Canucks, rejoice! You can finally access Apple Pay. While the US rollout had a few glitches (i.e. repeating transactions without a way to obtain a refund) the Canadian rollout should be effortless. While consumers are clamoring for this technology, merchants have not been as hot for it. It isn’t that Apple Pay doesn’t bring in the big bucks, but rather than it is a high risk payment option. While this may trouble some merchants, those with Canadian merchant accounts should not fret.
While a typical merchant account will not allow “alternative” payment sources, or jack up your processing rates for accepting them, a Canadian merchant account, like the one offered by EMB, will not. Yes, there is a chance that Apple Pay is riskier than the average plastic card payment. After all, if your phone is not secure, someone could easily hack your information. One too many chargebacks can leave a merchant without a merchant account, if their merchant account processor is not familiar with the “high risk” processing industry. This leads to the inability to process anything other than cash, and very few people pay with strictly cash.
Even if you are comfortable with your current set up, you need to check your options. While your current processor may work for now, many do not cooperate with the advance in technology – including Apple Pay. All merchants should make sure that their current processor accepts these payment sources, and if not, you should consider your options. You need to not only look for a processor who accepts alternative payment solutions, but also one who does not jack up processing fees for these sales. Many times processors will charge higher processing fees for risky transactions, including Apple Pay, and you will not realize it until you look over your statements. Be sure to look at the fine print in your existing contract to find out if you are one of the merchants who will suffer from unnecessarily high processing fees, just for using a new payment source. At the end of the day, your business matters – after all, it is your lifeline – and you should take every step available to make sure that more of your hard-earned cash stays in the business and not in the processor’s hands.