A:  The Cash Discount Program is a brand new and legal way that merchants may easily offset up to 99% of their current credit card processing monthly fees without having to increase their current rates. This is achieved by simply implementing a standard “Service Fee” to all customers, while incentivizing your cash paying clients by offering them a discount for the same amount of the “Service Fee”….. Therefore your posted store rates will become the rate for your cash paying clients. Hence, you pass all of your credit card processing fees over to your clients.

Your clients that choose to pay with cash will not have to pay the standard services fee and clients that pay with any other form of payment (such as credit or debit cards) will see a line item called “Service Fee” added to their receipt.  Our state of the art proprietary cash discount credit card machines and software allows merchants to implement this all while staying within the guidelines and regulations of of Visa, MasterCard, etc,…

A:  No, the cash discounting program is not new by any means. It has actually been available for many years in Europe. In fact, thousands of US gas stations have offered cash discount at the pump for many years.  Many local and state government offices such as the Post Office, Schools, IRS, Department of Motor Vehicles, Secretary of State and Courts have implemented a Service Fee.

A:  This program will reduce up to 99% of your card processing fees.. By regulation, some very small interchange fees will not be able to be removed from your statement.

We will set up your account on a “Daily Discount Structure” or a “Monthly Discount Structure”.

Here are the two examples : 

Daily Discount Structure : In this structure,  your processing fees are deducted daily in efforts to cover the daily processing costs of goods or services sold.

Here is an example for “Daily Discount Structure” : Lets suppose you made a transaction for $20. You would collect a 3.99% “SERVICE FEE” for a total sale amount of $20.80…. The next day, you will be funded $20.00 in your bank account and the 3.99 “SERVICE FEE” will be deducted to cover your processing fees. At the end of the month, you’ll have the net cost of your goods and services deposited in your bank account with minimal processing fees. If you would like to receive a statement that reflects your discounted fees as close to zero as possible, then this structure is best for you.

Monthly Discount Structure : In this structure, you will be able to see the total amount of the transaction because your processing fees are ALL deducted at the very end of the month in a lump sum.

Here is an example for “Monthly Discount Structure” :  Lets suppose you sold a total of $20,00 in goods or services for the entire month. In this case, your statement would reflect $20,000 in transactions plus 3.99% “SERVICE FEES”. Therefore you would see $20,000 in sales, plus $798.00 in “SERVICE FEES” collected which would total $20,798 total. Hence, at the end of the month you would be billed the $798 to cover the processing fees due.

The net revenue result is exactly the same in both cases because you are technically eliminating your processing fees by implementing the “3.99 SERVICE FEE”. (You choose how you want your accounting to reflect…..the Fees deducted daily, or all fees deducted as a lump sum at the end of the month.)

In both discount structures mentioned above, you will experience huge savings on your card processing fees and 100% of your collected revenue will show up in your deposits with almost zero processing fees. You will be charged a minimal subscription fee ($29, $59 or $99 – depending on monthly sales volume) to cover minor administration costs of this program.

A: Absolutely ! The cash discounting program is legal in all 50 states. Federal Trade Commission spokesman Mitchell Katz, said in May of 2011: The Dodd-Frank law prohibits payment card networks (such as Visa, MasterCard, etc,..) from “inhibiting the ability of anyone to provide a discount for payment by cash, checks, debit cards, or credit cards,” “In Therefore,.. surcharging, and cash discounting is not prohibited or illegal.” As clearly stated in the Durbin Amendment §124.STAT.2073, 9b2, businesses in the U.S.A are permitted to offer a discount to their customers as an incentive and to encourage customers to pay by alternative methods other than a credit card or debit card (including either checks or cash in order to automatically receive a discount which is applied at the time of sale.)

A: That is not a problem… It is very unlikely that you wont like this program since the savings are huge. However, if for some odd reason you would like to discontinue our cash discount plan, we can definitely switch you back to a traditional interchange pricing plan. You will still save money on your credit card fees over the fees your previous processor was charging.

A:  To implement a Cash Discount program correctly, you do not need to change your prices at all….All you need to do is post compliant signage (provided by us) that explains that all store sales include a “Service Fee of  3.99%. We will also provide you with a pre-programmed credit card terminal which is compliant with credit card brand regulations and laws.

Your posted store prices are your cash prices. Whenever your client decides to pay with cash, the “Service fee” will be waived. Clients that choose to pay with other payment methods other than cash (such as credit cards) will see a “3.99% Service Fee” line item on their receipt. Your terminal will automatically programmed to charge the additional “3.99% Service Fee” so you do not need to take any additional steps.

A: Not according to the experience of thousands of other business owners in the U.S. Today, more and more consumers understand just how expensive it has become for merchants to accept credit cards. A recent study was done by  Payment Journal  which confirmed that about 99.0% of customers never complained about getting an extra service fee added on their bill….. And if they would have complained, they still had the option of paying for their goods or services in cash… 

We all know that the use of cash is rapidly declining… Therefore, it is much less expensive to pay a small service fee of 3.9% rather than having to drive to an ATM machine to withdraw cash and then pay a flat ATM fee of $2.00 to $5.00 .…. Therefore, paying a small 3.99% service fee on an individual transaction has a small impact to your client, but will make a huge impact on your businesses monthly revenue. Many merchants simply explain that the “Service Fee” is added to be able to keep the quality of their goods high while not having to increase the prices too much. Usually, consumers understand.

Charging a 3.99% service fee on an average ticket sales transaction of $15 to $90 is a very very small price for customers to pay compared to the huge savings that a business owner will gain at the end of the month….and thousands in savings every year….its your choice !….You can either put that money back in your pocket,….or continue to fund your customers rewards points  🙂

About close to 90 percent of our merchants have stated that most of their customers wouldn’t mind to pay a “3.99% Service Fee”  (which is only $0.80 from a $20.00 transaction). Their customers enjoy having the convenience of using their credit card and not having to carry cash in their pocket….Whats more !… their customers love the idea of getting a 3.99% discount for paying in cash (or in-store gift card) …. In the end, you can never satisfy everyone,..so if you have 1 out of every 40 clients dislike the “Service Fee”…..it is still worth dealing with that versus paying thousands of dollars extra in monthly fees.

A:  That is never a problem. The amount you will save monthly with our cash discount program is so big that after just a month or two, you will easily offset the costs you incurred in switching to us….Bottomline, we recommend to wait about one month before you cancel your current provider. Whatever fees they charge for canceling (early termination fees) it does’nt matter ……Because you will save thousands of dollars by switching to our cash discounting program…. Remember, after you switch to us…you save up to 99% in processing fees….

Take a look at your last months statement and multiply the processing fees times 12 months. *Thats how much you could be saving approximately every year… (minus our monthly flat program subscription cost of $29, $59 or $99)

A: Your average transaction amount (average ticket) and business type is an important factor to consider when deciding if a cash discounting program is a good idea to implement in your business.

If you’re a business that has a a low average transaction value, such as a bakery,  nail salon, ice cream shop, dollar store or small restaurant…your card processing fees and interchange fees can add up to thousands of dollars every month. To  combat these significantly high monthly fees, some merchants directly add a surcharge fee to the bill if their customer pays with a credit card…. However, Credit card surcharges are not usually favored by consumers, and are also prohibited in some states. The states that do not allow surcharging fees are:  Florida, New York, California, Oklahoma, Maine, Texas, Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, and Massachusetts. Thats why whenever a merchant has a low average transaction value and high credit card usage, it could make smart business sense to implement our cash discount merchant account program.

A:  In some cases, we can setup a custom rate structure where you can charge a “Service fee” to your customers between 1-4% and you absorb the difference. The service fees that you pass on to your customers represent your card processing savings, so the lower your service fee, the less you save.

Yes, do not worry about the “Service Fee”…. We will analyze your current business pricing structure and set you up with the best “Service Fee” option based on your average ticket size and business type…. We normally recommend businesses that have an average ticket below $15, to use a flat dollar amount (example;  per transaction fee of $0.49). Businesses that have an average ticket larger than $15 are better off with a 3.99% Service Fee…… This way, most or all of your processing fees will be covered.

A:  The short answer is NO… If you happen to accidentally implement a fee incorrectly to to a consumer using a credit card it is called “Surcharging”…… and Surcharging a credit card sale is highly prohibited by Visa, MasterCard, and processors in many states (including Florida, California, Texas and more) without taking specific compliance measures. If you implement an incorrect fee, you could be generating profit from the credit card transaction which is considered surcharging and is federally non-compliant. Therefore, as a result, you could face a fine of over $250,000.

The only way to achieve this legally is to allow us to set up an automated cash discount program with automated terminals that are 100% compliant with all state and federal regulations. This program is different than a Surcharge…. In the Cash Discount Program merchants will display compliant signs (supplied by us) which state that all posted and advertised prices are the cash prices.  Therefore, all consumers will now be paying a “3.99% Service Fee”, ……however, the fee will be waived for customers paying with cash.

All our terminals are pre-programmed to automatically add the “Service Fee” whenever your customers pay with any method of payment other than cash (such as credit cards). Even though this may sound similar to surcharging, it is very different because in a cash discount program, customers are actually paying an increased fee on all goods or services, but when the customer chooses to pay with cash they are incentivized by receiving a discount for the same amount of the “Service Fee”…..On the other hand,  with a Surcharge program, you are specifically advising your customers that an additional “service/surcharge fee” will be added to their bill if they pay with a credit card.

Most importantly, Visa, MasterCard and the processors rules prohibit merchants from profiting on a credit card transaction which could happen if you accidentally charged your customer higher than you were charged in processing fees… By setting up a Cash Discount program, our office will set up the correct pricing structure, compliant terminals, compliant receipts and all compliant signage for you so you can remain compliant with all laws and regulations..

A:  Yes, ….even though this program is currently legal in all 50 states…and even though this program abides by the guidelines and regulations of Visa and MasterCard, there is nothing preventing them from changing their own regulations sometime in the future….. However, this fantastic savings program has been available in use in the US for the last almost over 4 years now and there appears to be no indication whatsoever that either Visa or MasterCard will make any changes to prevent it from being used by merchants…., but there is always a possibility.

But that is never a problem !….If the cash discount program was to ever be prohibited, we could easily just switch you to our low cost Interchange Plus program and you would also save on processing fees..Our goal is to always help our merchants save on card processing fees no matter what….

A:  Are you still on the fence about switching to us ? Still having doubts if this program is real ?  Think this is not legal ?  Dont believe you can save thousands in processing fees ?

Below are some more important links related to Cash Discount Programs, Surcharging, and Visa/MasterCard regulations. These are all independent opinions of authors of other authoritative websites …..

See For Yourself, why everyone is starting to switch to our new Cash discount plan…..Get started today and let the savings begin ! :

https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/about-visa/visa-rules-public.pdf

https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/about-mastercard/what-we-do/rules.html

http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/business-surcharge-card-customers-1585.php

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-01-10/cash-discounts-credit-surcharges-and-free-speech

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2011/05/can_stores_offer_a_discount_if.html

http://www.ncsl.org/research/financial-services-and-commerce/credit-or-debit-card-surcharges-statutes.aspx

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/florida-court-strikes-down-law-on-credit-card-surcharges/2252742

https://www.cardfellow.com/checkout-fees-charging-credit-card-fees-to-customers/

https://www.cardfellow.com/charging-customers-a-credit-card-convenience-fee-at-check-out/#Guidelines

A:  Approximate Savings of $180 per month or $2,100 per year.

A:  Approximate Savings of $300 per month or $3,800 per year.

A:  Approximate Savings of $850 per month or $10,100 per year.

A:  Approximate Savings of $1,600 per month or $20,100 per year.

A: Approximate Savings of $3,500 per month or $40,100 per year.