Frequently Asked Questions

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What will a review cost our company?

There is no cost for BMS’S initial review of processing fees and contracts. BMS earns a percentage of final savings. BMS’S clients are always paying BMS from realized savings. If BMS does not find any savings the client pays no fees.

What types of companies does BMS work with?

BMS has worked with restaurant groups, universities, hospitals, churches, large retailers, medical practices and all kinds of businesses in between. Any business or entity that accepts credit cards as a form of payment for goods or services can benefit from BMS’S services.

How much time will our staff need to dedicate to the review?

A review requires only a few hours of your staff’s time. Most of the time spent by your staff will be on administrative tasks like creating letters of authorization to your processor authorizing BMS to work as your agent. Your team may need to assist BMS with obtaining sign on access to your processor’s web portal to allow BMS to electronically download monthly billing statements to perform our analysis of fees you are being charged. A few hours of your staff’s time is a small investment when you have the opportunity to reduce your credit card processing fees by 20% or more.

Does it matter where my company is geographically located?

No, BMS works with companies and organizations in all 50 states.

We have internal staff (Purchasing department, CFO, Treasury staff, IT department etc.) that interface with our credit card processor. We don’t need BMS right?

BMS has reviewed thousands of Merchant Credit Card statements for hundreds of clients and have negotiated with all of the major processors in the United States (First Data, Chase Paymentech, Elavon, Global Payments, Bank of America, Vantiv). BMS is involved in the credit card processing industry every day and this gives BMS an advantage over your internal staff when identifying over charges and negotiating best in class pricing. Your staff has many daily responsibilities and credit card fees is not their sole focus. On the other hand credit card processing fees, and regulations are BMS’ sole focus. BMS has built a database of pricing terms based on credit card transaction volumes and total credit card sales, which allows BMS to benchmark the fees each client should expect to pay.

Does BMS require any confidential information as part of your analysis?

BMS obviously has access to your company’s credit card sales and credit card transaction volumes which BMS considers to be confidential information. The monthly billing statements that BMS will analyze do not have any information that can be identified to any of your customers/clients/donors etc. BMS also reviews your contracts with your processor which we consider confidential information. Our contract has a confidentiality clause for the protection of our clients as well as BMS.

What happens if BMS does not find any savings?

In simple terms if BMS does not find any savings then our client pays no fees and has the piece of mind to know that their fees have been reviewed by any industry expert. Having said this BMS has always found savings in all of our client engagements.

What role does benchmarking play in your analysis?

Benchmarking plays two roles in BMS’ analysis.

We have developed a proprietary data base of pricing terms based on industry type, total credit card sales, credit card transaction volumes and average credit card sales ticket. All of this information allows BMS to benchmark a new clients transaction volumes and credit card sales against our database to identify variances.

BMS establishes a baseline Effective Rate (a percentage derived by dividing total processing fees by total credit card sales) for our clients before beginning our analysis and negotiations with your processor. This Effective Rate is the benchmark from which future savings are measured. In most cases the Effective Rate can range from 2% to as high as 5% before BMS begins negotiations.

BMS’ position is strengthened when negotiating with your processor because of the benchmarked data.

Will we need to change processors?

95% of our clients have remained with their current processor.  Our goal is to maintain our client’s current processors, minimizing any service disruptions caused by changing processing vendors. BMS has assisted clients with changing to a new processor when the client was dissatisfied with service quality or were dissatisfied with being overcharged for many years. Each client determines whether they maintain or change their current processor.

How can I learn more about BMS or initiate an analysis of our processing fees?

You can contact us one of three ways: