Phil Hinke

Articles by: Phil Hinke

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.

Contact Phil at phil@merchantfeesavers.com, or visit MerchantFeeSavers.

Management

Credit Card Processing: Beware of ‘Rate Reductions’

May 2, 2017 • Phil Hinke

In my experience, most merchants feel that their credit card account provider is more likely to increase their rates or invent new fees rather than offer an unsolicited rate reduction. The ... Read More »
Management

Credit Card Processing: 3 Items to Review on Jan. 2017 Statement

February 27, 2017 • Phil Hinke

Merchants should have received their credit card processing statements for January 2017 activity. They should take the time to review three important items. Investigate Customer Refunds It’s not uncommon for merchants to ... Read More »
Management

Credit Card Processing: Better to Work with Resellers or Processors?

September 29, 2016 • Phil Hinke

My recent series on working with credit card salespeople prompted good feedback and questions from readers. I addressed some of the questions in my August article. For this article, I will ... Read More »
Management

Why Do Credit Card Providers Offer Flat Rate Processing?

August 30, 2016 • Phil Hinke

Many readers gave good feedback on my recent 3-part series on partnering with credit card salespeople. I will be addressing this feedback in upcoming articles. A few merchants sent me their provider’s email response after ... Read More »
Management

Partnering with Credit-card-processing Salespeople, Part 3: Weeding Out Unacceptable Parties

July 28, 2016 • Phil Hinke

When soliciting and evaluating a request for proposal for a client’s credit card processing, I always let the client include any provider or salespeople she wants. Clients often want to ... Read More »
Management

Partnering with Credit-card-processing Salespeople, Part 2: Setting Expectations

June 24, 2016 • Phil Hinke

Before you signed your current credit card processing agreement, did you tell the salesperson what you expected from him and the provider? Did you ask him what he expected from ... Read More »
Management

Partnering with Credit-card-processing Salespeople, Part 1: Detailed Statements Key

May 25, 2016 • Phil Hinke

The pay of most salespeople in the credit-card-processing industry is 100-percent commission. Salespeople therefore presumably do not want to lose an account from an ecommerce or any other business. Unfortunately, many ... Read More »
Management

Credit-card-processing Negotiating Mistakes, Part 2: Understanding the Offer

April 5, 2016 • Phil Hinke

This is the second installment of a 2-part series on common mistakes I see from merchants, when they negotiate the rates and fees of credit-card-processing providers. In “Part 1: Terminology, ... Read More »
Management

Credit-card-processing Negotiating Mistakes, Part 1: Terminology, Exits

February 15, 2016 • Phil Hinke

This is the first article in a 2-part series on common mistakes I see merchants make when negotiating rates and fees or analyzing the offers from different credit-card-processing providers. Credit-card-processing Negotiating ... Read More »
Management

Credit Card Processing: American Express OptBlue Rates Often Wrong

October 26, 2015 • Phil Hinke

Did you change credit card providers or renegotiate pricing with your existing provider in the last year? If so, did you verify that you were actually receiving the rates and ... Read More »
Management

Check Credit Card Processing Rates before Holiday Rush

October 2, 2015 • Phil Hinke

Sales over the next three months will be crucial to the profitability of many ecommerce merchants. Credit card processing costs over this timeframe will affect profitability, too. This article is ... Read More »
Management

EMV Credit Cards: Beware Misleading Equipment Sales Tactics

August 26, 2015 • Phil Hinke

This article is mainly for brick-and-mortar merchants, regarding the October 1, 2015 fraud-liability rule changes and misleading sales tactics surrounding the changes. The new rules are causing a high percentage of retail merchants ... Read More »
Management

Credit Card Processing: Detailed Statements Essential for Merchants

July 20, 2015 • Phil Hinke

I presented a Practical Ecommerce webinar last month on lowering merchant processing costs. I’ve received several questions since then regarding my views on processing statements. Therefore, I want to address ... Read More »
Management

Beware Hidden Increases from Credit Card Providers

May 26, 2015 • Phil Hinke

The fact that some credit card providers periodically sneak in cost increases to their merchants isn’t new. The providers often do this with a notice like this to their merchants: ... Read More »
Management

Follow-up: EMV Credit Cards and AmEx OptBlue

March 24, 2015 • Phil Hinke

This is a follow-up to two topics I addressed previously on credit card processing: EMV chip cards and the American Express OptBlue program. I described earlier this year the changes affecting EMV ... Read More »
Management

EMV Credit Cards, Part 2: Point-of-sale Devices, Alternatives

February 13, 2015 • Phil Hinke

This article is mostly for brick-and-mortar retailers, as the October 2015 rule changes, which I discussed in "Part 1," are specific to card-present merchants. Read More »
Management

EMV Credit Cards, Part 1: Who Is Responsible for Losses?

January 12, 2015 • Phil Hinke

This article is mainly for brick-and-mortar retailers. The upcoming October 2015 rule changes regarding EMV-enabled credit cards are specific to card-present Read More »
Management

B2B Merchants Often Overpay for Card Processing

November 21, 2014 • Phil Hinke

Business-to-business merchants often overpay for credit card processing. There are many reasons for this, but one of the main ones is they choose a merchant account provider that doesn’t have ... Read More »
Management

Review Credit Card Processing in October, before Holidays

October 16, 2014 • Phil Hinke

All ecommerce merchants should take the time to review their processing statements this month before the holiday shopping season begins. Merchants need to check for the following items, and correct ... Read More »
Management

American Express OptBlue: Negotiating Processing Rates

September 22, 2014 • Phil Hinke

In “American Express OptBlue Program May Reduce Processing Cost,” my article in July, I explained how the new OptBlue program could reduce processing rates for ecommerce merchants, as it allows ... Read More »
Management

American Express OptBlue: Understanding Processing Rates

August 18, 2014 • Phil Hinke

In “American Express OptBlue Program May Reduce Processing Cost,” my article last month, I explained American Express’s new program called OptBlue. This program should lower the American Express processing cost ... Read More »
Management

American Express OptBlue Program May Reduce Processing Cost

July 15, 2014 • Phil Hinke

American Express recently came out with a new program called OptBlue, where the final processing rates and fees paid by the merchant are set by the merchant account provider, not ... Read More »
Management

Merchants Discover Misleading Credit Card Processing Fees

June 16, 2014 • Phil Hinke

I want to thank Practical Ecommerce readers for their comments on my last article series, “How to Identify Dubious Credit Card Processing Fees.” I also appreciate readers sending me suspicious ... Read More »
Management

How to Identify Dubious Credit Card Processing Fees, Part 3

May 15, 2014 • Phil Hinke

Editor’s Note: This is “Part 3” of a three-part series. “Part 1” and “Part 2” we published previously. The purpose of this series is to educate merchants on questionable credit ... Read More »
Management

How to Identify Dubious Credit Card Processing Fees, Part 2

April 23, 2014 • Phil Hinke

Editor’s Note: This is “Part 2” of a three-part series. “Part 1” we published last month. The purpose of this series is to identify dubious fees that are commonly charged ... Read More »
Management

How to Identify Dubious Credit Card Processing Fees, Part 1

March 25, 2014 • Phil Hinke

Editor’s Note: This is “Part 1” of a three-part series. My article last month, “Credit Card Provider Sued for Deceptive Tactics,” generated questions from merchants regarding the suit, its impact, and the hidden, ... Read More »
Management

Credit Card Provider Sued for ‘Deceptive’ Tactics

February 13, 2014 • Phil Hinke

Heartland Payment Systems, one of the largest credit card providers in the U.S., stated in a press release that it has filed a federal lawsuit against Mercury Payment Systems, also ... Read More »
Management

$6 Billion Visa, MasterCard Settlement Final; How to Claim

January 15, 2014 • Phil Hinke

Last month, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York approved a settlement in a class-action lawsuit between merchants (as plaintiffs) and Visa, MasterCard and other defendants. The case ... Read More »
Management

3 Examples of Misleading Credit Card Processing Charges

December 20, 2013 • Phil Hinke

Editor’s Note: This is part two of a two-part series. The first installment, “Feds Eyeing Credit Card Processing Industry?,” we published last month. In “Feds Eyeing Credit Card Processing Industry?,” part ... Read More »
Management

Feds Eyeing Credit Card Processing Industry?

November 14, 2013 • Phil Hinke

Editor’s Note: This is part one of a two-part series. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission included merchant account providers in two separate lawsuits it filed against telemarketers earlier this year. The ... Read More »