Another credit card fee solution

To the editor:

You mention in your article about credit card fees (“Credit card fees add up for small businesses,” Nov. 6-19 NHBR), that one possible solution to this problem is shopping around for lower transaction fees.

Another solution, which you left out of the article, is for the business to join an association and use the group buying power of that association’s credit card program. 

For example, if a retailer goes to a credit card processor or a bank to get a processing rate, the rate is going to be based on their expected volume. The Retail Merchants Association of New Hampshire (and many other associations) has a credit card processing program for our members. We’ve lumped our members’ volume together with the credit card processing volume of the Maine, Vermont, and New York Retail Associations, and negotiated credit card processing rates on $450 million. Our members get rates that are much lower, and lots of the fees get waived, which a smaller merchant can’t qualify for on their own.

Nancy C. Kyle
President
Retail Merchants Association of New Hampshire