To find out your Discount Rates, select the above button that best describes your business

Frequently Asked Questions:

Step 1: Your business (also known as the Merchant's Business) submits a credit card transaction to the Payment Gateway (example Authorize.Net) when a customer buys with a card, using your website or you process a payment with a Web Virtual Terminal or a Retail Terminal Swipe or by phone for MOTO Center or with a Wireless PDA Device. .

Step 2: For Internet transactions, Authorize.Net receives the secured transaction information and passes it via a secured connection to us (Processor).  For Retails terminals, transaction information are sent directly to us.

Step 3: We submit the transaction to the Credit Card Interchange (a network of financial entities that communicate to manage the processing, clearing, and settlement of credit card transactions, such as VISANET).

Step 4: The Credit Card Interchange VISANET routes the transaction to the customer’s Credit Card Issuer.

Step 5: The Credit Card Issuer approves or declines the transaction based on the customer’s available funds and passes the transaction results, and if approved, the appropriate funds, back through the Credit Card Interchange.

Step 6: The Credit Card Interchange relays the transaction results to us.

Step 7: We store the transaction results for your statement and relay the results to you.

Step 8: We pass the appropriate funds for the transaction to your bank, which then deposits funds into your personal Bank Account $$ within 24 hours. This communication process averages three seconds or less!

* Hassle Free.  Internet published Discount Rates are not available at our centers walk-in/phone-in, you have to apply online for these eSavings.  If you are a retail and would like an Internet gateway, you will apply for both accounts.

:: Retails with an average $20,000 monthly sales can qualify for 0.30% Qualified Index Rate, by selecting SuperSaver on the online application.
:: Ecommerce with an average $10,000 monthly sales can qualify for

Can Non-U.S. Businesses open a Merchant Account? We currently only accept U.S. based businesses and government agencies in all 50 states.

Why do I have to provide my social security number?
Customer Identification Policy. The U.S. Federal Government demands that a proper check be conducted on everyone we allow to accept credit cards in their place of business. You might have heard of the Patriot Act? This is a FinCEN regulation (Section 314/326) introduced after September 11th to prevent laundering of money by terrorists. Required by law, all U.S. Financial Institutions need to obtain, verify, and record information that identifies that an applicant is a U.S. citizen or resident and are a legal business before opening an account.  The designated officer of a corporation who applies, will be validated with a SS#. We will however take extreme care to protect your Privacy and will limit the use to approve your application.

How is my merchant account supported?

How can I make your day better? A very comprehensive support team is setup to assist you, consisting of 4 levels of operation.  You will be provided with 3 toll-free numbers to reach supporting staff and subject experts.

• Merchant Customer Service Center and Technical Support 24 hours
• VISA/MC/Amex/DiscoverCard Support Center and Equipment Partners
• Client Partners and Risk Managers
• Interactive Merchant System - for the techno-savvy merchant who wants real-time management. Merchants can view all  transactions, batches, receive text messages and e-mail alerts, respond to charge-backs, change their terminal receipt header, change bank account information, live chat, among many other new and unique features
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Our Solution:  All rates established here are long term and guaranteed.  This includes the cost of Authorize.net and POS software which has not changed the last 11 years.  We make every attempt to pass the savings to you, however please note that VISA/MC publishes the interchange rates twice a year that all U.S. merchants are subjected to change; it may go down or up or be regulated.  All standard merchant account discount rates are Risk Free, as you have the ability to cancel at anytime.  You are also enrolled in one unique program (more details), that no one else offers.

Join the VIP Club for a guarantee low rate forever

Our Invitation:  Submit two recent processing statements of $100,000 in volume per month along with your online application for a guarantee life-time low rate.   Select VIP Club on your application.  When validated, we will send you a welcome VIP package which you will have 48 hours to complete the membership. [More Details]

To better educate our clients, we always encourage our clients to compare, know the typical merchant banking fee structure and understand the terms offered by various banks and providers.

Recurring fixed monthly fees:
Monthly Service Fee with Statement
This is a fixed monthly fee that virtually all banks/merchant account providers charge. This is a handling fee and though it is called "statement fee" by most merchant account providers, it is a "Monthly Service/Support/Statement" which is more accurate. Each month you will receive a detail statement send to you by mail for your tax records.  Find your statement fee on the rate table above.

Monthly Gateway Fee (optional feature only for Internet businesses)
A traditional Retail would have the cost of an electronic terminal (about $400-$700) and daily ink/paper supplies.  Using a Internet Virtual Terminal, you will have a small gateway fee instead.  This is a fixed monthly fee that virtually all gateway providers charge for their services, example Authorize.net. This fee is for the use of the gateways transaction processing services and usually includes items such as online payment cancellations and transaction reports.   This is only applicable to Internet merchants using a Virtual Terminal instead of a traditional swipe terminal.  You will find the Authorize.net very special offer price on the rate table above.

Per Transaction Fees and Batch Header Capture Fee:
This is a "per transaction" cost that is primarily related to processing all your sales or credit. If you are a retail, you will only pay the Bank Processor's transactions (example $0.20).  In this situation if you had 50 transactions you would pay $10 dollars in "transaction fees". If you are a Internet Merchant or using a wireless terminal, you might see a $0.05 transaction fee for gateway fee, but that will be a separate statement provided by your service provider (example Authorize.net, Way AT&T). You will also noticed that each evening settlement is considered a transaction or batch capture. Think in terms of a retail or restaurant, for example tips added, refunds, corrections. You have a window of time to make any necessary adjustments.   All sales for the day can be then be batched up automatically at the end of the day for your day's deposit. So if you bill/settle weekly, you will have an additional transaction fee for the batch header settlement deposit.  In summary, transactions/batch are each transmission of your sales over the network.

AuthorizeNet is a VISA Inc. Internet payment gateway popularly used as a convenient way for Mail Order Telephone Order and eCommerce.  This is much cheaper way compared to voice authorization.   It either captures the necessary customer information (name, credit card number, etc.) from a merchant's own secure transaction page, or it displays a customizable transaction page hosted on an Authorize.Net secure server, for the customer to fill out. Merchants can check the status of transactions or run reports on past activity by going to the Authorize.Net Web site and logging on to their own password-protected Authorize.Net site. And online businesses can use the Authorize.Net Virtual Terminal to enter payment information manually if customers prefer to call in their credit card information.  Where traditional retails have the cost of a terminal, printer and paper, Internet merchants pays a gateway fee to the service provider.

Our Solution:  UBS has a service agreement with Authorize.net to waive setup fees and provide a very low monthly fee.  See rate table above.  As a provider, our overall rates are much lower, you will be saving 10 cents or more for each transaction with no limits to the number of transactions.  Authorize.net will support and bill you directly at the discount rate based on our service agreement.  We also will provide you free scripts that allows you to create order forms on your web pages. read more about our integration  solution. In addition, a free iPhone/iPad app for authorizing anywhere. If you are already tied to a merchant account, you can still select Gateway Only rates.

Monthly Minimum Processing Fee:  The monthly minimum amount is what you must pay each month for your Visa/MasterCard processing, at the minimum. However, this fee is only billed when it is not exceeded by your monthly processing fees. The monthly minimum does not apply to statement fees or transaction fees.

The minimum is calculated by multiplying your discount rate against your total sales for the given month. This amount is then subtracted from the minimum and you are charged the difference. For example if the processor requires you to keep a monthly minimum is $20 and you processed $714 in sales for the month, that is $714 X 2.1% = $15.00. Subtract $15.00 from $20.00 and you would be charged the $5.00 difference. If you processed $1000, then there would be NO minimum charge as it equals $21.00, which exceeds the minimum. Keep in mind you are charged the difference.  You can do the math, and estimate your amount of sales each month and decide if you want to have a monthly minimum every month.

Our Solution:  At UBS, we have WAIVED all monthly minimum with the exception if you opt to participate in our Free Terminal Program or Optional Offers. Waiving a monthly fee can easily save you money for new businesses.  Keeping it just as attractive for established high volume businesses, we can waive your annual fee when you keep our low monthly minimum. To summarize, if your monthly minimum is $15, you will only need about $714 in VISA/MC sales each month. Apply online and select your choices.

  I would like to offer Amex in the future. Am I going to get charged a setup fee for Amex, Discover, JCB, Diners?

Our Solution:  No, there is no setup fees for an American Express account.  It is FREE for new applicants, so get your business pre-approved for it up front, establish your line of credits and be ready for the demanding holiday season.

As of April 2009. Discover, MasterCard and VISA have the same discount rates and participates in one conglomerate network solution!  Integrated under this new exclusive agreement, you are automatically qualified to accept Discover Card as well as JCB and China Union Pay, opening doors to billions of international customers to use their local cards under the Discover brand name.

Once pre-approved, American Express will call you and explain their rate options, which is very low these days.  The rates are set by Amex standard in the USA and you have various choices.  For a optional monthly flat fee, small businesses under $5,000 in annual American Express sales can benefit from the $7.95 plan. The effective rate is 1.908%. If you processed $5,000 in V/MC sales @ 2.1%, it would have cost you $105.00 versus the low Amex $7.95.  Historically everyone also knows AMEX are liberal with the credit limit, so customers tend to spend more with Amex. If you are getting a discounted Authorize.net gateway offer, you will automatically be considered for American Express. You can of course not offer it to your customers by turning it OFF/ON on your gateway configuration at any time or not display the Amex network logo in your place of business.

FSA HRA Do you accept Healthcare Spending cards mandated by the Federal government? 

Our Solution:  Yes, as a Healthcare Merchant Provider, we accept Healthcare Provider Cards - Flexible Spending Account (FSA), Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) and Heath Saving Accounts (HSA).  On your application, just request for these features during your terminal setup.  Read more..

  I would like to accept JCB cards for my Japanese International clients?

Our Solution:  JCB cards can be setup now instantly by accepting Discover Card.  As of 2009, Discover has partnered with JCB.  JCB rates will be the same as VISA, MC and Discover. For more information, call JCB at 1-800-366-4522, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Pacific time.

Our Solution:  There is NONE - $0 cancellation fee, even though we would like you to stay for 3 months in good faith.  This is one of the key exit criteria that an experienced merchant would want and should not be taken for granted. We understand that it is a burden for some businesses to be tied down financially, so we have negotiated a $0 cancellation fee for everyone with the exception for those who customized a plan or specifically requested for a term or on a Passport or have purchased discounted equipment. The industry banking standard is 3 years, because there is a significant cost/risk to approve an account for any single merchant.  We review, audit and present your business to underwriters; then your application will be sent to technical support, the billing department, shipping and makes the final journey to the filing station. You will quickly notice that this whole process requires the use of about 8 employees working behind the scenes to make it all happen for you. 

To Cancel:  A simple process has been established for you.  Before you cancel, you may want to consider a no monthly minimum plan. To cancel, call your assigned 800 number for a lesson on how to close your books and how to handle refunds during this period if your customer makes a request and plan how many days after your last sale.  Fax a signed letter to authorize your cancellation.

Qualified (Ecommerce Rate 1) – This is your daily discount rate based on your merchant classification of MOTO or e-Commerce.  Use a 3-D Secured Qualified Internet Ecommerce Gateway (example Authorize.net, QuickBooks) for Internet orders or Magnetic stripe is read and batch is settled within appropriate guidelines.  Customers with standard issued card, check card, off-line debit, Corp Data III, Corp Data II Int’l, World Card Public Sector, processed directly through Authorize.net will have a Qualified rate.

Qualified (Card Present Rate 1) – This is your daily discount rate based on your merchant classification of retail, B2B, restaurants or office.  To compete against PIN-based debit cards, Visa and MasterCard lowered the interchange rates for debit cards well below those for credit cards and pass on the lower cost of these cards directly to merchants. Cardholder and card must be present with a check card or off-line debit for Rate 1 and standard issued card, Corp Data III, Corp Data II Int’l, World Card Public Sector will have a Qualified Rate 2.

Mid-Qualified – Card is not present or magnetic stripe is not read in a retail store, normally termed as a MOTO transaction for most banks. This is the percentage amount that is charged when the sale is keyed in, but all of the address verification information matches. In addition, when a customer uses a rewards-based Visa /MC credit (CPS Rewards, Traditional Reward, World Merit). On behalf of businesses; VISA/MC and issuers very often advertise on certain market segments, promote specialty cards and the cost is pass to you as interchange reimbursement fee. This percentage is usually less than the non-qualified fees.

Non-Qualified  –  This is the percentage amount added by VISA/MC to your daily discount rate when a customer uses some rewards-based Visa /MC credit, corporate, business, or government credit card. On behalf of businesses; VISA/MC very often advertises, promotes specialty cards and the cost is pass to you as interchange reimbursement fee.
• "On time" is defined as batching the terminal out on the evening of the sale.
• A "late" batch is defined as batching the terminal more than 24 hours after the sale occurred.

Our Solution:  Our principle has always been to provide low cost, value added services.  The Qualified Rate 1 (also known as the discount rate) is the published lowest rate a merchant will incur based on the merchant classification each year and card used. The Mid-qualified is at a low range between +[0.00%..1.10%]+10 cents (e-Commerce at 0.00%) and Non-qualified surcharge is between +[1.30%..1.60%]+10 cents (e-Commerce at +1.39%..1.45%) spread above the Qualified rate.  Rate charges are determined by VISA/MC at point of sale.  With these surcharges, you can estimate your effective rate and will be pleased to discover how low our rates are.  Your customer's decision on how they pay with their credit card is not within your control, you should therefore account for the cost as part of doing business with credit card payments.  What VISA/MC/Discover have done, is to pass some of the risk and cost of promotion to you.  As an added benefit, we therefore lowered your Qualified Rate upfront with a valuable base point discount, to give you a better effective rate.

Debit Card
There are currently three ways that debit card transactions are processed: online debit (also known as PIN debit), offline debit (also known as signature debit) and the Electronic Purse Card System (smart card chip).  It should be noted that one physical card can include the functions of an online PIN debit card, an offline debit card and an electronic purse card.  If you look at a debit card, you may notice a VISA or MC logo for the credit network, a stripe requiring Pin Debit network, and maybe a smart chip.  PIN debit usually has the lowest debit rate but requires a customer to physically key in a pin.  Offline debit and Electronic Purse Card System (smart card chip) are treated the same discount rate as VISA/MC/Discover when no pin is entered at point of sale.  A merchant using a debit card on the Internet, will of course be considered offline, as no PIN is entered, so automatically VISA/MC will take precedence of processing the transaction.

A merchant account in the USA. is a contract under which an acquiring bank extends a line of credit to your business. As line of credit is money that has not been paid by your customers, it is very similar to you getting cash in advance deposited into your account within 48 hours after each sale. The underwriters will then accept the risks for 180 days, while your customers finance on their credit card. Your customer has not paid anything yet at the point of sale, so the money has to come from somewhere. A sponsoring VISA/MC Acquirer Bank or American Express will therefore underwrite your account and advance you the cash.

When you, as a Credit Card Merchant, want to accept a credit card for payment of your goods and services, you first submit an authorization transaction to your Processor.

Your Processor accesses the Visa/MasterCard/Amex network to communicate the authorization transaction (containing a "Transaction Amount") to the Issuing Bank to ensure that the credit card is valid and that the Transaction Amount does not exceed the Cardholder's credit limit. The authorization transaction also puts a "hold" for the Transaction Amount on the Cardholder's credit limit. That way, the funds are available to you when you submit the corresponding "Deposit" transaction.

If the authorization succeeds, and you subsequently (or at the same time) submit the Deposit transaction, you are informing (in effect promising) your Processor, your Sponsoring Bank, and the Issuing Bank that you are prepared to deliver to the cardholder the goods and services that are expected by the cardholder, and that you wish to receive payment for these goods and services from the Issuing Bank.

Your Processor, based on your Deposit instruction, then again works within the Visa/MasterCard/Amex network to request the Issuing Bank to deposit the "Net Settlement Amount" (i.e. the "Transaction Amount" less the "Discount Amount") into your bank account at your Sponsoring Bank.

The Discount Amount (i.e. the Discount Rate times the Transaction Amount) and other fees, such as transaction fees, are used to pay the various entities that help you collect from the Issuing Bank. In particular, the Issuing Bank, the Visa/MasterCard/Amex Network/DiscoverCard, the Sponsoring Acquirer Bank and the Processor all share in dividing up the Discount Rate proceeds.

Along with accepting credit cards is the responsibility of handling chargebacks and retrievals [b3].  A chargeback is a transaction that is in dispute by the cardholder or issuing bank. The chargeback occurs when a customer disputes a charge or the bankcard procedures are not followed. There are several reason codes for a chargeback including merchant fraud, product/service not as described, never received product/ service, transaction not authorized by cardholder, etc. If you handle your sales properly and smartly, you will not have any chargebacks at all.   If your business receives a chargeback, your checking account will be debited for the amount in dispute. In addition, a fee for handling the chargeback may be imposed and reflected on the merchant statement.  In some circumstances a cardholder’s issuing bank may request a copy of the retail sales slip containing the authorized signature. This is why it is essential to keep accurate records of all sales slips and/or sales drafts.  Federal law requires merchants to maintain signed sales slips for a minimum of two years and of course VISA/MC holds you accountable for any customer chargeback up to 6 months. The retrieval request will provide the cardholder’s account number, a reference number.  In support of the program, our interest has not been to profit wrongly chargebacks, the chargeback/retrieval fees therefore ranges between $15-$16, paid to the investigating agency, when requested by your customer's (cardholder) issuing bank.

You may be subjected to other standard inter-bank fees [b3] if an incident occurs:
Common to the banking industry, NSF - Non Sufficient Funds, DDA - Bounce Checks if you accept checks ($25 per penalty)

Voice Authorization is used at times in a Retail store the old fashion way, when a card is in question. A merchant can call VISA/MC/AMEX directly for an authorization if your terminal indicates it or if you prefer to speak to an agent in person, typically for 60 cents.  However eCommerce users should just use the virtual terminal- Authorize.net to obtain a card authorization, which cost you nothing additional.  You will not use Voice Authorization unless absolutely needed.

What it Means to be Verified?

To become Verified, a merchant member must provide us with proof that he or she has opened an account at a bank or other financial institution, in addition to our screening. Because all financial institutions are required by law to screen account holders, our verification process increases security when customers shop with you.

Included with the Validation Seal, is 3 Free Search Engine submission. No additional cost, just ensure that the verification seal is included on your website for our automated system to begin submitting your site for indexing.

UBS offers same day service.  Applications with ALL supporting documents submitted before 12pm Eastern Time, Mondays to Fridays business days, can get approved by 8 pm on the same day. Documents received after 12pm will be processed at midnight and be approved the next business day. You will find more complete details here.

All Sexual Oriented or Pornographic Merchant, Gambling, Online Vitamins/Health Supplements and “Get Rich Quick” Books, Programs, Investment, auction etc.  Review a copy of our underwriting process under Tier 4 – Unacceptable merchants.

We have compiled a list of the most common issues with credit card terminals and standard fees that occur on merchant services.  Download a copy for your reference.

Now that you are excited to begin, rest assure you will be pleased with our electronic payment system and financial products.  You have to apply online, at the end of the online application, your signature is required.  You will be assigned a VISA/MC account number instantly.  Apply now and very soon you will begin accepting Visa and MasterCard as well as American Express and Discover Card.