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How to Understand Your Merchant Account Statement
Credit cards are a significant and necessary form of payment for most merchants. Paying with plas?c: • Makes purchases easier • Makes purchases quicker • Allows the consumer to buy in larger quan??es than if they
paid with other methods By learning the various terms on your statement and researching what credit cards work best for your business, merchants can help eliminate any confusion.
Reviewing your company’s statement may be in?mida?ng with various terms and words that a business owner may not be completely familiar with. Here are the main components merchants need to focus on for their credit card processing solu?on:
Summary Located typically at the top of the statement, the summary shows the sales that are processed by the card brand as well as the total fees paid in order to process the sales. Some other items that may be included on the summary are: • Any adjustments to the account • Chargebacks • A breakdown of sales by the card brand • Number of refunds
Source
Deposits Below the summary is typically a list of seMlements that are listed by day that break down the daily sales volume by the card amount and brand. This informa?on is beneficial for reconciling seMled batches to deposits that will go into the merchant’s business related bank account.
Interchange Interchange charges are the variable fees that are charged by the card payment networks for processing transac?ons. Credit card companies are the ones who set these specific rates, which are based off various factors such as: • Customer card type • Size of business • Type of industry
Interchange Research shows that the average rate for swipe transac?ons are .05 percent for debit and 1.5-‐1.65 percent for VMC.
Markup The second term is the markup. Whether this is the discount rate, basis points, or something else, there is a percentage that is placed at the top of all transac?ons.
Ancillary Fees Ancillary fees are the fees such as statement fees, batch fees, customer service fees, monthly minimums, and more.
Processing Services
This sec?on provides your discount rate charges that you get from your interchange plus processor. Typically the charges will be divided by card brand and sales volume.
Authoriza?ons
This por?on of the statement displays per authoriza?on charges that come from an interchange plus provider and is split by card brand and/or transac?on type. Some?mes the charges will be listed as AUTH or WAT charges.
Discount Rate
The discount rate is the percentage of every transac?on that is deducted as a fee. Qualified, mid-‐qualified, and non-‐qualified are the three different forms of rates.
Merchants should become informed on the basic terms in their statements to help ease the burden on confusing terminologies and numbers. By knowing the layout and terminology in account statements, merchants will be able to find what they are looking for much faster and be able to determine the costs of their current plan.
First American wants to help make your experience as a merchant and your customers experience beMer than ever before. Contact us today to get started!
First American Payment Systems