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 April and May of 2020.
Vantiv
At least Vantiv is consistent: this month showed more padding on statements.
TSYS
TSYS, now owned by Global Payments, who we are dubbing the The King of Fake Fees, has added a monthly fee between $125 and $139. Why the disparity? Uh, why the fee at all? Oh, “revenue synergies“.
First Data – Card Connect
Here First Data is notifying the customer that pricing will change to coincide with the card network interchange changes. What do you want to bet that the pricing just happens to be in First Data’s favor?
Check your statements.
[…] you’ve at all followed this periodical, you’ll see payment fee increase after fee increase, rounding error after rounding error (always in the processor’s favor, mind you), and […]