ReformingRetail is continuing with a payments statement obfuscation series. We call it SOS for short, and it’s coincidentally a very appropriate acronym. We aim to publish an article in the series twice per month, but it really depends on the shenanigans that we see in the market. Both the statements and analysis are being provided by Merchant Cost Consulting, an advisory group of payments experts that helps merchants lower their processing rates.
These statements come from February and March of 2020.
WorldPay
Worldpay has long been known as the OG of statement padding. On a traditional statement there can be literally hundreds of lines of card categories. Each of these categories has a stated interchange rate set by the card networks (Visa, Mastercard, etc). Worldpay knows that their merchants won’t have these numbers memorized and add fees (ie pads) all or some line items as they deem “appropriate”.
Merchant Cost has now found a new scheme. “After much scrutiny, Worldpay has finally changed its wording on their statements. It showcases not only the interchange fees, but the non-qualified surcharge that they are adding on top of these fees and on top of their existing markup.”
Per the below, this service markup discount rate is blended into the interchange fees here. It’s a very deceptive way to not showcase the true price without cross referencing the interchange fees.
The tactic makes another appearance below as well.
First Data
This statement comes from Bank of America, a First Data partner. Here the rate has increased from 10 – 53 basis points.
Paya
Lastly there’s Paya. Paya has padded the interchange rates and added a 0.05% surcharge to the service markup already being charged to the client.
There’s only so much value to go around, folks. Better get it while you can!
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