What Is A Utility Merchant Account?
Visa, MasterCard and Discover offer substantially reduced credit card processing rates to businesses that provide waste management and utility services.
These special low rates are called the utility interchange rates, and they can help to reduce your monthly card processing fees by up to 70%.
In order to receive the utility interchange rates your business must be approved for a Utilities merchant account.
Setting up a Utilities merchant account requires that your business be classified with the correct eligible MCC code, and your business must be registered with Visa with valid Merchant Verification Value (MVV).
Both of these requirements will be handled by our underwriting team at the time that your account is setup. It's crucial to work with a payment processor that has the knowledge and expertise to correctly set up a Utility merchant account so that your business can reap the benefits.
Does My Business Qualify?
If your business provides ANY of the following services, you're eligible for a Utilities merchant account:
- Waste Disposal & Waste Management Sevices
- Residential Trash Collection
- Container Rentals
- Roll-off Services
- Water / Gas / Electric Distribution or Generation Services
- Sanitary Utility Services
The Utility Interchange Rates
The most important thing to know about a Utilities merchant account is that you do not pay a percentage discount rate on the credit and debit card payments you process. Instead, you only pay a flat per transaction fee which we have listed below:
Visa
Debit - $0.65
Credit - $0.75
Rewards - $0.75
Signature - $0.75
Commercial - $1.50
MasterCard
Debit - $0.45
Credit - $0.65
Rewards - $0.75
World - $0.75
Commercial - $1.50
Discover
Debit - $0.75
Credit - $0.75
Rewards - $.75
Commercial - $1.50
Example: If your business processes a Visa consumer credit card payment in the amount of $500.00, you will only pay a $0.75 transaction fee on that sale.
Typically you would pay a discount rate of between 1.5% to 2.5% plus a transaction fee. But with a Utilities merchant account, there are NO percentage rates; you only pay the flat transaction fees listed below:
Satisfied Customers
When you accept credit card bill payments, you give your customers a convenient option that saves them time and increases their satisfaction, and in turn, your business benefits. A recent payments study found that 64 percent of respondents used their credit or debit cards to pay for household and personal bills.
Other studies have shown that a rapidly increasing number of consumers have a strong preference for making fast, electronic payments, as opposed to writing checks.
And you might be surprised by how many ways your business can benefit by accepting credit card payments for your services:
- Increased profitability and lower costs - Visa payments post faster than checks, and as long as the merchant adheres to simple authorization rules, payments are also guaranteed— so you don’t have to deal with the lost time and expense of deliquent accounts.
- Increased efficiency - Over 69 percent of US businesses that accept credit card payments see improvement in some area of their cash management process. Processing is much faster than with check payments, and with automatic bill payment, there's no need to chase down late payments.
Trash The Higher Fees & Start Saving Money!
Tailored Transaction has specialized in processing utility bill payments for the past 17 years. We will set up a Utilities merchant account for your business allowing you to take advantage of the incredible savings that it can provide.
Contact us today to learn more about this beneficial program.
Visit us online at www.TailoredTransactions.com or call us direct at (888) 669.1686