Are you the owner or manager of a non-profit organization? If so, you may be eligible for lower credit card processing rates than regular businesses. This article will discuss the best solution for non-profits to accept credit card payments: let’s take a look! As a non-profit, your goal should be to make it easy for people to donate money to your organization. Unfortunately, if you have not taken advantage of non-profit credit card processing rates, you are throwing money away that could otherwise be used towards your cause.
When a credit card payment is processed, one of the main costs is something that is known as interchange. Depending on the type of transaction, there will be a specific rate that goes with it. For instance, if a credit card is a rewards card or a debit card, there are specific interchange categories and fees associated. These costs are collected by the card networks then paid to the credit card’s issuing bank. Another and additional cost involved in credit card processing is a concept by the name of assessments, which are fees that are paid to the various credit card institutions (e.g., Visa, Discover, etc).
In addition to this, mark-ups are paid to the credit card processor and these are usually a small portion of the overall processing bill. When it comes to nonprofit payment processing, some fees are unavoidable. However, Host Merchant Services can help you to obtain the lowest possible costs so that more money goes directly to your cause. This is because there are specific interchange categories for nonprofits and you can take advantage of nonprofit interchange rates if your business is registered as a nonprofit.
Every business (whether a for profit or nonprofit business) is given a Merchant Category Code (MCC) when they start accepting payments via credit card. This code can determine your interchange rates and the good news is that nonprofits can be assigned a special MCC that will allow them to receive very low interchange fees on their transactions.
We can help you to obtain favorable rates for your nonprofit merchant services and this is done using pass through pricing which is essentially the cost plus pricing (or interchange plus). You will therefore pay for only assessments and basic interchange fees on your credit card transactions plus a small fixed markup. This can save you a lot of money in the long run, especially if you receive a lot of credit donations.
With the world moving towards in-person and online payments mostly via credit card and away from cash, if nonprofits can take advantage of low transaction processing rates, they will be in a much better place financially and will have more funds to spend their causes. Host Merchant Services has an excellent reputation and vast experience in assisting nonprofit companies achieving the best possible rates. Our clients often state that working with us is a pleasure and we strive to make the process easy and painless for you.
We will not rest until we are 100% sure that we have the most competitive rates for your nonprofit and we will explain every aspect of the payment structure to you in simple terms. The ultimate goal of a nonprofit company is to have the highest possible portion of every donation go directly to their cause and lower credit card processing rates definitely contributes to this in a big way!
