Phil Hinke's background is engineering. However, he has been in the credit card processing industry since 1994. His experiences ranges from being a salesperson to a senior vice president at one of the largest merchant account providers. He now runs MerchantFeeSavers, an educational and consulting service, and MLS Advocate, an unbiased savings-analysis-service for merchants.
He educates merchants, provides free statement audits, and helps merchants get the best processing value by negotiating with their current providers or by providing a blind bid for the merchant's processing.
Now is a good time for merchants to start noting how their provider is handling card company fee changes as well as any future rate and fee changes, especially if ...
I have addressed the importance of understanding credit card processing statements in previous articles. However, I’ve recently seen statements with little or minimal detail that make it virtually impossible to ...
On July 31, 2013 U.S. District Judge Richard Leon sided with retailers and rejected the debit interchange rate cap set by Federal Reserve under the Durbin Amendment in 2011. The ...
Merchants periodically send me their credit card processing agreements after they have negotiated new pricing with their existing provider or when changing providers.
Usually, I find that the merchant has done a good job of negotiating rates and monthly fees. However, some of the peri...
If you have been reading my articles, you know I do not believe business owners should give their credit card merchant statements to competing providers. Merchant statements disclose the pricing that competitors need to win over the account at the highest possible profit to them.
Th...
Visa, MasterCard, and Discover generally change rates and terms in April and October. However, they can make changes at other times during the year, as will happen this year. Unfortunately, over the years, some providers have taken advantage of these changes by increasing their rates an...
Editor's Note: Contributor Phil Hinke is a veteran of the credit card processing industry. He now consults with merchants to help lower their processing costs, believing the credit card industry is often unfair to them. His latest article, below, addresses misconceptions with interchang...
Editor's Note: Contributor Phil Hinke is a veteran of the credit card processing industry. He now consults with merchants to help lower their processing costs, believing the credit card industry is often unfair to them. His latest article, below, addresses how merchants should react to ...
I was a keynote speaker at a recent meeting of U.S. and Canadian merchants. Whenever I present, I invite merchants to bring their processing statements and their merchant contracts so I can audit them afterwards. Before starting, I always ask each merchant how often he audits his statem...
In November 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York preliminarily approved a proposed settlement agreement with Visa and MasterCard. As part of the settlement, Visa and MasterCard were required to allow merchants to charge for certain credit card transactions ...
Editor's Note: This is a follow-up article to the just completed four-part series on how to lower your debit and credit card costs and obtain more favorable terms and conditions. "Part 1: The Basics," "Part 2: Attitude," "Part 3: Preparation," and "Part 4: Negotiations" we published pre...
Editor's Note: This is "Part 4" in a four-part series on how to lower your debit and credit card costs and obtain more favorable terms and conditions. "Part 1: The Basics," "Part 2: Attitude," and “Part 3: Preparation” we published previously.
Before starting any negotiations, make s...
This is "Part 3" in a four-part series on how to lower your debit and credit card costs and obtain more favorable terms and conditions. "Part 1: The Basics" and "Part 2: Attitude" we published previously.
Note that this series is specific to ecommerce merchants. It can be used as a g...
This article is "Part 2" in a four-part series on how to lower your debit and credit card costs and obtain more favorable terms and conditions. "Part 1: The Basics" we published last month.
Note that this series is specific to ecommerce merchants. It can be used as a general guide b...
Editor’s Note: Contributor Phil Hinke is a veteran of the credit card processing industry. He now consults with merchants to help lower their processing costs, believing the credit card industry ...
Visa, MasterCard and 13 of the country's biggest banks have agreed to pay $7.25 billion to retailers in a settlement from a lawsuit over price-fixing on credit card transaction fees. The settlement, on behalf of about 7 million retailers, could be the largest antitrust class-action set...
Editor's Note: Contributor Phil Hinke is a veteran of the credit card processing industry. He now consults with merchants to help them lower their processing costs, believing the credit card industry is often unfair to them. His latest installment is below.
There have been a few cases ...
Editor's Note: Contributor Phil Hinke is a credit-card veteran who now consults with merchants on lowering their processing costs. Hinke believes the credit card processing industry is often unfair to merchants. He explains his views in his articles for us, including the one below.
It’...
Editor's Note: Contributor Phil Hinke is a veteran of the credit card processing industry. He now consults with ecommerce merchants on ways to lower their processing costs. Hinke believes merchants frequently overpay for credit card processing. His piece below is the third installment o...
Editor's Note: Contributor Phil Hinke is a veteran of the credit card processing industry. He now consults with ecommerce merchants on ways to lower their processing costs. Hinke believes merchants frequently overpay for credit card processing. His piece below is the second installment ...
Editor's Note: Contributor Phil Hinke is a veteran of the credit card processing industry. He now consults with ecommerce merchants on ways to lower their processing costs. Hinke believes merchants frequently overpay for credit card processing. His piece below is the first installment o...
Editor's Note: Contributor Phil Hinke is a veteran of the credit card processing industry. He now consults with merchants to help them lower their processing costs, believing the credit card industry is often unfair to them. His latest installment is below.
In "Durbin Amendment May Fos...
Editor’s Note: Contributor Phil Hinke is a credit-card veteran who now consults with merchants on lowering their processing costs. Hinke believes the credit card processing industry is often unfair to ...
I am a strong advocate of interchange-plus pricing. To date, I have allowed only merchant account providers that offer interchange-plus pricing to bid for my clients' business. However, I am also concerned about how some providers and salespeople appear to be pitching interchange-plus pricing as a panacea for ensuring merchants are being priced fairly.
I am not only upset with what I am seeing in the in the card processing industry right now, I am disgusted with how merchants are being taken advantage of.
This article is my latest installment on deceptive credit card practices that harm ecommerce merchants. I have worked in the credit card processing industry since 1994 and every year I get more disgusted with the tactics used on merchants. I now own a consulting firm that advises merc...
This article is "Part 4" in a series where I help you understand your debit and credit card fees. In last month’s installment — "Understanding Credit Card Fees, Part 3: Punitive Interchange Rates" — I explained how to decode your merchant statement to distinguish the actual interchange...
This is the third installment in a series where I help you understand your credit and debit card fees. In last month’s article, "Understanding Credit Card Fees, Part 2: Merchant Account Fees and Charges," I discussed the various monthly and annual fees charged by merchant account provid...
In “Understanding Credit Card Fees, Part 1: The Basics,” I outlined the information you need to know to receive the best rates from your merchant account provider.
This article is "Part 2" of that series where I help you understand your credit card fees. In this installment, I address...
The Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act takes effect on July 21, 2011. One of the key points in the Amendment requires large financial institutions to cap their debit card interchange fees. Currently, the scheduled cap is 12 cents per transaction. However, that ...