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Advice on Choosing Equipment and Terminals
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By:
Jack Chevalier |
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Equipment and payment terminals are required to meet the needs of merchants everywhere. You can choose among countertop, integrated and stand-alone payment terminal models, each offering support for a variety of payment options to fit into specific merchant environments. Go for equipment that is fast, efficient, capable of capturing payment information at the point of sale and quickly transferring it from the merchant counter to the payment network for approval.
Here is some advice for you to consider before making a decision on your credit card processing equipment:
Avoid terminal leases – Avoid leasing credit card terminals as they are almost always a bad deal. The times when credit card processing had just started, credit card terminals were expensive and small and mid-sized business did not have a choice but to lease the required piece of machinery. These days, the simple kinds of credit card terminals that most merchants need only cost a few hundred dollars. When you lease you usually end up paying about 4 times the actual price.
Terminals can be reprogrammed to match different Merchant Account providers- If for some reason you decide to change your merchant account provider, it does not mean that you have to invest another lump sum in purchasing a credit card terminal. Almost all terminals that are in use today can be easily reprogrammed over the phone for free to get them up and running with the new processor. So, there is no reason for you to feel locked-in and not change your provider only because of the false notion that you will have to spend extra on new equipment. The old one shall work just fine!
Invest in a PIN-pad and encourage your customers to use it as much as possible. Most credit card terminals have easy and cheap ($100) add-ons that allow you to accept customer PIN numbers. When the customer types in the PIN it becomes an "Online Debit" transaction and travels over a different (cheaper) network. By getting the customer to type in their PIN you will reduce your transaction cost by about 50%, which will quickly pay for the cost of the PIN-pad.
Merchant Account Providers that are advertising free terminals - Be very skeptical of Merchant Account Providers that are advertising free terminals. Nothing in life is truly free and these deals always come with a catch. Such contracts will have a higher cancellation fee, higher startup fee, higher discount rate, or something
For more information visit http://www.paynetsystems.com/html/equipment_list.htm
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