099 - Credit Card Processing Basics

Did You Know  0:03  
Welcome to Episode 99 on the Live Blissed Out podcast. Did you know that cash discount or non-cash adjustment is a way for merchants to completely eliminate their credit card processing fees? It's 100% legal in all 50 states.

Marisa Huston  0:19  
Hello, action taker! Welcome to Live Blissed Out. A podcast where I have inspiration and informational conversations with business owners and subject matter experts to help you get the scoop on a variety of topics. Tired of hesitating or making decisions without having the big picture? Wanna be in the know? Then this is the place to go. I'm your host Marisa Huston. Helping you achieve bliss through awareness and action. So let's get to it. In this episode, Bruce Speegle shares key information on merchant processing, so you know what to consider to make the right choice for your business. Bruce founded and operates the independent sales office known as SGA Associates LLC. For 18 years, Bruce and SGA have developed a unique and time tested philosophy and strategy to assist merchants with their credit card processing needs. With 9 offices covering 42 states, SGA's clients experience the best suited products and services to maximize their processing needs, while paying the lowest processing prices in the market. SGA has developed valuable relationships with the nation's top processors, equipment providers, and third party providers in the industry. To learn more visit www.sg-associatesllc.com. 

Disclaimer  1:39  
The information opinions and recommendations presented in this podcast are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this podcast is done at your own risk. This podcast should not be considered professional advice. 

Marisa Huston  1:52  
Bruce, welcome to the show.

Bruce Speegle  1:54  
Hey, Marisa, thanks so much for having me.

Marisa Huston  1:56  
There's a lot of mindset conversations that I have in the podcast. But I also like to incorporate conversations about things that business owners need to be aware of that impact them. And this is one of those conversations. Could you tell us exactly what we're going to be discussing and provide good information to our listeners?

Bruce Speegle  2:16  
I'm going to treat you just as if you were one of my prospective clients. My philosophy is pretty simple. I coached football for over 30 years. And between that and my business acumen was introduced into the merchant services industry. So I took about nine months to learn all the moving parts of this industry. And I'll tell you straight up, it's a very complex industry and it's constantly evolving. There's tons of lawsuits, tons of litigation, tons of changes. COVID, of course, has created a whirlwind of issues, some good some bad. I'm going to take a very complex concept, and make it as simple for my customers as possible. Most of my customers look at their credit card processing statement, and they don't have a clue on how to read it. They don't know what the numbers mean. And every statements different based on which ISOs doing it, which is me independent sales office. So the first thing I do is try to make this whole industry as simple as possible. Secondly, introduce them into the way in which their current account is priced, versus what we would charge them. What's most important to me is my third party partners, whether it be a processor, whether it be an equipment provider, whether it be a point of sale, partner, etc. There's all kinds of third party partners that we use, I negotiate directly with my third party partners, and they must absolutely follow my rules. Which means my buy rates, what they charge me, has to be the lowest and I have to have full control over it. And then secondly, nobody tells me how to price my merchants. They cannot add fees, they cannot increase our profit our markup, they can't make any changes to the account without my written permission. And that's very, very important. All your listeners that take credit cards have experienced this at one time or another. And that is that number one, they probably have been taken advantage of by another provider, whether it be they matched a price from somebody's previous provider and then after a certain period of time their rates started to creep up. They found out about it, then they wanted to cancel. And then they learned that when they tried to cancel, they had an early termination fee and a very expensive ticket to get away from this provider. So the first thing I did was I eliminate all of the what I call ancillary profit fees. I try to make this as simple for my merchants as humanly possible. Educate them about the industry, show them the different pricing methods, and then sit down and really talk to them about their business and what their needs are. How they process credit cards? What equipment do they need? Do they have a shopping cart? Do they need a payment gateway integration? Do they need a QuickBooks integration? There's not a merchant out there that we haven't worked with in terms of categories. No merchants too big and no merchants too small. There's lots of competitors out there. And what sets me apart is I own my own ISO, which means I don't answer to anybody. When I bring on a sales associate, they're a 1099 employee. So they're responsible for all their own taxes, and they go out and reach out to their contacts. And then we partner with them and we sign up merchants based on their needs, etc. Of course, we're going to talk about pricing, because that's a big deal in our industry. What I want to really talk about is how the industry is set up, how it works, and that'll give everybody a real understanding of what to look for when it comes to selecting a provider. First of all, you're going to hear the term interchange. Well, the interchange board is the governing body for credit card processing in our country. The interchange board is made up of Visa, MasterCard, discover, Amex, and issuing banks. And when I say issuing banks, those are the banks that you and I, as consumers, go and get a credit card, let's say a debit card, standard credit card or rewards card. And then we go out in the public and we use that credit card. But that issuing bank is part of interchange so they have the say. The interchange board is the governing body. They set the rates, they set the rules across the board. Within interchange and all the issuing banks out there in the United States, there are a variety of different cards that are issued. Debit cards, standard credit cards, rewards cards, we're even talking about corporate cards, or travel cards or utility cards. If it's a trucker, and he owns his own business, he may use a gas card. So within interchange, there are over 400 different card types, which means there are over 400 different rates associated with those card types. I want to break down for everybody, make it as simple as possible and explain to them what goes into a credit card processing fee. The first thing is you have the issuing bank fees. So if you've got a specific card, let's say it's a signature two card, doesn't mean anything to any of us. But that card has a specific rate to it that happens to be a rewards card. And let's say that rate associated with that card is 2.3%. What that means is, if I have a signature two card go out and use it in public, my bank who issued me the card gets paid 2.3% of the amount of the transaction at that particular merchant. Second part of the fee that goes into it is let's say it's a Visa card. Visa charges a standard fee, which is 14 basis points. So that's added on to the rate that the issuing bank gives. In addition to the 2.3% there's also a transaction fee, which is 10 cents. Right now you've got 2.3 plus 14 basis points. 2.3 means 230 basis points. So all we're going to do is take those numbers and add them up. So you take 230 plus 14, and then you've got your 10 cents on the side.  Then what goes into that is all the ancillary fees. And this is what sets us apart from everybody else. We have eliminated all of the ancillary fees. First of all, we don't have contracts. Most of our competitors have a three year contract with an early termination fee of anywhere from 295 up to $795. So we've eliminated that. We've eliminated the early termination fee, we don't have that. Our agreements are month to month. In my opinion, the early termination fee is more blackmailed than anything. And I hate to be cold blooded about that. But really, the merchant doesn't have any control because within the application that you sign, there's language called banking regs. Those regs allow the bank or the ISO to raise fees at their whim. And by signing that, you've agreed to that. So it's really important to read the fine print when it comes to signing your application. We don't have an early termination fee, we don't have batch fees. When you run transactions during the day and those transactions are settled, sent through the fed back into your bank account, most of the competitors that I run up against charge a batch fee anywhere from 10 to 25 cents per batch. No annual fees. A lot of times providers will charge an annual fee of let's say 99 bucks. There's no reason why they charge the 99 bucks, except it's a profit center. There are some providers that charge for a merchant to complete an application and submit an application into risk and underwriting. We don't have that. PCI compliancy. That's a real big one. Every processor must have a third party provider that makes sure that all the merchants are compliant. What it means is that however you're processing credit cards, the data that you collect from your customers is secure. Now, if you're using a point of sale or using a standalone credit card terminal, those are all secure and they're all encrypted and those parties are responsible for that encryption. But you as a merchant are also very responsible. Which means one of your customers calls in, they write down a credit card number and an expiration date and CVV code and put it in. Then they take that piece of paper and they shove it in a file. That's illegal. You're not allowed to store the full credit card of any of your customers. Usually competitors charge a monthly fee and an annual fee for PCI compliancy. And if you're not compliant, they charge you a non PCI compliancy fee. What sets us apart is we don't charge for either those. We do the compliancy questionnaire for our merchants, so that they're all compliant. In addition to that, there's 1099 reporting. The IRS charge merchants, so do ISOs, to prepare these tax documents that you receive that you have to submit, along with your tax returns. And then finally, most providers have an online reporting system or a back office where people can go and look at your transactions, how much they did on specific date, or time period, etc. So we've eliminated all of those fees. Now, when you look at a credit card statement, you might say, hey, they're aggressively priced on their monthly volume. That's that percentage markup that the ISO charges. Now here's the really crazy part, instead of calling the ISO, instead of calling my profit, or markup, the markup, what happens is we call it a discount. Well, everybody knows what the word discount means. So it's extremely misleading, they should change that term from discount to markup, or ISO, profit, whatever the case might be. That's one of the things in our industry that really bugs me, because the merchant looks at that term discount and thinks, hey, I'm getting some kind of a break, when in fact, that's really not happening. So what's really important to my customers is, my customers will never get an increase, or added fees that I've explained previously, from our company. If for some reason, the processor decides to add a fee, let's say they add a product regulatory fee. What is product regulatory fee? I've been in the business 18 years, I still don't know what that means. Their profit center, it ranges anywhere from $3.95 a month, it can go all the way up to 25 bucks, something like that. So let's hypothetically say that, I sign you up as a merchant and the processor says, hey, we've got to start charging this fee. I will automatically reimburse my clients because my agreement with my clients is we got rid of all those ancillary fees. So we don't allow those fees to be added. So I'm going to pay that fee, because my promise to my clients is more important than a silly fee that they want to add. In addition to that, we guarantee to our merchants that as long as they work with us, they're never going to get an increase on the discount or markup as it were. So those are our promises and clients that have been with me for 18 years, are priced the same on the first day they started processing as they are today,

Marisa Huston  12:18  
Bruce, this is very helpful. In today's world, a lot of people who are planning to start a business, it could be a solopreneur, an entrepreneur, whatever, credit card processing is inevitably something that they have to be considering. And because we are now in an instant gratification world where everything is on the internet, people will not think about any of this stuff. What they do is they'll just go online, look for some of the big popular credit card processors that are out there. And it's as simple as filling out your basic information to set up an account. And within minutes, you now have an account that you can utilize. From what I see, they usually just display something like here is the percentage that you're going to pay for your transactions. And then they tack on a amount. So maybe it's 20 cents per transaction, or 10 cents, or whatever it may be. And they're probably thinking to themselves, I don't want all this complicated stuff. I just want to be able to charge to make some money. But the reality is, there are consequences for the convenience, because you don't have somebody that can walk you through what you're actually signing up for and also consider how much you're actually paying for those transactions. It's almost like instant gratification but then in the long run, you're actually paying more than you need to and having somebody like you by their side to guide them and be there to answer questions on going, it's something that people don't take advantage of.

Bruce Speegle  13:46  
Boy, that's accurate, more than you know. What's important to me is know as much about our industry as possible. And then to take that knowledge and make sure my merchants understand what's really going on in their world. When a merchant signs up with SGAssociates, which is our company, what happens almost all the time is there'll be other providers who'll call or drop in, they'll get a credit card processing statement from the merchant, they'll take a look at it and inevitably most of them say, Hey, we can't touch this price. Let me explain why that is. Because most of the people that walk through the door work for the ISO, which means they're not allowed to change their pricing. They're given a script in terms of what the pricing is going to be how much equipment is etc. and they don't have any control. And that's the difference between my competitors. We don't cold call customers, either. Any of you that are listening that have a merchant account, or take credit cards know that you're getting bombarded constantly. And they all say they're from merchant services, some call and they use what I consider improper tactics by saying, Hey, we're doing your merchant services, we need to do an update on your pricing, send us a statement. And that's the other issue is I tell my merchants that nobody's going to call them but me. So if they get a call saying that they're part of merchant services or whatever, it's nothing but a sales call and they're to hang up and then call me and then I take whatever issue they may have. What's really confusing to a lot of people is they'll come to me and say, what's your rate? What's your best rate? Well think about what I said earlier. There are over 400 different card types of interchange, every one of them has a different rate. Every merchant takes a certain number of credit cards each month, and they all vary in terms of what type of credit card. The business has a great deal to do with it. So if you're a furniture store, you're probably going to take more rewards cards, because the ticket size is large, and the consumer wants their points and rewards. So they're going to use that rewards card. If they go to a liquor store and they spend 20 bucks, they may use their ATM, which is a much cheaper way of treating the merchant in terms of what fees are going to be charged. So there is no one rate. The key is what the overall effective rate is. In other words, when you take all the fees, and you divide it by the monthly volume, you're going to come up with a percentage. It's a real quick and easy way. It doesn't show you where all the bodies are buried, but it does show you a basic picture of where you're at from a percentage perspective.

Marisa Huston  16:47  
Bruce, if you see a company out there that you can easily sign up for and they give you that flat rate, they just say okay, across the board 3.5% that we charge plus 20% transaction, because usually those are the two numbers that I see. Are you saying then that they take an average of everything that's out there, and that's how they come up with one general number to simplify it for the merchant?

Bruce Speegle  17:12  
Yes, the scenario that you just painted is an old and outdated pricing methodology called tier pricing. We don't see that much anymore. But the competitors are still out there saying, hey, our overall effective rate is let's just say it's 2.3%. Well, then you sit down and you look at their statements and it's nowhere close to that because they've got all these markups and all these other things that they've charged the merchant for. What really is important is to get a hold of a statement, take a look at it. We do a full analysis, we don't charge for it, it's free. We'll give you a true picture of what you're being charged from that provider versus what we would charge you if we were working with you at that same time period. So it's extremely valuable. It gives the merchant tons of information to make their decision. And really, it's not a sales transaction, because it's black and white. Uou look at the numbers, and you say, here's what you're paying now, here's what you're going to pay with us moving forward. If you're not happy, you can close the account within 30 days, and there's no fee involved in it. So there's really no risk to making this switch. There's a couple of things that I've done, which are completely different than my competitors. The first thing, we don't charge for equipment. So if a merchant needs a mobile app, and they need a card reader that connects to your phone, we give that to the merchant for free. In addition to that, if they need a standalone terminal, we give them that equipment for free. If they need a point of sale, we will give them that equipment for free. I don't spend any money on advertising and I use my advertising budget to take care of my clients. And that does a couple of things. It alleviates the concern of overcharging a client. And I'm brutally honest with my clients about what equipment costs. I want them to know. Because honestly, they can Google if let's say it's a Dejavu Z11, they can Google that terminal and see exactly what the markets charging for that terminal. I eliminate that decision and I give the terminal to my customers for free. And it just solves a lot of problems and they're much happier. We also give a lifetime warranty so if the terminal breaks, we replace it at no charge to the customer. Unless they drop it in a bucket of water which just recently happened with one of my clients, then they're going to have to foot the bill and get a new terminal. We try to eliminate all of the guessing, all of the confusion. Interchange has been around forever just like the governing body has Visa, MasterCard, etc. I'm sure everybody's heard of surcharging, and surcharging is where the merchant charges the customer a fee to offset their credit card fees. That's really important, the term offset surcharging in Colorado has been illegal for a long period of time. And just recently, they pass a law that allows the merchant to charge up to 2% for surcharging, That's not a good situation because that normally doesn't cover all the credit card fees. The other states where surcharging is illegal, they have a maximum rate of 4%. That's more palatable. That's going to cover most of your credit card fees, then we're not going to have any issues. 2%, they're still going to be fee set across. Because if you take a credit card that has a rate of, let's say, 3.05%, well, guess what? You're charging the customer 2% but you still have to cover the left over percentages that the surcharge didn't cover. So I'm not for surcharging in Colorado right now. What I am for is what just recently came out, which is called cash discount or non cash adjustment. It is one of the most exciting ideas and concepts that I've ever seen in this industry and I'm begging my clients to jump on it. Fun fact. There is a way in which we can eliminate 99.9% of your credit card fees every single month. And what happens is the customer pays the credit card fees, not the merchant. That's called non cash adjustment. It's the result of a lawsuit against Visa MasterCard, in which the plaintiffs asked for rewards cards to be lowered. They won in court. They offered a $9 billion settlement that didn't go through. So they came up with this solution. And that is that the customer, let's say they walk into Dick's Sporting Goods, and they grab three items, and they take their wallet out and they pay cash. Then they have a cash price and that's a different price than the non cash adjustment price. If they use their credit card, let's say the non cash adjustment percentage is 3.5%, let's say the transaction is $100. They put their credit card down, they run the card, the merchant gets 100% of the $100 and then the customer pays the 3.5% on a $100, which is $3.50. So that's the way in which merchants no longer have to pay credit card fees. By the way, it's legal in all 50 states. For the longest time, rewards cards have been the thorn in every merchants back. Because here's the deal. If I bought an airline ticket on united, and I wanted to upgrade to first class, I don't think United is going to pay my upgrade fee. I have to pay that. In the credit card world, the issuing banks used to pay the rewards, the points, the dollars, whatever the card is associated with. And then they decided we can pass this on to the merchants and we can make more money. That's exactly what's been happening. Some merchants have included their cost of their products, but some haven't. So it's cutting into your margin. With cash discount, you're getting 100% of your money, and you're charged a maximum of $25 from us every month. That's it, that's all you pay. I've had clients tell me this is too good to be true. Well, it sounds like it is but it's changed and it's legal in all 50 states. And I'll give you an example. We have a car dealership that's a client of ours that before we took them on, they were paying about $13,000 a month in credit card fees. They signed up with us, they now pay $25 a month and that $13,000 goes into their bank account every single month. And the owner of the dealership is elated because he's like, gosh, you know how hard it is to make money selling cars and servicing them. And now he gets all that money back so he doesn't have to recalculate his margins and overhead, etc. So it's a wonderful concept. The first concern that's going to probably come out of your mouth is, my customers are going to be angry. They're not going to like this, they're going to leave me. Well, I can tell you with the number of merchants we've put in with cash discount and all the other people I've talked to the customers don't get angry. They don't complain, they sign the ticket and they move on. By law, we have to have signage, which explains this entire process, what we're doing how we're doing it. We have to use specific language that the interchange board requires. So there's no secrets here. Everybody knows exactly what's happening. If they don't want to pay the percentage for non cash adjustment it's real simple. They use cash or check if the merchant allows for checks. It's a wonderful concept. And I've had lots of skeptical merchants. Someone will say, well, let's give it a try. Let's see what happens. But if it goes crazy and customer starts getting angry, we're gonna drop it off. And by the way, we could do that at any time. You're not locked in for life. So that's another key part. The merchant will start the process, and then all of a sudden, they'll see that there's zero pushback. And here's why. The customers have been paying these kinds of fees for a long time. If you live in a small town, and you pay your utility bill online, guess what? There's a fee associated with that. If you get your driver's license, or you get license plates, there's a markup surcharge related to that as well. So it's been around a long, long time. And of course, governments have been exempt from this rule. They've been allowed to do this whenever they want to. But now that merchants are doing it. Most processors can't offer cash adjustments because their platforms through their processors aren't up to date. That happens a lot. They don't have the proper relationships with equipment providers or their third party providers can't do cash discount. I've run into that. And of course the industry is going to have to change and change quickly. It's going to have to update all of their software and include non cash adjustment so that every merchant across the country can take advantage of this. It's an incredible concept. I love it to death. Because we're putting 1000s and 1000s of dollars back into the merchants pocket, and it's the greatest thing I've ever seen. So I'm selling it right and left. And my merchants love it. And they're making a ton of money.

Marisa Huston  25:11  
In the podcast, we talk a lot about awareness. And oftentimes we do things because everybody else is doing it, maybe it's convenient, maybe we don't want to know. In my program, I always talk about..."Some say ignorance is bliss and I think the opposite is true." Which is one of the reasons why I invite guests like you. The bottom line is, I want listeners to have options and I want them to know what the pros and cons are of every decision. Because ultimately, each of us has to make the right decision for ourselves and everybody has different needs and different expectations. What we're getting out of this conversation is, have somebody else take a look at what you're currently doing and give you a good big picture of what your options are so that regardless of your decision, you're making it with eyes wide open. There is a price for convenience. Convenience means I can just go in there, get it quickly. But what are you giving up in exchange for that? Not knowing what those options are, you could be losing out on a lot. Having somebody like you, who is an expert, who has been doing this for years, who can explain things, they can know what they're getting into and make the right decision that fits them. What is something that our listeners can do right now, that will help them take that step? Perhaps there's somebody listening right now that says, I haven't given any thought to who I'm going to use or how this whole thing works and I need more information? How do they start to look at the options and make the best decision for their own business?

Bruce Speegle  26:47  
That's a great question. The first thing they can do, open up their statement and do this simple math. It's usually on the last page. It'll have your total fees, which includes all of the interchange fees from issuing bank, the credit card companies, the ancillary fees, the markup from the ISOs, etc, and divide that number into the monthly volume. And the monthly volume is going to appear on the first page and it's going to break it down by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and Amex. And then you're going to get a total and you're going to have the number of transactions. This is how most statements are done. There are some providers that don't do this. Do the math and see where you're at. I would say 85% of our merchants come in somewhere between 1.8 and 2.2% if they're using the standard interchange, pass through pricing. If you're higher than that, there could be an issue but it also could relate to what kind of product you sell. The bigger the ticket, the more money that item costs, the more likelihood that the customer that's buying that product is going to use a rewards card, which has a much higher rate than a standard credit card or debit card. So that could influence that percentage. Some statements show this, some don't. But you can look down and it'll give you details of interchange, it'll list all the different card types, it'll list the number of transactions, the amount of volume for those transactions, and then at the far right of the statement will show you the fees involved in that. If the ticket size is larger than we have to change that formula of 1.8 to 2.2. And it might be 2.0 to 2.4%. Most of the people that we talk to, and most of the merchants that we sign up are well over 3%. We decided to offer the lowest pricing possible, for two reasons. We don't want our customers rate shopping us. And number two, if in fact somebody looks at the statement and says, Hey, we can't touch this price, because either it's below what I'm allowed to charge for my company, or I'm not gonna make any money on this so I'm just gonna walk away. The other real concern, and you need to be really, really concerned about this as a merchant. If somebody says they will match that rate, be careful, because they might match the rate, you sign the application and in the banking regulations that I described earlier, there might be an early termination fee. In addition to that, they may have told you that our rates will never go up. But if the rates start to creep up, you're going to get angry, and you're going to go he told me and whoever you talk to is going to say but you sign the app. In the application, the banking regs, it says we can raise the rates anytime we want to. So you got to be careful of that. You got to ask, Do you have an early termination fee? And then if they say no, make them put that in writing to you. That's very important. When you're interviewing providers, whether it's an ISO credit card company, whatever the case might be. And remember, everybody in our industry says they're from merchant services. That's the catch all. I never say it because my company is SGAssociates. And I want everybody to know who SGAssociates is and what we do. It's important that you do some research on that company, that you get some references from that company and you call them and you ask them these questions. Hey, has there been a price increase? How easy are they to get ahold of? Have you ever talked to your sales person afterwards? How easy is it to talk to customer service or tech support? Is there tech support in the United States, is it out of the Country? If it's out of the country then it's a hired call center. That's an issue in my book. My philosophy, make it simple and eliminate all the confusion. So that's what we've done. It is really important cause some providers will tell the merchant you need to do this, this and this. What's really important is to have the merchant tell me what their business is about, how they've done the last year. Of course, with COVID, the numbers have been so skewed, it's ridiculous. Anything related to home improvement, or let's say hot tubs or anything like that, the merchants numbers that produce those products have skyrocketed. Restaurants, of course, have plummeted. So there's two edges to sword here in terms of how merchants have done through COVID. But at the same time, it's changed the thinking of the processors, which means there's a lot more fraud today than there was pre COVID. And so the risk departments and the processors are really sitting back and analyzing their merchants volumes, they're looking at financials, they want to know that everything is legit, because the amount of fraud is up to levels never seen before. Finally, what's really important when you're talking about trying to hire a new provider, is you got to gauge their experience. The average stint in our industry, if your a salesperson is six months. Well, I've been in it 18 years. I love what we do, I love the customer service we provide. Most importantly, we offer every type of solution possible to taking credit cards. And I don't care if they need a payment gateway, they need recurring billing, they need a mobile app, they need a point of sale for their specific industry. Whatever it is, we have providers that have agreed to operate under our philosophy and charge the least amount for their products and services. And more importantly, is we only put our merchants into the products and services that they really need, are going to use to be successful in their business. We never lease equipment, merchants should never lease a piece of equipment. I took over merchant recently that we gave him a brand new terminal, my cost was 200 bucks, I gave it to him programmed it. They were still paying a lease for four years, a terminal that cost 250 bucks, they're paying $49.95 a month for four years. So it doesn't take a genius to figure out that that lease was over $12,000 versus me giving them a free terminal for 200 bucks. It's a huge weight off the merchants shoulders. In addition to that the merchants gonna need receipt paper, whether it's for a credit card terminal, or whether for a receipt printer. We provide free paper to all of our customers. That takes the concern off where to buy it, but in addition, it puts us in front of our clients on a regular basis and that's really important to me.

Marisa Huston  32:31  
One of the things you mentioned was customer service and I think that's really something that's overlooked. There's nothing more frustrating than signing up online. And then when you actually need to talk to somebody, they're either never there or you have to send an email that takes days to get an answer from. And in the meantime, you need somebody to address something that's very important, or you want somebody that you don't have to repeat your whole story to that knows you from the very beginning, and is somebody that is familiar with your business, and what your needs are. Those are things that we need to definitely think about and consider when we make those decisions, because that's a huge component. Inevitably, you're going to need that support and it's nice to know that you can have it.

Bruce Speegle  33:16  
Absolutely. And that's another great point, Marisa. What's really important to me is that when there's an issue, the merchant calls us first. Then if they need tech support or customer service, because we take in the problem as far as we can, w e're going to arrange for a call with tech support, and be on the call with the customer to make sure that not only do we get to the right tech support person, and everybody knows what I'm talking about with all these prompts and going through the maze. We've all been frustrated sitting on hold forever.  I don't want my merchants to be on hold. I want them to be able to run their business. And so my job is to make sure that I get them the help they need. When I have tech support on the phone then I call the merchant back so they don't have to wait on hold. We solve the problem. I make sure everything is right, everybody's happy. And they go back to doing their business. It is a personal touch that we require from everybody that works with our company. I don't want to throw my merchants to the wolves of a call center in another country. These call centers, they're wonderful people, they do a great job. But there are many issues that they can't answer. And so rather than go through that maze and put that poor merchant through all that confusion and heartache, we take care of all that for them and we solve the problem in a timely fashion so they can do what they're supposed to do, and run credit cards and make money and run their business etc.

Marisa Huston  34:35  
Do the things they want to do not the tedious things like worry about their merchant account. Bruce, how do they get ahold of you so that they can learn more about your company, how they can analyze their current statement and be more aware of the things that they're paying so that they can make the best decision for themselves.

Bruce Speegle  34:56  
Our website is under construction. We're redoing it. And so the best way to do this is to send me a text at 303-324-4430. Give me your phone number, give me your email address. I will reach out to you immediately. I'll talk about how we do an analysis for you. We'll sit down and talk about the numbers. You're going to learn more from me in a half an hour meeting than you ever wanted to know about credit cards and that's my goal. I want my merchants to know as much as possible without too much confusion. That's why we spend the time we do with our merchants. We show you a comprehensive analysis that shows you everything, all the fees, etc. I explain what the fees are, why you're being charged that fee. And then when it's all said and done, it's an easy decision if the math is correct. Which I can honestly say to my merchants that if you go with us, there's a better than 99% chance we're gonna be able to save anywhere from 20% on up on your credit card processing fees. If you go with cash discount, guess what? You're only going to pay $25 a month. It's a no brainer. We take care of everything for you to get you all the equipment you need, and support you across the way. We have actually dealt directly with several state. attorneys generals, and states attorneys because customers have thought that this was surcharging and in that particular state surcharging is illegal. They've asked us to explain what we're doing. We've done that. And every single time we've come out smelling like a rose. So everything we're doing is legitimate, it's legal, our industry is highly regulated and we make sure we follow every rule to the tee.

Marisa Huston  36:33  
Every business out there has their own needs. For example, let's say you wanted to sell something at a farmers market, you have a specific requirements that you need to have in order to do that, versus somebody who has a retail shop versus somebody who primarily charges online. Having an expert like you who understands all of those ins and outs and little changes that are taking place all the time in this industry will help get through that complicated mess and make a decision that you're comfortable with for your particular situation. I learned a ton and I know that anybody out there who's not a professional, like you is going to feel the same way. They're going to go, wow, I had no idea. And that's the whole point here. Because once that awareness is there, then they are more empowered to make a decision that they're comfortable making. Thank you, Bruce for being here. I'm so grateful.

Bruce Speegle  37:30  
It was so much fun, Marisa. And I always love talking to you. And I love what you're doing with this podcast. I think it's incredibly informative to everybody. You get to the truth in a whole variety of situations. I think that's wonderful for your listeners. So thank you so much.

Outro  37:44  
That's a wrap for this episode of Live Blissed Out. Thanks for listening, and thanks to Bruce Speegle, for joining us on the show. If you have a question or comment for a future episode, all you have to do is go to www.speakpipe.com/ lbovm, or click the link in the show notes to leave a brief audio message. If you find value in our show, please visit www.liveblissedout.com to reach out, subscribe and share on social media. This show is made possible through listeners like you. Thank you. So long for now and remember to keep moving forward!