Education

Merchants across the country are looking for ways to manage the rising cost of accepting credit cards. At the same time, states, regulators and the card brands are paying closer attention to how businesses pass those costs along to customers. The result is a lot of confusion. Terms such as surcharge, cash discount, non-cash adjustment … Read more

A few months ago, someone referred me to a local auto repair shop. The owner had been with the same bank for more than a decade. He’d never had a reason to think twice about it. No one had ever told him otherwise, so he assumed everything was fine. He only agreed to talk to … Read more

Across the country, merchants are being hit with four- and five-figure fines for supposed “violations” of surcharging or dual pricing rules, often with little to no explanation of what went wrong or how to fix it. In this post, we’ll unpack what’s really happening behind these assessments, where most merchants go wrong, and what you can … Read more

Most business owners I meet are sharp, resilient, and focused. You’ve built something real out of grit and vision. You’re serving customers, creating jobs, and keeping your company moving forward every single day. But here’s the catch: sometimes the biggest threats to profitability don’t come from the outside. They’re not always theft, fraud, or a market … Read more

Small business owners are facing a financial squeeze from all directions. Whether you run a local retail shop, a restaurant, or a service-based business, you’ve likely felt the rising cost of doing business over the past few months. A major driver? Tariffs. Tariffs, in essence a tax placed on imported goods, might sound like something … Read more

If you’ve ever looked in your bank account and saw money missing or opened your email to find a message from your payment processor saying a customer has filed a dispute, you’re not alone, and you’re not doing anything “wrong.” But knowing why disputes happen and how to respond the right way can save you … Read more

If you’re a business owner, you’ve likely faced a credit card dispute—or at least the looming threat of one. The reality is businesses are at a disadvantage, with any dispute, leaving them frustrated when they lose the dispute and the money paid when they know and believe in their hearts they are right, So, why … Read more

Let’s talk about something that confuses a lot of business owners: how to avoid paying credit card fees. As a business owner you are acutely aware that every time a customer swipes their card or you manually enter in a transaction, you’re paying a percentage of that sale to Visa, Mastercard and the card issuing … Read more