140 answers about merchant services

No. CELER Merchants is an independent merchant services agent and referral partner. We are not a bank, a processor or an acquirer. The provider you choose underwrites, approves and settles your account. We shop the market, negotiate, set the account up and support it.

Three things a direct sales rep cannot. We read your statement objectively because we are not defending a price book. We take your profile to multiple providers and make them compete. And we re-shop the account later when the market moves, instead of hoping you never check.

The provider you select pays us a share of the processing margin on your account, monthly, for as long as you stay. You pay the provider what you would pay going direct — usually less, because we negotiate against live competing offers.

No, and usually the opposite. Our compensation comes out of the provider's margin, not added to your rate. Providers accept that because an agent brings them volume without them paying for the sales effort.

Ours is a residual model: we earn only while you remain a client, and we get paid the same way whichever provider you choose. That removes the incentive to steer. A direct rep is paid once for signing you to the only product they have.

A panel of acquirers, processors, gateways and POS vendors covering Canada and the United States. Which ones we approach depends on your industry, volume, ticket size, equipment and risk profile. We will tell you exactly who quoted.

Yes, including the offers we did not recommend and the reason. If an agent will not show you the losing bids, they are not running a competitive process.

We tell you so in writing and you keep the free analysis. It happens on roughly one statement in eight. An agent who has never said that to a merchant is not shopping the market.

No. Plenty of merchants take our analysis back to their current provider and negotiate with it. We would rather be the people who told you the truth than the people who wasted your afternoon.

No. It is free, with no obligation, and you keep it either way.

We work with the providers whose pricing, underwriting and support hold up. If a provider we do not currently work with is genuinely the right answer for your business, we will say so.

Yes. We can quote alongside your bank and you can compare on identical terms. Bank merchant pricing is frequently the most expensive option in the market precisely because it is rarely audited.

One recent monthly processing statement, all pages including the fee schedule. A PDF or clear photos are fine. If you cannot find it, tell us your provider and we will point you to the exact page in their portal.

Under 4 hours, guaranteed. Most come back the same day.

Your true effective rate calculated three ways, every fee identified with who collects it, which lines are negotiable and which are genuinely fixed, a side-by-side against a properly structured account, and the dollar difference per month and per year.

Usually one business day once the application is in. Complex or higher-risk profiles take longer, and we will tell you up front if yours is one.

Most merchants are live within 3-5 business days: analysis day one, quotes days one to two, approval same-day, pre-programmed hardware shipped, cutover scheduled around your busy hours.

Business details, ownership information, banking details for settlement, processing history and estimated monthly volume and average ticket. About 15 minutes.

No. Sole proprietors and partnerships are supported. The underwriting documentation differs slightly.

Yes. New businesses are underwritten on projections, owner history and industry rather than statements. Expect slightly more conservative initial limits, which we get raised once volume is established.

No setup fee, no application fee, no annual fee.

No. Month to month with no liquidated damages clause. If a provider on our panel insists on a term, we will show you that clearly before you sign anything.

You get a named contact, a 30-day review comparing the first full month against the projection in writing, and a quarterly re-price whether or not you ask for it.

Yes, on one consolidated account with per-location reporting, or as separate accounts where the tax or ownership structure requires it.

Total fees divided by total card volume, times 100. It is the only number that compares two providers honestly, because it captures every fee rather than the headline discount rate.

Roughly 2.10%-2.45% for well-priced card-present retail, 2.25%-2.60% for restaurants, 2.50%-2.95% for eCommerce, and higher for keyed or commercial-card heavy businesses. Above 3.2% on in-person volume, something is usually recoverable.

The portion paid to the bank that issued your customer's card. It is published twice a year by the card networks and is identical for every processor. Nobody discounts interchange — they can only make sure your transactions qualify for the cheapest category they are eligible for.

Fees paid to the card brands themselves. Small, fixed and non-negotiable — but frequently marked up and presented to merchants as if they were pass-through cost.

Interchange and assessments pass through at cost, plus a fixed markup stated in basis points and cents per transaction. It is the only structure you can audit against published tables.

One published rate per transaction type, for example 2.6% + $0.10 in person. Simple and predictable, but you pay an averaged price, so debit transactions subsidise rewards cards.

Transactions are sorted into qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified buckets whose definitions the processor writes. They can move a transaction type into a costlier bucket without changing any published rate. It is unauditable by design.

Under about $10,000-$15,000 monthly volume, flat rate often wins. Above that, interchange-plus is almost always cheaper. Very small tickets change the answer because per-item fees dominate. We model both against your statement.

Typically past $15,000 a month, sooner if your average ticket is large. On $60,000 monthly the difference is often $300-$600 a month.

Because the quote covered one interchange category. Rewards cards, business cards, keyed transactions and international cards all cost more, and monthly fees sit on top. The gap between quoted and effective is where overpayment lives.

Interchange and assessments change twice a year for everyone and pass through at cost. A provider's own markup should not move without your written agreement — and on accounts we place, we monitor for exactly that.

A few basis points added to your markup periodically, never announced, rarely noticed. It is the quietest revenue model in the industry, which is why we recalculate your effective rate quarterly.

They should. Interchange does not change, but markup is negotiable and normally steps down with volume. If your rate has not moved after doubling volume, nobody re-priced you.

For card-present retail above $50,000 monthly, roughly 0.15%-0.35% plus $0.07-$0.10 per transaction is competitive. Card-not-present and higher-risk sit above that.

No, and neither should anyone honest. A single published rate would be a guess about your card mix, ticket size, volume and industry. We quote from your statement.

There is no single cheapest processor — there is a cheapest processor for your specific profile, and it changes with volume, ticket size, channel mix and industry. That is the entire reason an agent beats a direct rep.

A monthly penalty, typically $19.95-$39.95, charged when your annual self-assessment questionnaire is not on file. It is avoidable in every case. On accounts we place, PCI support is included and the fee is zero.

$9.95-$29.95 a month to receive a PDF. There is no cost being recovered — it is margin. We do not place accounts that carry one.

A charge for not processing enough volume in a month. It exists to make quiet months profitable for the processor.

A small charge each time you close a batch, typically $0.15-$0.35. Legitimate at cost, but it should be itemised and it should not be charged multiple times a day unless you batch multiple times a day.

Transactions that fail to qualify for their cheapest interchange category, usually because of missing address data on keyed sales, late batch closing, or rewards and commercial cards under a tiered plan. Above 25% of transactions, something is misconfigured.

A per-dispute fee, usually $25-$45. It is charged whether you win or lose. On accounts we place we push for $15 or lower and a waiver on won disputes.

A once-a-year charge of $79-$149 that typically lands in a month nobody is watching. There is no service attached.

An invented line item. There is no regulator charging it. If it appears on your statement, it is margin with a serious-sounding name.

The cost of the software layer that connects your website or virtual terminal to the processor. Legitimate, but it should be quoted as its own line rather than bundled invisibly into your rate.

Yes — the card networks charge them on foreign-issued cards. They should appear as separate lines. Flat-rate plans bury them, which is why tourist-area merchants often pay far more than they think.

A separate non-cancellable contract with a leasing company, often 48 months at $69-$99 for hardware worth a few hundred dollars. It survives cancelling your processor. It is the single most expensive trap in this industry.

Interchange, card-brand assessments and network access fees. Everything else on a merchant statement is a commercial decision somebody made.

No. New hardware arrives pre-programmed and tested, we cut over at your quietest hour, and the old account stays open until the new one settles a clean batch. Most merchants have zero closed minutes.

Send us the agreement. We will find the term, the auto-renewal window and the damages clause and tell you exactly what leaving costs before you decide. Documented early-termination fees are reimbursed up to $1,000.

A cancellation penalty calculated from projected lost revenue rather than a flat fee. It can run into thousands. It is the reason to read a contract before signing, not after.

Sometimes. Processor-locked terminals cannot move. Many POS platforms are processor-agnostic and can simply be repointed. We check before you commit.

Where both sides cooperate, a PCI-compliant vault-to-vault migration moves tokenised cards so your customers never re-enter details. We manage the request.

Not until you are ready. We never contact your existing provider without your written instruction.

In writing, citing the correct clause, with confirmation retained. Do not simply stop processing — some providers keep billing monthly fees until formally cancelled. We draft the letter for you.

Only for the better. Next-business-day funding is standard on the accounts we place, with cut-off times stated in writing before you sign.

Recalculate your effective rate from the first full month — we do this with you at day 30 and put it in writing. If the number does not match the projection, we go back to the provider.

Every 12-24 months, or any time your volume changes materially. On accounts we place, we do it for you quarterly.

Terminals typically run $199-$650 to purchase, or $15-$40 a month on a cancellable rental. We do not place non-cancellable long-term leases.

Roughly $300-$1,600 per station for hardware and $0-$180 per month per terminal for software. The processing rate attached to it is usually the bigger number, which is why we price both together.

Buying is cheaper over 24 months in almost every case. Renting makes sense if you want to preserve cash or expect to change format soon. We show both totals in writing.

The one that matches how you actually operate — ticket count, staff count, whether you sell online, and what software you already run. Anyone naming a single best system without asking those questions is selling what they stock.

Yes, along with EMV chip, magstripe, PIN debit and Interac Flash in Canada.

Accepting contactless cards and digital wallets directly on an iPhone or Android device with no extra hardware. It qualifies at card-present rates and can be live the same day.

Yes — tap to pay on phone, a virtual terminal in any browser, pay-by-link, or invoicing with a card and bank-transfer button.

Call the support line and say 'terminal down'. Those calls skip the queue and a pre-programmed replacement ships the same day on approved accounts.

Yes. Both, plus Sage and most major accounting platforms, with payments posting against the correct invoice and fees split into their own account.

Yes, with shared catalogue, per-location reporting and consolidated settlement, or separate settlement per location if you prefer.

No. One merchant account can cover in-store, online, invoicing and recurring, with card-present and card-not-present priced separately because they genuinely cost different amounts.

Ethernet, WiFi or 4G depending on model. For markets, food trucks and rural locations we specify 4G units with offline store-and-forward so weak signal does not cost you the sale.

Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, Squarespace, Wix and custom builds through a documented REST API with webhooks and a sandbox.

The software layer that securely passes card data from your website to the processor. Authorize.net, NMI and PayTrace are common independent options; some processors bundle their own.

The share of attempted transactions approved by issuing banks. A one-point lift on $2M of annual volume is $20,000 recovered. It is usually a bigger lever than the processing rate.

Common causes: AVS settings that are too strict, missing network tokens, no retry logic on soft declines, or an acquirer whose issuer relationships are weak in your customer's region. All are fixable.

An authentication step that shifts fraud liability to the card issuer on qualifying transactions. Modern frictionless flows mean most legitimate customers never see a challenge.

Yes. Multi-currency acceptance is available, and the cross-border and conversion assessments should be shown as separate lines rather than blended into one rate.

You should. Tokenised vaults can be migrated between providers under PCI-compliant procedures. We insist on portability before recommending a gateway.

Yes, legitimately. Card-not-present interchange is higher because the fraud risk sits differently. Anything beyond that gap is markup.

Next business day is standard on approved accounts, with same-day options available on qualifying volume. Cut-off times are stated in writing before you sign.

Usually risk policy, batch timing or a cut-off time you were never told about. Sometimes it is simply the default setting. All three are changeable.

Batches closed Friday through Sunday normally settle Monday unless same-day funding is enabled. The exact behaviour should be in your agreement, not discovered in month two.

Check whether the batch actually closed — an open batch never funds. Then check your cut-off time and whether a bank holiday intervened. If all three look right, call us with the batch date and amount.

A held percentage of volume used by the acquirer to cover risk on higher-risk or new accounts. Most standard retail and restaurant accounts have none. If one is proposed, we tell you before you sign.

Usually a transaction well above your stated average ticket, a sudden volume spike, or a chargeback pattern. Accurate underwriting figures up front are the best prevention.

Yes, on most platforms — useful for routing tax or partner shares automatically.

Sometimes, as a small flat fee per deposit. It should appear as a line item so you can decide per account.

A forced reversal initiated by the cardholder's bank. You lose the sale, usually the goods, a per-dispute fee, and it counts against your dispute ratio.

Above roughly 0.9% of transactions for Visa and 1.0% for Mastercard triggers monitoring programs with escalating fines. Sustained breach can end in account termination and a MATCH listing.

A genuine customer disputing a genuine purchase — a forgotten subscription, an unrecognised descriptor, or a family member's purchase. It is the largest dispute category for most merchants and the most preventable.

Fix your billing descriptor first, answer the phone before the bank does, enable dispute alerts, capture AVS/CVV and delivery evidence at sale time, and make subscription cancellation easy.

A notification that a cardholder has started a dispute, giving you a window to refund before it becomes a formal chargeback. A small per-alert cost beats the fee plus the ratio hit every time.

AVS and CVV match results, delivery or collection proof, timestamped terms acceptance, prior undisputed transactions from the same cardholder, and communication showing the customer used the product.

35-55% on well-built friendly-fraud representments. Close to zero on genuine stolen-card fraud, which is not worth fighting.

Often, yes. A refund before a dispute is filed costs you only the sale. A chargeback costs the sale, the goods, the fee and your ratio.

The card industry's data security standard. Every business accepting cards must attest to compliance annually, usually through a self-assessment questionnaire.

Most small merchants using hosted payment fields or standalone terminals qualify for SAQ-A or SAQ-A-EP — around 20 minutes of work. Filing SAQ-D when you qualify for SAQ-A turns that into a 300-question audit.

No. No PCI program fee and no non-compliance fee on accounts we place. We complete the questionnaire with you.

Monthly non-compliance fees, and materially worse liability exposure if a breach occurs. It is a paperwork problem with a financial penalty attached.

Replacing the card number with a meaningless token so the real number never touches your systems. It is the single most effective way to reduce both breach risk and PCI scope.

Liability depends on your compliance status and how card data flows through your systems. Reducing scope through tokenisation and hosted fields is the strongest protection available to a small merchant.

Only if your environment requires it — typically eCommerce merchants handling card data on their own servers. We arrange scanning where it applies.

Yes, when tokenised. You keep the ability to charge the customer without ever holding the card number yourself.

Compliant dual pricing and cash discount programs are legal across most of the US and Canada, subject to card-brand rules and local law. Surcharging specifically is prohibited in a few states and restricted in Quebec. The structure has to match your jurisdiction.

A surcharge adds a fee to the card price at checkout. Dual pricing displays two prices — cash and card — as the posted price. Dual pricing generally holds up better because it is a pricing decision rather than a fee.

No. Card-brand rules prohibit surcharging debit and prepaid transactions, including Interac in Canada. Programs that do this are the fastest route to a fine.

Massachusetts, Connecticut and Puerto Rico prohibit it. New York regulates how the card price must be displayed. Colorado caps it below the national ceiling. Quebec applies its own consumer-protection rules. Confirm current law before launching.

Card-brand rules cap it at your actual cost of acceptance, with a ceiling of 3% in the US and 2.4% in Canada. Some jurisdictions set lower limits.

Where card-brand rules require advance notice, yes. On accounts we place, we file it.

Fewer than owners expect. Merchants running clear signage typically report under 2% of customers commenting. In sectors where every competitor already does it, reaction is close to zero.

Luxury and hospitality settings where a checkout line item undercuts the experience, price-comparison eCommerce, and businesses under roughly $10,000 monthly volume where the recovered amount does not justify the operational change.

Yes, including Interac Flash contactless and PIN debit. In most Canadian plans it is priced per transaction rather than as a percentage, which materially lowers blended cost for debit-heavy merchants.

Credit interchange is broadly comparable. The big difference is Interac debit pricing, which pulls Canadian blended costs down, and a lower surcharge cap of 2.4%.

Quebec's Consumer Protection Act restricts several fee-passing practices legal elsewhere, and Law 25 imposes Canada's strictest privacy obligations. Programs and privacy handling have to be built for Quebec specifically.

Yes, all thirteen, including remote northern communities where terminal choice and offline capability matter more than rate.

EFT is the Canadian bank transfer rail; ACH is the American equivalent. Same concept, different networks, cut-off rules and return codes. We support both.

Yes, with USD settlement or conversion depending on your banking setup. Cross-border and conversion assessments should be shown separately so you can see the real cost.

Yes, all 50 plus the District of Columbia. Our US principal address is in Sheridan, Wyoming, and support runs 24/7 across every time zone.

It caps debit interchange for large card issuers. Small-issuer debit is uncapped. It means your debit costs vary depending on which bank issued the customer's card, which is one reason blended rates hide so much.

Significantly. Prohibited in Massachusetts and Connecticut, presentation-regulated in New York, capped lower in Colorado, permitted with disclosure in most others. Multi-state operators need per-state configuration.

A faster settlement window for US bank transfers, available on qualifying transactions for a small additional fee. Useful for B2B invoicing where card fees are prohibitive.

Yes, with clean auto-reconciliation. Medical and dental practices in particular should have these separated in reporting or they distort the effective rate.

Yes. Those are foreign-issued cards carrying cross-border assessments, which should appear as their own line rather than being absorbed into a blended rate.

A competitive full-service restaurant runs 2.25%-2.60% effective. Above 3.1%, tip adjustments, delayed batching or tiered pricing are usually costing you money.

Commercial, corporate and purchasing cards carry higher interchange, but they also qualify for reduced rates when Level II and Level III line-item data is passed. Most B2B merchants have never been configured to send it.

Transmitting detailed line-item data with commercial card transactions. It can reduce interchange by up to a full point on qualifying B2B sales — frequently worth more than any rate negotiation.

Recurring billing with an automatic account updater, retry logic keyed to decline reason, and a self-serve card update portal. Account updater alone recovers 38-52% of otherwise-lost recurring revenue.

The per-transaction fee, not the percentage. On a $9 average ticket, ten cents per item is 1.1% before any rate applies.

Card on file with tokenised storage, text-to-pay for patient balances, HSA/FSA acceptance with clean reconciliation, and practice-management integration. Text-to-pay typically collects balances 3.4x faster.

Yes, registered charities frequently qualify for reduced interchange categories that generic providers never apply for. Adding a donor-covers-the-fee option recovers most of the remaining cost.

Lodging has its own interchange handling for incremental authorisations, no-shows and incidentals. On generic pricing, lodging merchants routinely lose 0.40% or more to downgrades.

24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year. Payments do not stop at 5pm and neither do we.

Yes, a named person who knows your account, your hardware and your busy hours — not a ticket queue.

Within one hour for general enquiries. Terminal-down and funding issues are escalated ahead of the queue immediately.

Recalculate your effective rate quarterly and send it, monitor for rate creep, flag when your volume crosses a pricing threshold, and re-shop the account when the market moves.

Call 1-888-705-7896 at any hour, or email [email protected]. Every enquiry — sales, support, billing, partnerships, careers, privacy — goes to that address and gets routed internally.

Calls may be recorded and monitored for training and quality purposes. You are notified at the start of the call.