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When you are starting a small business, you will almost certainly have to have a trade line with a credit card processing company. Almost no business does business without credit cards in the modern day and age. But, with so many such businesses to choose from, how do you know how to pick the best small business credit card processors?

The first thing you need to understand is how credit card processing companies work. What these businesses do is take a cut from each transaction that takes place…usually in the amount of 2%. The amount varies from company to company, and typically there is a slightly higher charge for e-terminals than there is for brick-and-mortar retail outlets, but on the whole it stays very near 2% and the variance within businesses and business types remains very low. There are also some other minor fees such as monthly costs and small per-charge fees, but on the whole the money is made through the discount rate.

So what criteria are best for determining the best small business credit card processors? The discount rate and the level of customer satisfaction. You can compare the best credit card processing companies on toptenreviews.com, and you can also check the customer service levels on JD Power and Associates. Basically, as long as the company has a verifiable history of providing quality service to its customers, does not have excessive hidden fees, and doesn’t have an abnormally high discount rate, it is probably a very reasonable company to work with.

Finding the best small business credit card processors is not that difficult of a task, but it is nevertheless an important one; to be successful in business, you always want to be able to select the right components for your team.


This Business article was written by Mark Karavan on 2/16/2010