Matching Credit Rates for Potential Clients

Credit card processing rates are determined by the transaction volume for a company in a given time period. Occasionally, you will run into a client who claims to have a lower credit card rate than what we offer at FareHarbor (our rates currently vary across the regions/countries that we work with). If this is the case, verify a few key factors:

• Do they currently accept AMEX?

  • AMEX rates (or any rewards cards) tend to be higher, which is why some companies don’t accept them

• Are they currently processing anything online?

  • Rates are typically lower for in-person swipes

• What is their effective rate?

  • Effective Rate = Total Processing Fees/Total Sales Volume
  • There is a large variety of fees that customers pay for CC processing that are not included in their processing rate.

If a client still insists that they have a lower credit card rate, please follow the process below:

1. Have the client provide you with 3 months of credit card statements.

   Example: “All I need from you is your past three consecutive months’ credit card statements. We will calculate your effective rate and verify that FareHarbor would not be saving you money. If we are saving you money, we will keep the rate standard, but if not, we will gladly match your current effective rate.”

   Use this calculation document to find their average effective rate

2. Submit your request through AppSheet.
3. Approval will be processed by regional leaders in roughly 2-4 business days.

If you have questions, post a Workflow in #commercial-approvals

All credit card matches must be approved by Regional Leadership before letting the company know. There is no guarantee that we will be able to match a cc rate. Potential online revenue will be taken into consideration.

Things to keep in mind:

• We will not match quotes for credit card rates – only real data.
  • This means if a client tells you “I spoke with my bank and they told me that they’ll give me a .005% rate with no transaction fee. Please match that”, we do not match that rate. We need real data (past statements).
• It is okay to get more than three months’ statements, but three consecutive months is the minimum. Especially for seasonal businesses, try to get as much data as you can.
• Matching a credit card rate is not the end all be all; make sure to add as much value as possible before immediately offering to match their credit card rate.
• This is for Tier 3, Tier 4 and Tier 5 companies only – lower tiered companies should not have their credit card matched (likely, they will not have a lower credit card rate anyway).
• We will only match rates that the client is being charged for online bookings.