General Consultant Discussion

Chargeback Assistance Program"" Saw a new monthly fee on my SPS merchant account. It appears that it's levied regardless of whether you incurred chargebacks or not. Called SPS and they reduced it to $1.50/month instead. SPS FAQ web site implies the program requires enrollment, whereas SPS customer service indicated it was a requirement (at $3.95/month). You may wish to alert customers of this ""program"" so they can decide for themselves. http://na.sage.com/sage-payment-solutions/support-resources/sage-chargeback-assistance-program/faq

Add the the PCI compliance fee to this and can you say ""nickle and dime to death""?????

@MarkKotyla are you being charged a compliance fee too? And what is that fee $$ @JeffSchwenk ?

Emailed Julie Herman at Sage to see if this is really mandatory

The non-compliance fee is $25 I believe.

Not sure what this is referring to -- ""Data Breach Insurance"" http://www.sagepayments.com/Compliance/~/media/Category/Payment%20Solutions/Assets/Documents/PDFs/Payment_Card_Industry_Changes.pdf and FANF fee https://support.sagepayments.com/ics/support/kbanswer.asp?deptID=20000&task=knowledge&questionID=1254

@ThereseLogeais wins the prize.......... I sent out an alert a couple months ago to my clients so that they scrutinize their montly billing frm SPS. You can quickly negate any savings realized when you switched initially.

Link to Jeff's original post about the $25/mo compliance fee https://90minds-com.socialcast.com/messages/10412529

Recurring Revenue generation ........... Not sure how this adds value to the clients bottom line. Sounds like a maintenance plan for your washer and dryer. You might be the one in a thousand to actually use it, the other 999 are suckers. Plus, I would read the fine print very carefully to see what it actually covers. I would bet that it is heavily slanted in Sage's favor..........

WRT - PCI -- I see a $75/annual fee. I am not sure if that's new or not. Appears like it now is billed June. http://www.sagepayments.com/Compliance/~/media/Category/Payment%20Solutions/Assets/Documents/PDFs/Payment_Card_Industry_Changes.pdf

@WayneSchulz I completed compliance and as long as I pass the quarterly scan, am not charged the $25/month. However, there is an annual SPS fee (for the Trustwave scans).

I think I'm paying $30/mo for Paypal merchant account. Added bonus is I can create web ""pay now"" links. I try to stay away from credit card payments as much as possible and refer customers to Sage if they want to renew their maintenance by CC (in those situations I actually make more money).

I use CC infrequently, but other than this recent fee, was only paying the $75/year compliance fee. Only use it for the lost souls who have a ""quick"" question and are not on phone support.

When I was using SPS they dinged me for all sorts of extra fees. I believe accepting AMEX was an added fee.

I haven't yet heard back from Sage officially - but Erika is leaning toward ""it's an option not a forced fee"" -- http://twitter.com/czarinaerika/status/212681612968738816

Good to hear. Sage may want to actually ask the customer to enroll before padding the bill with these ""options.

What? And give up this hidden revenue stream gold mine? Did you call back and get a full credit?

Nah. I e-mailed them instead. Have no interest in sitting on hold for 15 minutes asking for $3.95 credit.

Spoke to Sage Payments just a few minutes ago. This is apparently one of two new fees: 1. Terminal replacement program 2. Chargeback Assistance Sage spins the second program as a value add. It is indeed mandatory and according to them they sent notice in the April statements with implementation in May. I didn't really gather much from the conversation other than Sage claims it's to help and to educate customers on chargebacks -- how to fight them, avoid them, paperwork needed to file, etc. As with most fees - in my opinion this is mostly a rate hike - just one that's not tied to a percent. Sage did say on a case by case basis they would make exceptions (which is likely what @MarkKotyla was able to negotiate with them). I do not know what the terminal replacement program fee is. Supposedly it covers people who break their terminals, etc. I told SPS that the two things on VAR radar: 1. Fear of customers being gouged by single source Sage Exchange integration starting in Sage 100 ERP 2013 2. Fear of customers not qualifying for Sage Payments due to industry, etc and therefore having to abandon credit card integration (assuming they have integrated). .02

@WayneSchulz - I spoke with my SPS rep yesterday and he mentioned a new Visa/MC charge for FANTF (I may have that acronym slightly wrong). He said it was directly from Visa/MC and couldn't be avoided/reduced, and was a per site charge. So are there three new ""fees""?

David C Tvrdy Product Marketing Director Sage Payment Solutions Sage 1750 Old Meadow Road, Suite 300 McLean, VA 22102 Office: 703-852-7695 Fax:703-821-8174 David.Tvrdy@sage.com www.na.sage.com/sage-payment-solutions

@MoiraGoggin - I believe the FANTF is a direct from VISA charge - at least I spotted it on their web site (SPS) saying so.

Thanks Wayne.

Like any big company, I am sure they are hiding something. What does FANTF stand for?

Fixed Acquirer Network Fee https://support.sagepayments.com/ics/support/kbanswer.asp?deptID=20000&task=knowledge&questionID=1254

An Unbiased spot??? http://merchantfeesavers.com/fanf-fixed-acquirer-network-fee-the-true-amount-you-should-pay/

Resolved: After e-mailing a request to remove the CAP fee entirely, SPS did just that.