Headline News: Affecting All US Business Owners Accepting Credit Cards!
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A Brief Explanation of the Durbin Amendment for Online Business Merchant Account Members
The Durbin Amendment has ruffled feathers for those who hold an online business merchant account. It was only recently added to the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act back in 2010, but consumers are already starting to see the effects. Introduced by senator Richard J. Durbin, it was designed to limit transaction fees billed to merchants by issuers like Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express that were consequentially added to merchant services provider charges.
These fees, also called swiping fees, were once an outrageous 44% per transaction. Now, they have been capped at 1-3 cents for small business transactions, and 12 cents for banks holding more than $10 billion in assets. Seeking to address the differing needs between large scale and small businesses, it was initially welcomed and celebrated by retailers and consumers alike. The Visa-MasterCard duopoly created a coalition to make a profit off of swiping fees, supposedly designed for fraud protection and overhead cost coverage. Although it was initially praised as a form of justice against credit card companies, it is now heavily criticized.
However banks once depended on these high fees from merchants who accept credit card payments to offer their free checking accounts and reward programs. A rise in charges for these services once included with a card or bank account is due to that fact that offering them is no longer profitable anymore. The observed results of the amendment in reality did now offer the promised lowered prices from big box retailers as promised. Although the lowered charges were supposed to lower costs for consumers by proxy, Total-Merchant-Services has observed that businesses haven’t responded how their incentives intended. Critics of the amendment argue that the only thing it really affected was the account holder’s ability to access free checking and rewards programs from their banks, not lower prices in stores.
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Along with offering the largest and most up-to-date line of customizable payment solutions for your business, Total Merchant Services provides the lowest rates and fee structure in the industry. By providing free state-of-the-art equipment, low rates and personalized customer service, our merchants have more money to grow their business.
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We provide a compressive suite of payment processing and software solutions -- from credit card processing to guaranteed check services -- for small to mid-sized businesses in nearly every industry including retail, restaurant, service, and mail/telephone order. We will create a customized payment solution package consisting of a combination of equipment, software and other value-added services that will best meet your needs and allow your business to succeed.
Testimonials
"I found Total Merchant Services to be the solution to all my payment processing needs."
-- John Scott, Auto Parts Supplier - Pittsburgh, PA
"I have a booth selling my artwork at a weekend market. Thanks to the Total Merchant Services wireless terminal, I turned what would normally be a $600 days into many $10,000 days. You are awesome! Thank you for setting me up."
-- Sybil Hill- Artist/Manufacturer - Aspen, CO
"We have a multi-location clothing store where we do high volume transactions and lots of them, especially on the weekends. We needed a fast, reliable solution and Total Merchant Services pulled through for us. Fast easy set-up and free IP enabled state-of-the-art equipment too. Included was an online interface to view all our transaction activity for both locations. We can also keep tabs on the transaction activity while away on vacation. These guys are fantastic!!"
-- Ralph Myers, Women's Clothing Boutique's - WA, CA, AZ, and IL
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Total Merchant Services
Phone: 888-848-6821
Fax: 866-682-4465
Email: marty@total-merchant-services.com
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