions for your business.
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Card Network Rules Yes — But Only Up to $10, and Only on Credit Merchants can set card minimums, but the rule is narrower than the handwritten signs taped to most counters suggest. Under the Durbin Amendment — part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act — you may require a minimum purchase before a customer pays […]
Read Article →VISA VAMP · THE NEW CHARGEBACK RULES 2.2% 1.5% −32% Visa’s “excessive” fraud + dispute threshold Effective April 1, 2026 · US, Canada, EU, APAC FRAUD (TC40) + DISPUTES (TC15) → ONE COMBINED RATIO Legal & Compliance You Didn’t Change Anything. The Line Moved. A merchant who ran a clean book in March can be […]
Read Article →Business Growth Selam Coffee Sold Out in a Weekend. Then the Processor Froze the Money. Saba Tesfaye started Selam Coffee Co. roasting single-origin beans in a rented Minneapolis warehouse, selling bags at the Saturday market and to a few hundred online subscribers — about $6,000 a month, run through a flat-rate app that took 2.9% […]
Read Article →Risk & Fraud Prevention The Equipment Costs $300. The Lease Costs $7,000. The terminal on the counter cost the leasing company a few hundred dollars. Over a four-year, non-cancellable credit card terminal leasing contract, the merchant pays seven thousand. When the lease finally ends, the billing sometimes does not. That gap — between what the […]
Read Article →Human Nature Renata’s Terminal Was Free. The Rate Behind It Was Not. When Renata Vasquez opened Vela & Vine, a wine-and-gift shop off the plaza in Santa Fe, a processing rep walked in during her second week and offered her a free credit card terminal. No upfront cost, no rental line, the rep said — […]
Read Article →A Hold He Never Saw Coming The Order That Froze By the time Bob Flanagan finished switching back to a merchant account, the hold on the biggest order of his year had already cost him two weeks of cash flow he could not get back. His Grand Rapids screen-printing and embroidery shop had run on […]
Read Article →A Statement That Didn’t Add Up Dani Never Thought of Bar Payment Processing as a Line She Could Control Dani Okafor had never once thought of bar payment processing as a cost she could do anything about — it was just the price of taking cards at The Lantern Room, her neighborhood cocktail bar. Then […]
Read Article →The Call Every Office Knows When a Taxpayer Says “I Paid — Why Do I Still Owe?” Donna, the deputy treasurer in a mid-size county office, takes the call a few days after the property tax deadline. A homeowner paid online over the weekend, just opened a delinquency notice, and he is furious. She pulls […]
Read Article →For Treasurers and Finance Directors The Third Way to Take a Government Payment Most guidance on collecting tax and utility payments online assumes the payment page is wired into your tax system — either calling it live through an API or working off an exported roll through bill presentment. There is a third option that […]
Read Article →The Live-Integration Model What an API Setup Does That a Portal Alone Can’t A government payment API is the live connection between the portal a citizen pays through and the tax, CAMA, or ERP system that actually holds the balance — and it is the reason a payment can post the instant it clears instead […]
Read Article →How Online Collections Actually Work The Model Most Tax and Utility Offices Already Run On Electronic bill presentment is how the majority of county tax offices, municipalities, and utility districts collect payments online today — and most of the people running those offices have never been told what the model is actually doing under the […]
Read Article →The Buyer’s View The Government Payment Processor Complaints Treasurers Don’t Post Online Most government payment processor complaints never reach a review site. A county treasurer who is frustrated with a vendor isn’t writing a one-star review — they’re fielding the fallout at the counter, waiting on a support ticket that hasn’t moved, or rebuilding a […]
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