A credit card statements can be a confusing and intimidating document for many business owners. A majority of credit card processing companies rely on an owner to be overwhelmed and not read through the fine print where you’ll find hidden processing fees, held transactions, and more. However, it’s essential to understand them to stay on top of your finances and avoid costly mistakes. New Mexico POS is dedicated to being transparent about the statements we provide through CoCard and would like to share how to accurately read through your own:

1. Know Your Statement and Batch

The first step in reading your business credit card statement is to know your statement date and when funding from a batch will appear. The statement date mark the start and end of a processing cycle, and all transactions made during this period will appear on the statement. A statement can be generated per batch through your online portal, a login to the processing company’s website to view all credit card authorizations.

2. Review Your Transactions

The next step is to review your transactions. Your statement will list all of your businesses transactions and any fees charged to your account. It’s crucial to check each transaction charged to ensure that it’s accurate and authorized as well as keeping track that your Point of Sale batches match the total transaction amount. If it does not match, going through the POS batch and your Transactions will point you to the authorization that did not make it to your processor.

3. Check for Any Unusual Charges

While reviewing your transactions, keep an eye out for any unusual charges, such as unauthorized purchases, duplicate charges, or erroneous amounts. If you notice any, contact your credit card issuer or your point of sale provider immediately to report the issue.

4. Review Your Fees

Your statement will include your rates for processing credit cards, also known as your effective rate. To find your effective rate, you’ll take the total amount deducted for processing and divide it by the amount of your total monthly sales paid by credit cards. There are three fees that make up an Effective Rate, being , Interchange, Markup, and Assessment.

5. Lowering Your Effective Rate

Lowering your effective rate is easy to negotiate once you have the information to negotiate with your processing company aside from Interchange. Another option many owners are utilizing in their business is Cash Discounting or having a customer pay Credit Card Fees, different terms but same meaning. Merchants pass on the Effective Rate fees to customers (typically 3%) and take off this fee when cash is the payment.

Reading your business credit card statement accurately is essential for managing your finances and avoiding costly mistakes. By following these steps, you’ll be able to understand and interpret your statement with ease. New Mexico POS is dedicated to providing the BEST rates with total transparency of processing rates and fees for your business. Contact us (505) 293-7551 and find out how much you could be saving monthly and yearly with our partnership with CoCard Services.