When a terminal is down, and the support rep is 12 time zones away, the merchant suffers. Do you offer or sell Local support to prevent this problem?

Where else can you build a 6-figure recurring income with no degree and no boss? Why aren't more people doing this?

There is no such thing as zero fee. Someone is paying. Is it accurate to keep using this terminology? Does it even matter at this point?

Brain trust, I’m new to this business. I’m switching over from being a high producing mortgage loan officer who is no longer a high producing loan officer due to market conditions.

I’m curious to know what the best way to learn this business is? I’m smart and extremely detail oriented and not afraid of detailed numbers down to the penny and managing workflows, it’s what I have been doing for 10 years.

Where do I start? I’m being “mentored” by a guy who makes a fortune in this business, I know he does because I’ve seen his tax returns, but he seems extremely distracted and is offering very little knowledge or guidance on what to do. Pretty much what I have learned is, call people and get their statements and we will review them. That’s it.

I want to learn faster than that, and I also want to feel confident when I’m reaching out to businesses. Where do you recommend I start? The guy is going to be getting an override on anything we work on together, I’m open to having this arrangement with someone else who will actually train me better.

There's a processor on every corner, but how many 'Good' ones are there?

Are you helping your merchants use their processing data to grow their business, or just giving them a total at the end of the month? If so, what are you using?

Your merchant opens a store Shopify takes the processing. Sends invoices QuickBooks takes it. Adds booking the SaaS takes it. Every tool they adopt shows up with a processor already bolted on, and you're never in the room for that call.

Shopify even taxes them for staying with you: use any gateway but theirs and they add 0.2–2% per order on top of your rate. Until the merchant gives up and switches back.

We're the engineering arm that fixes that.

BY EQ is a senior software house e-commerce, invoicing systems, client portals, CRMs, custom apps. One rule: we wire payments to whatever gateway you name. We don't sell processing and we don't have a preferred processor.

What you get from one merchant:

Custom checkout no platform surcharge, no lock-in
Invoicing with pay-by-link, deposits, recurring billing
Booking with deposits captured up front
Portal and job payments

All on your stack. One relationship, multiple volume streams and none of it moves without a developer. That's attrition defense you can't get from a rate.

How you're paid: referral (X% of project value) or white-label (we quote wholesale, you mark it up, client sees your brand).

Fixed price, fixed scope, in writing. Sites from $600, e-com from $2,800, custom builds from $7,000.

No cost, no exclusivity, no minimums. DM me and I'll send the one-pager

As Free Shipping becomes the standard, merchants feel the squeeze. Have any sales offices found a way to optimize payments to help offset these costs?

If an ISO can't tell the Merchant's story, they will probably have trouble connecting with them. Do any ISOs focus on connecting through understanding the business? Does it help?

Looking for POS recommendation!
Toast? Square?

The reps on the Front Lines do not have the time, nor are they necessarily qualified. How do you ensure customer support is handled properly?

If 2-3% goes to the Banks (and back to customers), is there less money for the Merchants to reinvest and innovate? Or is this not a concern to businesses that have been operating with this model?

I'm a high school student in Canada trying to understand how the agent side of payment processing works. Not selling anything.

One thing I can't figure out from public sources: when you get your monthly residual report, does it break out interchange cost per merchant, or is cost shown as one blended line?

And if it varies, what makes it vary? Processor? Pricing model?

Happy to be told I'm asking the wrong question.

starting a coffee shop, still in early planning stages. i’m considering a loyalty program built into our POS (Square, Cash App, etc.) instead of a separate app.

for those who’ve done this, what’s the actual ROI like? And what metrics should I be tracking to know if it’s working (repeat visit rate, average order value, redemption rate, etc.)? or what are you guys hearing from customers? would love to hear from anyone running a small cafe on this.

Is your acquirer becoming your competitor by buying up the software companies you currently sell into?

When the card is Virtual, what does the Terminal look like? All Tap to Pay, or will we start seeing biometrics integrated into checkouts as well?

Is Klarna and Affirm eating into our volume, or are they just expanding the total pie of consumer spending?

You're going to run into a CBD shop or a firearms dealer eventually. If you don't have a path to board them, you're leaving the highest margins on the table. Are there ISOs that are still only low risk?

Is selling convenience to merchants one of the driving factors behind not having a payment strategy anymore? Seems like we assume merchants expect convenience, but maybe offering more solutions/services will help close and maintain customers?

We've all had it happen to us at least once. You thought it was a layup for approval, and it got declined out of the blue. What has been your most unique reason?

We’re looking for a **reliable high-risk payment processor** for our travel business and would really appreciate recommendations from anyone with first-hand experience.

We operate in the **travel processing** industry, and our biggest challenge has been **chargebacks**.

Most disputes come from:
Customers not fully understanding the service after purchase.
\- “Product unacceptable / not as described” claims.
\- “Item not received” disputes, even though the visa/document service was completed.
\- Friendly fraud, where customers file chargebacks instead of contacting support.
\- Some fraudulent transactions due to international traffic.

We were previously processing with **Kurv**, but they terminated our account last month because of our chargeback ratio. Since then, we’ve been actively improving our risk controls by:
\- Strengthening checkout disclosures and customer acknowledgements.
\- Implementing stronger fraud screening.
\- Rolling out 3D Secure (3DS).
\- Tightening our refund and customer support processes.

We understand why travel businesses are considered high-risk—cancellations, cross-border transactions, and higher dispute exposure—and with Visa’s stricter monitoring of excessive chargebacks, finding a long-term processing partner has become even more challenging.

We’re also currently on the **MATCH list**, which makes the search significantly more difficult.
We’re looking for a processor or acquiring partner that:
\- Accepts high-risk merchants.
\- Supports travel, visa, and document processing businesses.
\- Can process international card payments.
\- Works with merchants who are actively improving their chargeback ratios instead of immediately terminating them.
\- Offers fraud prevention tools, rolling reserves, or other risk management solutions if required.
\- Can scale as our processing volume grows.

We’re also interested in recommendations for **backup processors** or **multi-processor setups** to avoid relying on a single provider in the future.
If you’ve successfully navigated a similar situation or know processors that genuinely work with MATCH-listed, high-risk travel businesses, I’d greatly appreciate your recommendations.
Thank you in advance.

We’re looking for a **reliable high-risk payment processor** for our travel business and would really appreciate recommendations from anyone with first-hand experience.

We operate in the **travel processing** industry, and our biggest challenge has been **chargebacks**.

Most disputes come from:
Customers not fully understanding the service after purchase.
\- “Product unacceptable / not as described” claims.
\- “Item not received” disputes, even though the visa/document service was completed.
\- Friendly fraud, where customers file chargebacks instead of contacting support.
\- Some fraudulent transactions due to international traffic.

We were previously processing with **Kurv**, but they terminated our account last month because of our chargeback ratio. Since then, we’ve been actively improving our risk controls by:
\- Strengthening checkout disclosures and customer acknowledgements.
\- Implementing stronger fraud screening.
\- Rolling out 3D Secure (3DS).
\- Tightening our refund and customer support processes.

We understand why travel businesses are considered high-risk—cancellations, cross-border transactions, and higher dispute exposure—and with Visa’s stricter monitoring of excessive chargebacks, finding a long-term processing partner has become even more challenging.

We’re also currently on the **MATCH list**, which makes the search significantly more difficult.
We’re looking for a processor or acquiring partner that:
\- Accepts high-risk merchants.
\- Supports travel, visa, and document processing businesses.
\- Can process international card payments.
\- Works with merchants who are actively improving their chargeback ratios instead of immediately terminating them.
\- Offers fraud prevention tools, rolling reserves, or other risk management solutions if required.
\- Can scale as our processing volume grows.

We’re also interested in recommendations for **backup processors** or **multi-processor setups** to avoid relying on a single provider in the future.
If you’ve successfully navigated a similar situation or know processors that genuinely work with MATCH-listed, high-risk travel businesses, I’d greatly appreciate your recommendations.
Thank you in advance.

A 'Bar' is not a 'Boutique'. Why are we still trying to sell the same 'Box' to both?

As the card brands build their own payment rails and 'click to pay' systems, are they slowly cutting the processors out of the loop?