I've been helping companies accept credit cards for over 19 years, and there are a few "little secrets" that really should not be secrets at all:

1. Free can really cost you. 
   If you are getting something for free from your processor look out. Here's where to look: your monthly processing fees. You see, processing fees are up to 99% of the cost of accepting credit cards. It's easy for payment processing companies to get a disproportionate return by giving you “no monthly fees” or a “free terminal” and burying the cost in the processing fee percentage taken from every transaction. In short, “free” usually means giving you a measly $20 and taking $40-$1000's more in processing fees every month. Free can really cost you.
   
    
2. Having clear, written policies is the key to avoiding problems.
   Aside fraud and situations where payers simply don't get their products or services, chargebacks usually are the result of not having a clear and written refund policy and payment card acceptance policy. Nothing ends payment dispute faster than a written contract or clear boilerplate language. 
   
    
3. There is a way to shift processing costs to the payer.
   Here's the catch: you can't charge your customers a different price for a credit card payment as you do for a cash payment. For years, the credit card industry has carefully modified association rules, merchant agreements and policies to prevent merchants from marking up credit card transactions. At the same time, the rules do allow third party processors (TPPs) to charge courtesy fees to payers. So, if you want out from under processing fees, use a TPP service like our VPS Portal. You get 100% of the amount paid to you, the payer covers the transaction cost. 
   
    
4. Save money forever by using a bundled gateway.
   If you are selling products online, one of the best ways to lower processing costs is to switch to a processor with a bundled online gateway. This eliminates any additional gateway processing fees (somewhere between $0.05-$0.60 per transaction) and a monthly $10-$30. In most cases, bundled gateways are not supported out of the box by packaged software. Fortunately, adding a new payment gateway is a fairly inexpensive proposition. If you are building a custom appliaction, it costs the same to build for a bundled gateway as it does for a service like Authorize.net. In short, you may have to pay for a few hours of programmer time to integrate a new gateway, but the savings your investment will generate will last forever. 
   
    
5. Switching processors in the middle of a contract can save you big money.
   Often when we review statements for companies who already have merchant processing, we are able to cut processing costs by 20-60%. Depending on your transaction volume, the hundreds or thousands in savings we can find may be greater than the $20-$30 “montly minimum” your existing processor charges. If you haven't reviewed your merchant processing statement in the past few years, you could be wasting thousands every month.