As Mitchell Katz, spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission, said in May of 2011: The Dodd-Frank law prohibits a payment card network such as Visa “from inhibiting the ability of anyone to provide a discount for payment by cash, checks, debit cards, or credit cards,” said Katz. “Neither surcharging, nor a cash discount is illegal.”

Other than the ability to virtually eliminate your monthly processing fees, the ZenCharge Program can really help those businesses that are most impacted by high processing costs. Consider small ticket merchants like a sandwich or coffee shop. You may have an average transaction size of only $5-8 dollars (sometimes even less). The underlying Interchange cost on a debit card used as a credit card is .05% plus $.22 per transaction before any processor fees. If you accept a debit card on a $5 transaction, your effective rate (fees divided into the sale amount) will be $.2225 divided into $5 or 4.45% before paying any additional fees! Compare that to a business that has a $100 dollar average transaction where their total costs are $.27 so their effective rate is now only 0.027%. The same credit card was used for each transaction, but the overall impact to profit is radically different. Using the ZenCharge Program can mean the difference between a business that is profitable and one that is just squeaking by (or sadly, not squeaking by…)

The Cash Discount Program is most ideal for businesses with low ticket sales, since you are passing your merchant processing fees to your customer. If your business doesn’t fall into this category, we invite you to explore our standard merchant processing offerings.

No, in fact it’s been around for decades in Europe and is used across the US in gas stations where a cash discount is offered at the pump. Gas stations have been using this program in the US for over 15 years. Many national, state and local governments including the DMV, Secretary of State, Post Offices, Schools, Courts, and the IRS implement a Service Fee.

While nobody wants to pay additional fees, more and more consumers are starting to realize just how expensive it’s been for merchants to accept credit cards. By charging a 4% fee on a sales transaction, that’s a small price for customers to pay for the goods and services you provide. And (if paying that fee or Implementing the Cash Discount Program) allows you to stay in business and keep your overall costs lower, it’s a small price to pay. In fact, surveys have shown that over 80% of respondents stated they wouldn’t think twice about paying that amount (only $1.00 on a $25.00 transaction) for the convenience of using their credit card rather than carrying cash. And we all know that fewer and fewer of us are carrying cash these days…and everyone loves the rewards associated with their credit cards. Additionally, we’ve all become accustomed to paying $2-4 when we use an ATM and this cash discount fee is actually cheaper than the ATM fee for most transactions. If you explain that the Cash Discount program is a way for you to keep providing quality goods and services without increasing your overall prices, most consumers have indicated they understand and are fine with it. And again, a 4% fee on an individual transaction generally has a very small impact to the consumer, but for you, the merchant, your savings are significant.

Simply put YES, ZenCharge is designed to exactly do that!

Since our inception, ZenCharge has been an advocate acting in the best interest of our merchants, savings our clients millions of dollars each year. The Cash Discount offering creates a path to save our clients even more money each month. With the addition of this program, we have multiple options for our clients to choose from – you choose the savings plan that best suits your business. Ask us about Hybrid options if you’d like to cover some of the costs while charging your clients some but not all of the fees.