{"id":6241,"date":"2020-01-31T05:57:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T11:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/?p=6241"},"modified":"2020-01-31T05:57:08","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T11:57:08","slug":"reformingretails-payments-statement-obfuscation-series-global-payments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/31\/reformingretails-payments-statement-obfuscation-series-global-payments\/","title":{"rendered":"ReformingRetail’s Payments Statement Obfuscation Series: Global Payments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ReformingRetail is continuing with a payments statement obfuscation series. We call it SOS for short, and it\u2019s 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 <\/em>Merchant Cost Consulting<\/em><\/a>, an advisory group of payments experts that helps merchants lower their processing rates.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcome back. In this article we\u2019re going to dissect some of Global Payment\u2019s latest \u201cvalue creation\u201d efforts as of November 2019. And if you didn\u2019t read into our thinly veiled sarcasm that\u2019s value add for Global, not for their merchants. (Technically we\u2019re seeing these changes for Global\u2019s Open Edge customers only at this time).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For starters Global has added a $45 fee for Customer Engagement Suite. In the merchants Merchant Cost Consulting spoke with, these merchants had no idea what this product even was or even recall signing up for it. Our guess is that it\u2019s either a white labeled version of Womply, or some in-house version of Womply that Global decided to build (look at Heartland Analytics if you\u2019re interested in what a homegrown payments tool looks like). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately merchants will continue to be charged this $45 fee unless they opt out. According to Merchant Cost Consulting, this would be called an auto enrollment fee. This fee is charged to merchants for \u201cproducts\u201d or \u201cservices\u201d that the merchant didn\u2019t knowingly sign up for: the processor just activated them to earn another fee. But in true payment processor fashion, the fine print incorporated in merchant agreements gives these processors the rights to add any fees they deem necessary, including but not limiting to auto enrollment fees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hit with such an auto enrollment fee? You have to call your merchant provider to get out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll also notice the language at the end of the statement which says starting October 2019, certain merchants will see an increase to their discount rates, assessments, and per item fees. This means that if you are on interchange plus pricing, your business could be susceptible to increased pricing on the discount markup, the per-transaction or per-item fee, and a surcharge or added fee to the assessments. Again, all of these fees are bogus according to Merchant Cost Consulting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next statement shenanigans comes from Priority Payment Systems, which is a TSYS partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Mastercard secure code transaction is a private code for a merchant\u2019s specific Mastercard account that gives an additional layer of online shopping security. Only a merchant and their merchant service company or financial institution know what the code is – customers are not able to see it. Well, this fee is increasing by $0.02 per transaction and it\u2019s bupkis according to Merchant Cost Consultants. Do 1,000 online transactions this month? That\u2019s another $20 to line the pockets of the processor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Granted the fee is specific to only MOTO transactions (transaction made over the phone) or when your customers enter their card information on your website. But if you do a lot of online activity, free money galore for your processor. Once again you need to pick up the phone and call your processor to negotiate this down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helpful? We thought so too. Our next SOS article will deal with the changes we\u2019ve seen from Worldpay and First Data. <\/p>\n