Have you noticed an uptick in businesses with surcharge programs? As consumers spending on credit cards increase, processing fees for merchants are also on the rise, leading them to look for ways to cut costs. Our CEO Eric Cohen sat down with USA Today journalist Medora Lee to dig into what’s been happening across the payments industry.
Merchants fed up with high processing costs are trying numerous strategies to avoid and offset fees. American Banker highlights five of these tactics, interviewing our own Eric Cohen on the rising popularity of surcharging. His advice: “It’s better for merchants to renegotiate card-processing fees with their processor than to add a surcharge or a discount — especially if you’re a restaurant because it’s more likely to drive business away. Customers don’t like getting hit by surcharges.”
Eric Cohen, Chief Executive Officer of Merchant Advocate, discusses the promises made by supporters of the Credit Card Competition Act, most central that it will lead to lower retailer prices, and potential issues going unmentioned, including how it may actually reduce card protections in the long run.
Eric Cohen, Chief Executive Officer of Merchant Advocate, identifies several potential flaws posed by the Credit Card Competition Act, including the challenging of choosing the best network; the major risk for increased fraud from smaller, cheaper networks; and unknown effects to rewards if less expensive networks offer fewer incentives to cardholders.
For Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Merchant Advocate’s CEO Eric Cohen weighs in on the importance of businesses staying hypervigilant when it comes to digital fraud protection.
Eric Cohen, Chief Executive of Merchant Advocate, talks to Ian Krietzbeg of TheStreet, about how to navigate the complicated world of credit card processing fees and recent controversial Visa and Mastercard fee hikes.