When shopping for the best merchant account,
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you're really looking the lowest markup over base costs. There are true costs associated with credit card processing that merchant service providers can't control.
Think of credit card processing as a tangible product for a moment. Like with any product, there are costs to bring it to market that aren't negotiable at the retail level. The only aspect of price that is negotiable is the markup over wholesale. This same model applies to credit card processing services.
Whether it's an individual agent or a large acquiring organization, merchant service providers have to pay for the ability to offer credit card processing services. The costs that they pay are determined by something called a buy rate. Buy rates are the base costs and fees that the provider must pay to the organizations above them in the processing food chain.
The greatest contributor to credit card processing
become an iso merchant services costs is interchange. Interchange is the amount of a credit card transaction that a merchant's bank pays to the issuing bank of a customer's credit card. Interchange fees are set by the issuing banks that are stakeholders of Visa and MasterCard, and merchant service providers have no control over the charges.