When they’re starting out, most businesses choose the cheapest merchant account available, particularly given that they don’t know if their business will be a success. Given that less than half of small businesses make it past the five year mark, this makes sense. Upstart businesses don’t necessarily have the resources available to invest in a quality merchant account provider. However, once businesses have past the five year mark, they tend to grow into medium sized businesses. This happens if they open another retail or service location. If this is the case, the small business might find that they are processing a much higher volume of transactions once they open multiple locations. If this is the case, they need to find a merchant account provider that better suit their needs, and is not just the cheapest option available. With that in mind, here is the criteria that a medium size business should use to select a merchant account provider.
Accreditation and Reputation
When looking for the best merchant account provider for your needs, the first thing you will want to do is do some research into their reputation. To do so, you should start by looking at the provider’s Better Business Bureau (BBB) report. This report will give you an idea of the business’s reputation in the industry. If there are numerous unanswered complaints against the merchant account provider, then you may want to move on. Additionally, you can look at B2B review sites and see if the merchant provider has any negative reviews on there. If these reviews prove to be reasonable, then it may be best to look into alternative options.
Processing Volume and Technical Support
Understanding how merchant processing works is a key factor in selecting a merchant account provider. When transitioning from a small business to a medium sized business, you’ll want to have a much larger cap on your monthly processing volume. As such, you need to make sure that whatever volume of monthly processing you negotiate is not capped, lest you have to pay extra fees. If these is the case, the merchant account provider you are looking at may not be a good fit for you.
Additionally, you’ll want to make sure that the merchant account provider you select has excellent technical support options. It would be an unwise decisions to partner with a merchant account provider that will not be available to support you during critical times in your business when you are processing a high volume of transactions.
Overall, there are numerous things that go into transitioning a small business to a medium sized one. However, upgrading your merchant account to one that better suits your needs is often overlooked. When growing your business in this way, it’s best for you to come to terms with the fact that you will likely need to switch merchant account providers to one that can better complement your business growth trajectory. Doing so will help to support your business goals and make sure that you always have a working and equitable merchant account for your business.
