Skip to main content
All Posts By

Christian Horn

Christian Horn
In ISV, Partnerships, Payment Processing Industry

How To Identify A Trustworthy Payment Processor Partner

When partnering with a payment processor, you, as a company are putting your clients in
someone else’s hands and it is vital that you ensure those clients are not just adequately taken
care of, but exceptionally serviced.

Most busy business owners can’t tell what the hieroglyphics on merchant statement actually
mean and the processors exploit that. Our hopes is this article can shed some light on the world of processing.

Companies in the credit card processing industry notoriously resort to shady business
practices like charging hidden fees and doing routine margin increases. This will help you learn the differences.

1- What is the Processors Attrition Rate?

While many processors would attest to providing great service and having many satisfied
customers, the numbers don’t lie. What is their attrition rate, or in other words, how many
clients does the processor gain / lose in a given year and or once their contract is up?

If the attrition rate is high but clients are leaving in droves and that is a sign of poor service.

The bitter taste of poor quality is remembered long after the sweet taste of low price is forgotten.

2- Does the Processor have margin increases?

It is standard practice in the payments industry for processors to raise their margins every 6
months each April & October. This allows processors to do two things;

A) To sign accounts they couldn’t get otherwise by efficaciously undercutting the current rate
incurring a loss initially, then insidiously raising rates over time to make up for it at a profit.

And B), To make more and more money off the backs of their existing client base resulting in big
bonuses and sky-scraping company evaluations.

 

Don’t be fooled by payment processors that just quote lower rates, make sure those rates are
permanently fixed, and get that in writing!

3- Are Their Agreements Term Based?

Nearly all processors make their clients agree to process with them exclusively for a given
period of time. Do not fall victim to this tactic, look for a processor that works
constantly to earn each client’s business and only has true month-to-month agreements.

 

4- Does The Processor Charge a Termination Fee?

If a business wants to switch processors or change POS systems the vast majority of
processors will charge the merchant a termination fee. This makes for a nightmare when
coupled with routine margin increases, term based agreements, and poor quality of service. Let’s hope you signed the agreement that doesn’t enforce liquidated damages.

 

5- Does the Processor Lease terminals and POS systems?

Equipment leasing is widely known within the payment processing space as a rip off and scam.
Any company that does that to its customers is knowingly exploiting them for their benefit.
Opting to partner with a processor that refuses to participate in terminal & equipment leasing
will ensure an honest and ethical relationship that benefits your members.

 

6- Is the Processor equipped with a team that can handle POS and software integrations?

The payment processing industry is rapidly moving towards integrated company management
software and point of sale solutions. If a payment processor does not have a dedicated team
of software engineers that regularly do those integrations, your clients will struggle and be
technologically left behind. This will result in a massive unnecessary headache for the
merchant down the road that should be as easy as putting an already established and
experienced software team to work.

 

If you are looking to partner with one of the few payment processors that never raises rates,
has virtually no attrition, has a team of expert software engineers, exclusively uses month to
month agreements never charge termination fees and place the needs of the merchants
above its own then you can contact Platinum Payments at 1-866-921-2982

Christian Horn
In ISV, Partnerships, SOCi Partners

Software Vendors + Integrated Payments

-Why ISVs Should have Integrated Payments-

 

As an independent software vendor (ISV), you are devoted to delivering
innovative, cutting-edge solutions to your clients and users. These users
have come to expect seamless software integrations in order to make their
business operations as simple and seamless as possible. In order to
provide that highly sought after seamless experience and stay competitive,
ISVs need to offer a payment solution that delivers what it’s customers both
want and need. While some ISVs are hesitant to integrate payments into
their software solutions due to the added development time and more
moving parts to manage the payoff of a successful payment integration,
greatly outweighs the potential challenges—when integrated with the right
partner.

There are numerous reasons why ISVs partner with a payment processing
provider however we will only focus on 4.

1. Improved User Retention & Satisfaction

A payment processing integration is a way ISVs can offer more solutions,
and thus, more value to their clients.
Because of this, it is much less convenient for a user to switch platforms as
everything from their daily operations, to accounting and payment
processing is set up all in one seamless solution.

2. New Source Of Monthly Reoccurring Revenue

All of Platinum Payments ISV partners partake in a percentage of the
profits generated from processing credit card transactions for the ISVs
users. This thereby produces access to a new source of Monthly
Reoccurring Revenue (MRR) for free without incurring any overhead,
liability, or expense.
Having additional MRR never looks bad on a balance sheet!

3. Lower Processing Rates

End-users of the platform are given a special discounted rate on all
payment processing fees as a result of a partnership. This further adds
value and improves client retention.

4. Competitive Advantage

In a similar vein to the first point, integration not only helps with client
retention but also client acquisition. For example, some integration
partners chose to slash their prices, if not eliminate them entirely, and
derive their revenue purely from the partner revenue share.
Being able to offer a fully integrated and seamless solution with both a lower
price point and lower processing costs is a huge competitive
advantage that adds great value to the end-user.

Let our Payment Professionals help you accomplish the full potential of SOCi

If you’re not sure what to look for in a great integration | processing partner, check out our article here.

Christian Horn
In GPOs, SOCi Partners

How GPOs Can Help Their Members Reduce Costs With a Merchant Services Partner

Payment Processing

Great GPOs always have their member’s best interests at heart. But what if there was something many great GPOs had overlooked that was a massive expense to all of their members?

GPO’s reducing costs with a payment processor!? Read on to find out more…

Here we will explore the issue of credit card processing, how it affects GPOs members, why costs continue to rise, unethical practices in the industry & what GPOs can do about it.  

Payment Processing is a massive, yet often overlooked, expense for virtually all businesses.  Processing fees deduct approximately 3% of a business’s card revenue right off the top with even more money being spent on fees, terminals, and POS solutions. With interchange fees exploding and margin increases driving up rates every April and October the price of accepting credit card payment is not getting any cheaper. This problem is exacerbated by consumer’s demands for more cashless ways to pay for goods and services.

Beyond this, merchants rarely even get quality service despite the massive expense incurred to process in the first place. GPOs are in the perfect position to help their members reduce, and in some cases nearly eliminate their member’s processing fees.  

A GPOs first step towards helping its members reduce payment processing expenses is to identify a great payment processor.  

What makes a great payment processor? 

While every processor out there would likely argue that they are a great processor there are a  few objective signs that can help GPOs determine the validity of that claim. 

1- What is the Processors Attrition Rate? 

While many processors would attest to providing great service and having many satisfied customers, the numbers don’t lie. What is the processor attrition rate, or in other words, how many clients does the processor have leave per year or once their contract is up? If the attrition rate is high (X%) then clients are leaving in droves and that is a sign of poor quality service. The bitter taste of poor quality is remembered long after the sweet taste of low price is forgotten. 

2- Does the Processor have margin increases? 

It is standard practice in the payment industry for processors to raise their margins every 6  months in April & October. This allows processors to do two things,  

1, To sign accounts they couldn’t get otherwise by efficaciously undercutting the current rate incurring a loss initially, then insidiously raising rates overtime to make up for it, at a profit.  And 2, To make more and more money off the backs of their existing client base resulting in big bonuses and lofty company evaluations.  

Don’t be fooled by payment processors that just quote lower rates, make sure those rates are permanently fixed, and get that in writing!

3- Are Their Agreements Term Based? 

Nearly all processors make their clients agree to process with them exclusively for a given period of time. As a GPO trying to offer members the best service and experience possible this is not a practice you want your members to fall victim to. Look for a processor that works hard to earn each clients business and has month to month agreements.  

4- Does The Processor Charge a Termination Fee? 

If a merchant wants to switch processors or change POS systems most processors will charge the merchant a termination fee. This makes for a nightmare when coupled with routine margin increases, term based agreements, and poor quality of service.  

5- Does the Processor Lease terminals or POS systems? 

Equipment leasing is widely known within the payment processing space as a rip off and scam.  A processor that does that to its customers is knowingly exploiting them for their benefit.  Opting to partner with a processor that refuses to participate in terminal and equipment leasing will ensure an honest and ethical relationship that benefits your members. 

6- Is the Processor equipped with a team that can handle software integrations?

The payment processing industry is rapidly moving towards integrated company management software and point of sale solutions. If a payment processor does not have a dedicated team of software engineers that can do those integrations, the members of your GPO will be technologically left behind. This will be a massive unnecessary headache for the merchant down the road that should be as easy as putting an already established and experienced software team to work.  

If you are a GPO looking to partner with one of the few payment processors that never raises rates, has virtually no attrition, has a team of expert software engineers, exclusively uses month to month agreements, never charges termination fees, and places the needs of the merchants above its own then you can get started here! 

Christian Horn
In SOCi Partners

How Banks Can Determine the Success of Their Merchant Services Portfolio

Credit card terminal

As an established bank looking down at merchant services, it can be difficult to determine how well your program is performing. In this article,  we will review the baseline expectations for a bank’s merchant services portfolio and walk through the benchmark numbers. 

1. Determine how much revenue a merchant services portfolio should generate at a minimum.

First, take a bank’s annual merchant services revenue and divide it by their bank’s asset size. If this is an agent bank that handles merchant services in house, their program’s revenue should generate a minimum of .10% of their bank’s asset size annually. If this is a referral bank that simply refers customers to a partner processor, then they should expect a minimum of .06% of their bank’s asset size annually. Is this bank’s portfolio meeting these benchmarks?

2. Calculate the current income.

Let’s first gauge whether your merchant services program is meeting that minimum amount from step 1. To do that,  take the current annual merchant services revenue and divide it by the bank’s total asset amount. In the following scenario, we have a $2B  referral bank earning $400,000 annually from merchant services:  $400,000 ÷ 2,000,000,000 = .02%. This figure is much lower than the .06%  baseline for referral banks and lowers still from the .10% baseline for agent banks.

3. Calculate the missed income.

For the bank used in the prior example, we’ll take their total assets and multiply that amount by .0006.  2,000,000,000 x .0006 = 1,200,000.  The bank in this example should expect a bare minimum of $1,200,000 in annual revenue from their merchant services program yet they’re only bringing in $400,000, barely one-third! This bank is missing out on at a  minimum of $800,000 in annual revenue, of which nearly all would fall straight to their bottom line. Unfortunately, this scenario is all too common and has led many banks to give up on tapping their potential for a  successful merchant services portfolio.

4. Create a growth plan.

Given this bank is missing out on over three-quarters of a  million dollars in residual revenue, they’ll need to devise and implement strategic growth strategies to build their portfolio to the baseline level.  Then from there, they can look to achieve more and more portfolio growth year over year. This is typically done in conjunction with payment processing experts.

5. Recognize Each Merchants Value.

Every individual merchant is important to a Bank’s bottom line. Referral banks should expect to make an average of $1,474 annually per merchant while agent banks can expect  $2,457 annually per merchant.

Is your bank meeting these benchmarks? If not, your bank is not alone.  Nearly 60% of banks in the nation have underperforming merchant services portfolios. If you’re one of these banks and you’re looking to change that  you can contact Platinum’s Business Development Director, Chris Horn at  Chris.Horn@ptpay.us 

Platinum Payments specializes in partner relationships including partnerships with referral banks. We offer world-class customer service,  calculated growth strategies, reward & loyalty programs, software integrations, seamless solutions, a wealth of combined experience, and industry-leading revenue share splits. 

This allows banks to reap the benefits of having a successful merchant services portfolio without the infrastructure, learning curve, cost, or expense. 

Data Privacy Policy Agreement.

Applicant Privacy Policy
English


Legal Disclaimer
Effective Date: January 1, 2021
This Applicant Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) describes the practices of Platinum Operating Company, LLC d/b/a Platinum Payments (“Company”) regarding the information that is solely collected through the Platinum Workforce Now portal (“Careers Site”) in connection with your application for a job or internship with us.


1. CATEGORIES OF INFORMATION WE COLLECT THAT YOU PROVIDE
We may collect the following information from you in connection with your application through the Careers Site: Name, e-mail address, mobile number, work authorization status, resume, profile information (e.g. work experience, education, skills, licenses & certifications, and memberships), professional and other work-related licenses, permits and certifications, references, and any other information you elect to provide to us (e.g., employment preferences, willingness to relocate, current salary, desired salary, awards, or professional memberships).
If you do not provide sufficient information, we may be unable to consider your employment application.
However, please avoid submitting the following information that may qualify as sensitive information under applicable law, except where such information is legally required: information on race, religion, ethnicity, nationality or national origin, age, gender identity, sex life or practices or sexual orientation, marital status, medical or health information (including disability status), genetic or biometric information, biometric templates, political or philosophical beliefs, political party or trade union membership, background check information, judicial data such as criminal records or information on other judicial or administrative proceedings, and veteran status.
If the personal information you provide contains details of the information referenced in the preceding paragraph or your job evaluations or educational records, you authorize us to handle such details for the purposes of your job application.
Any information you submit through the Careers Site must be true, complete and not misleading. It is your responsibility to ensure that information you submit does not violate any third party’s rights.
If you provide us with personal information of a reference or any other individual as part of your application, it is your responsibility to obtain consent from that individual prior to providing the information to us.


2. USE OF INFORMATION / LEGAL BASIS
We collect and process information about you for the following reasons:
a) Because you voluntarily provide this information;
b) Because this information is necessary to take steps at your request prior to entering into an employment or internship;
c) Because this information is of particular importance to us and we have a specific legitimate interest under law to process it;
d) To comply with a legal obligation; or
e) Where necessary to protect the vital interests of any person.
The information that you submit on the Careers Site will be used for our personnel recruitment, management, and planning purposes, as permitted by local law, including:
• To process your application;
• To assess your capabilities and qualifications for a job;
• To conduct reference checks;
• To respond to your inquiries and communicate with you about your application, and to send you information regarding the Careers Site and changes to our terms and policies;
• To comply with or monitor compliance with any applicable law or regulation;
• To conduct background checks if we offer you a position; and
• To preserve our other legitimate interests, for example, for our administrative purposes, aggregate management reporting, internal training, and as generally required to conduct our business.
The information about you will be added to our candidate database. If you do not wish us to do this, please contactwendy.clawson@ptpay.us.
If we hire you, personal information we collect in connection with your application may be incorporated into our human resources system and may be used to manage the new-hire process; any such information may become part of your employee file and may be used for other employment-related purposes.
We may also use the information as we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) under applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence; (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; (d) to protect our legal rights and operations or the rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or of us, you, or others; and (e) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.


3. DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We may share personal information with affiliates and/or partners that are involved in and/or for performing pre-employment, post employment processes in compliance with state and federal law, evaluating candidates for a given position and to track employee and/or contractor performance and progress. We will make the information available to personnel with a business need to know the information, including personnel in the recruiting, human resources, and information technology departments, and in the department responsible for the position for which you are applying and for which you, if hired on an employee or contract basis, hold.
We may share personal information with third-party service providers who provide services such as hosting and operating the Careers Site, recruiting assistance, background check processing, Work Opportunity Tax Credit, eVerify, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and any other governmental programs the business elects for voluntary or compliance purposes and similar services.
We also may share personal information as we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) under applicable law, including laws outside your country of residence; (b) to comply with legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; (d) to protect our legal rights and operations or the rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or of us, you, or others; and (e) to allow us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
We may transfer information in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).
Disclosing your personal information may include transferring personal information to other countries (including countries other than where you are based that have a different data protection regime than is found in the country where you are based). If you are located in the European Economic Area (the “EEA”), this may include countries outside of the EEA.


4. DATA RETENTION
We keep your personal information for as long as needed or permitted in light of the purpose(s) for which it was obtained. The criteria used to determine our retention periods include (i) for as long as we have an ongoing relationship with you (such as an application process); as required by a legal obligation to which we are subject; or as advisable in light of our legal position (such as in regard of applicable statutes of limitations, litigation, or regulatory investigations).
We may remove personal information for inactive accounts, subject to any applicable legal or regulatory obligations. Furthermore, we may delete personal information about you (including your CV/résumé) from our database at any time and without providing any reason. Therefore, please retain your own copy of the personal information provided to us.


5. PASSIVE INFORMATION COLLECTION: COOKIES AND TRACKING TECHNOLOGY
When you visit the Careers Site, we collect certain information by automated means. Cookies are small text files that websites send to your computer or other internet-connected device to uniquely identify your browser or to store information or settings in your browser. Cookies allow us to recognize you when you return. They also help us provide a customized experience and enable us to detect certain kinds of fraud. In many cases, you can manage cookie preferences and opt-out of having cookies and other data collection technologies used by adjusting the settings on your browser. All browsers are different, so visit the “help” section of your browser to learn about cookie preferences and other privacy settings that may be available.
We also use Flash Cookies (also known as Local Stored Objects) and similar technologies to personalize and enhance your online experience. The Adobe Flash Player is an application that allows rapid development of dynamic content, such as video clips and animation. We use Flash Cookies for security

purposes and to help remember settings and preferences similar to browser cookies, but these are managed through a different interface than the one provided by your web browser. To manage Flash Cookies, please see Adobe’s website at http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/526/52697ee8.html or visit www.adobe.com. We do not use Flash Cookies or similar technologies for behavioural or interest based advertising purposes.
Pixel tags and web beacons are tiny graphic images placed on website pages or in our emails that allow us to determine whether you have performed a specific action. When you access these pages or open or click an email, the pixel tags and/or web beacons generate a notice of that action. These tools allow us to measure response to our communications and improve our web pages and promotions.
We collect different types of information. For example, we collect information from the device you use to access the Careers Site, your operating system type, browser type, domain, and other system settings, as well as the language your system uses and the country and time zone where your device is located. Our server logs also record the Internet Protocol (“IP”) address assigned to the device you use to connect to the Internet. An IP address is a unique number that devices use to identify and communicate with each other on the internet. We may also collect information about the website you were visiting before you came to us and the website you visit after you leave the Careers Site.
In many cases, the information we collect is only used in a non-identifiable way, without reference to personal information. For example, we use information we collect about website users to optimize the Careers Site and to understand website traffic patterns. In some cases, we associate the information we collect with your personal information. This Policy applies to the information when we associate it with your personal information.

Although the Careers Site currently does not have a mechanism to recognize the various web browser Do Not Track signals, we do offer individuals choices to manage their preferences that are provided in the previous sections above. The Careers Site does not collect personal information about an individual’s online activities over time and across different websites when a consumer uses the Careers Site. To learn more about browser tracking signals and Do Not Track please visit http://www.allaboutdnt.org/. We use Google Analytics as a third-party vendor. For information on how Google Analytics uses data, please visit “How Google uses data when you use our partners sites or apps”, located at http://bit.ly/2jXZ13Y. We also use Pendo as a third-party vendor. For information on how Pendo uses data, please visit https://www.pendo.io/privacypolicy/.

 

6. ACCESS AND CORRECTION
If you register on the Careers Site, you may access, review, and change your personal information stored therein by logging into the Careers Site and updating your account information. However, if you have authenticated your login via a mobile number or email address, such information cannot be updated in the same login session.
We encourage you to promptly update your personal information if it changes or is inaccurate.
Apart from information contained in your profile, where permitted by applicable law, you may request (i) access to personal information we collect, (ii) its modification or suppression, (iii) that we restrict its processing, (iv) that we cease using it (objection right); (v) that we transfer personal information to you or another organization in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format (right to data portability), and/or (vi) that we not sell any such information. Please email us at wendy.clawson@ptpay.us
or contact us at 1483 Wall Ave, Ogden, UT 84404 with any such requests.
For your protection, we may only implement requests with respect to the information associated with the particular email address that you use to send us your request, and we may need to verify your identity before implementing your request. We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable. Please note that certain personal information may be exempt from such access, correction, or suppression rights pursuant to local data protection laws.


7. SECURITY
We use reasonable organizational, technical and administrative measures to protect personal information within our organization. Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure (for example, if you feel that the security of any account you might have with us has been compromised), please immediately notify us of the problem by contacting us in accordance with the “Contact Us” section below.
We hereby disclaim, as far as permitted by local laws, any liability for us and our affiliates and contractors for any personal information we collect in connection with your application that is lost, misused, illegally accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed or not timely delivered to our Careers Site.

 

8. LINKS TO THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES
The Careers Site may contain links to other websites. This Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any website or service to which the Careers Site links. The inclusion of a link on the Careers Site does not imply endorsement of the linked site or service by us. We encourage you to read the legal notices posted on those sites, including their privacy policies.


9. LAW APPLICABLE TO JOB APPLICATION
This Careers Site is operated from ADP Workforce Now in Dallas, TX. Accordingly, any personal information you submit to the Careers Site will be collected in ADP Workforce Now in Dallas, TX and will be subject to state of Texas laws.
The Careers Site is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use would be contrary to local law or regulation.


10. ABOUT CHILDREN
The Careers Site is not intended for individuals under the age of 18.


11. CHANGES TO THE POLICY
We reserve the right to amend this Policy at any time in order to address future developments, the Careers Site, or changes in industry or legal trends. We will post the revised Policy on the Careers Site or announce the change on the homepage of the Careers Site.
You can determine when the Policy was revised by referring to the “Last Updated” legend on the top of this Policy.
Any changes will become effective upon the posting of the revised Policy on the Careers Site. By continuing to use the Careers Site following such changes, you will be deemed to have agreed to such changes.
If you do not agree with the terms of this Policy, in whole or part, you can choose to not continue to use the Careers Site.

 

12. CONTACT US
If you have questions or requests, please feel free to contact us at info@ptpay.us or USPS address at 1483 Wall Ave, Ogden, UT 84404.