The Thing Most Owners Are Stuck With
Ask a business owner what they would change about the way they take cards and you rarely get the rate first. You get the agreement.
Signing up for card processing usually comes with a contract, and the contract is the part nobody enjoys. It is written in a language that is not quite English, it runs for a period of time that is easy to lose track of, and the section about ending it is the one written smallest. Most owners sign it the same week they open, at the point where they have a hundred other things to think about, and they do not look at it again until something goes wrong.
That is how the arrangement usually works, and it is why owners stay somewhere they are not happy. Not because the processing is good, but because leaving looks like it will cost them something they cannot work out in advance. So the fees creep, the statements get harder to read, and the whole thing just sits there for years.
The second half of it is who you reach when something breaks. Almost every owner has a story about a terminal that stopped responding on a Friday night and a phone line that went nowhere useful. That combination — being locked in, and being hard to reach — is the thing worth fixing before anything else.
No Contract, No Termination Fees
Two of the things we lead with, and they are exactly what they sound like.
No contract means you are not locked in. There is no term running quietly in the background, and no moment months from now where you find out you have committed to something you did not mean to. You are free to leave.
No termination fees means leaving does not cost you a penalty. There is no fee for ending it, and nothing waiting at the end of the agreement to make staying the cheaper option. If you decide it is not working for your business, the exit is not the expensive part.
Put together, those two change the shape of the decision. Instead of a commitment you have to be certain about up front, you get something you can judge on how it actually goes — the setup, the equipment on your counter, the money landing in your account, and how easy we are to reach when you need us. If it is working, you stay because it is working. That is a better reason to stay than a clause.
It also means the first conversation is not a closing conversation. You are not being asked to commit to something before you have seen what it looks like in your business, and we will tell you honestly if a change is not worth making for you.
Support You Can Actually Reach
The other half of the promise is best in person customer support, and it is worth saying plainly what that means, because support is the word every provider uses and almost nobody defines.
We work with businesses across Dallas–Fort Worth and the surrounding area, and we set them up in person rather than entirely over the phone. That means meeting you at your business, looking at the counter you actually have, and putting the equipment in place rather than sending you a box and a link. For plenty of owners that is the difference between a system that gets used properly and one that gets worked around.
It also means the person who set you up is the person you call. When a terminal will not take a tap in the middle of a rush, you are not explaining your setup to somebody who has never seen it — you are reaching someone who already knows what is on your counter and how your business runs. That is the whole point of doing it in person: the knowledge stays with the person you can get hold of.
We do plenty over the phone too, because sometimes that is all a problem needs and nobody wants to wait for a visit over something that takes two minutes to sort out. But the option to have somebody stand at your counter with you is there, and it is how we would rather start.
What we will not do is promise you something we cannot stand behind. We are reachable during the hours we keep, and we are honest about when we are not. What you get is a real person who knows your business, rather than a queue, a ticket number and a fresh introduction every time you call.
What To Ask Before You Sign Anything
These questions work on any provider, including us. Ask them before you agree to anything, and ask for the answers in writing so you are comparing the same thing across the options in front of you.
Ask whether there is a contract, and how long it runs. If there is one, ask for the term in plain language rather than a paragraph you have to interpret.
Ask what happens if you want to leave, and whether there is a fee for doing it. The answer to this one tells you more about a provider than the rate does.
Ask who you actually reach when something goes wrong at the counter — not the name of a department, but whether it is the same people each time and whether they will come to you.
And ask what the equipment costs you. Ask for the number in writing, including anything bundled into a monthly charge, so you know what is being paid for and by whom.
Where To Start
Our offer for a business is straightforward, and it is the same three things every time: zero cost equipment, 0% fees with Cash Discount, and 3 months free marketing for a restaurant.
Zero cost equipment means the hardware you need to take cards costs you nothing to get started with a business account, so there is no outlay standing between you and the first sale. 0% fees with Cash Discount means your card processing fees come to 0% instead of a percentage of every sale. And 3 months free marketing means a restaurant gets help getting found while it is being set up.
The useful next step is a conversation about your business rather than ours. Call us, or send your details through the form on this site, and tell us how you take money today and what you would like to change. If you are switching processors, one recent statement is all we need to start and we will go through it with you line by line. If you are taking cards for the first time, just tell us what you sell and how you take payment now.
Either way you will get a straight answer, and there is no obligation to go further. That part is not a clause either.
The takeaway
No contract and no termination fees mean you are not locked in and leaving does not cost you a penalty — so you stay because it is working, not because a clause says so. Add support from the person who set you up, in person across Dallas–Fort Worth, and the decision stops being a gamble. Send us your details and we will go through it with you.
Read more about this on our Card Processing page.