5 Worst Reasons to Sell for a Processor

Having talked with and provided training to hundreds of agents in the merchant services industry, I have heard a lot of reasons why agents sell for their current credit card processing company rather than switching. Some of these reasons do make sense, and there have been many times when I have advised an agent to stay with the current processor. However, many times the reasons are not great and sometimes make no sense at all. Below are the top five Worst Reasons to stay with your current provider.

5. “They are a local company, and I need the local support.” When you work for a local provider without an ownership interest in the business, you are actually working for your competitor unless you plan to remain small. Eventually you will want to be the owner, the top brand name processing company in your market. If you work for a local provider, you will not achieve this goal. I have people who have worked for me in my local market whose goal is to have a secure job. If this is your goal, you should continue selling for a local provider. But if your goal is to build a business, you should become the local provider.

4. “My friend or family member got me into the business.” This can be a tough one! Can you ask this person the tough questions like, “Am I an independent agent or a sub-agent?” “Do I own the residual; would I continue to get paid even if I had an accident or moved to another business?” These are vital along with many other questions. Keep personal and business separate!

3. “They provide me with appointment scheduled leads.” Let’s face it, most of these “leads” are a waste of time. Why would you spend all of the gas money to go to three leads per day that are thirty minutes apart? These don’t really want you to show up anyway. You could literally walk around your local community and visit fifteen to twenty businesses per day!

2. “They pay me so much up front money but no residual.”

1. “They give me a larger residual split.” Don’t be fooled by inflated cost structures and higher residual splits. Most agents are choosing 80% of $20.00 per month in profit over 50% of $100 per month in profit. The issue isn’t what percentage of the pie you get but rather how big IS the pie?

Thanks for reading!
James Shepherd