By now you've seen the news about the new law that will allow merchants to tack on an additional 4% to the bill of every credit card purchase. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE MERCHANTS WHO DO THIS!!! Let me tell you why...... 1. The credit card processing fee is just a part of a business's overhead expense. All businesses have already factored this cost in to the price of their goods and services.... You're already paying for it. And you should; just as a consumer pays for the electric bill, employee costs, gas costs, shipping costs etc. that a business incurrs in order to exist. 2. You ALREADY pay for their processing costs. Ever pay a "handling fee" or "courtesy fee" online? That's what that is; the costs involved with accepting your credit card. As stated above, for face to face purchasing you are already paying for these costs as they are bundled into the the cost you are already paying. 3. With today's processing fees, most merchants are paying on an "Interchange Plus" fee structure. With this fee structure, the cost to accept your card is well under 2%. A high fee averages 2.5-2.75%. Very few hit 3% anymore. It depends on the type of the card and how the merchant accepts it. Your retail giants such as WalMart, Target, Penney's, Macy's, are paying much much less than the fees I quoted above. 4. Because of what I stated in #3, this additional 4% is nothing but pure profit to the merchants and has nothing to do with paying for their banking fees. Remember...it is illegal in 10 states to even pass on any surcharge.  We know they are doing it anyway...Buyer Beware.  If a merchant finds the need to charge these outrageous fees...send them to Card Solutions Int'l for fair customized credit card processing! Card Solutions Int'l 800-530-2440 www.cardsolutions.us ...read more

Smart small business owners know when to get external help. Small Business Consulting Business Plans writings   Financial and management consulting   Start-ups development   ...read more

Bloomberg:    By Nicholas Larkin – Jan 7, 2011 10:00 AM ET Palladium will average $888 an ounce this year, higher than previously forecast, on greater investor demand and usage in car pollution-control devices, LGT Capital Management said. It also raised platinum and silver estimates. Palladium may climb as high as $1,111 an ounce, LGT analyst Bayram Dincer said in a report today as he lifted his forecast for average prices by 35 percent. Dincer increased his 2011 average estimates for platinum by 3.5 percent to $1,888 an ounce and for silver by 14 percent to $33.33 an ounce, while his gold forecast was little changed at $1,499 an ounce. "Strong global fundamental demand, especially from the automotive sector, aligned with higher investment demand" will drive palladium, Pfaeffikon, Switzerland-based LGT said. "Supply-constraint issues from major producing countries combined with ongoing speculation about the low Russian state stock levels could induce an overreaction." Palladium and platinum are mainly used in jewelry and autocatalysts in vehicles. Researcher Johnson Matthey Plc estimates that government stockpiles of palladium inRussiaare the third-biggest source of supply. Those inventories may be near exhaustion, according to OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel, the largest Russian mining company. Palladium for immediate delivery traded at $752.25 an ounce at 2:23 p.m. inLondontoday after reaching a nine-year high of $807.75 on Jan. 3. Platinum was at $1,734.25 an ounce, silver was at $28.935 an ounce and gold was at $1,367.88 an ounce. To contact the reporter on this story: Nicholas Larkin in London atnlarkin1@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter atccarpenter2@bloomberg.net. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-07/lgt-raises-palladium-platinum-silver-forecasts-for-this-year.html Contact Lloyds Asset Management today for your FREE investor kit 877-571-0859 ...read more

MacKenzy Credit Group is America most ethical and best debt settlement company. We are the best debt settlement company because we changed the rule of the debt settlement industry. We are the first Debt settlement company that abandoned "percentage of total debt outstanding" because when you pay a percentage of the amount of the debt you owe to the creditors, the debt settlement company does you a disservice because a lot of time debt settlement companies do not settle all your debt. The Way the Debt Settlement Industry Does Business If you have $10,000 in credit card and you decide to get help from a debt settlement company, it will charge you about $1500 ($10,000*0.15) upfront. Most debt settlement companies charge between 15 and 20 percent of your total debt that you owe. The Way MacKenzy Credit Group Does Business Because we know that no debt settlement companies can guarantee to settle all your debt, MacKenzy Credit Group charges a percentage of total saving meaning if you have $10,000 in credit card debt and out that $10,000, we only settle $5,000 for $2,500. Because we only save you $2500 ($5,000-$2500), you pay us $375 ($2500*0.15.)  As you can see, you pay us for performance. You have no reasons to contact any other debt settlement companies to handle your debt unless they are more ethical and honest than MacKenzy Credit Group The choice is yours MacKenzy Credit Group Ethics first, then business CONTACT OR VISIT US TODAY: P. 561-721-6420 TOLL: 877-395-1730 www.mackenzycreditgroup.com ...read more

Are you a mobile merchant? Do you want to take your business to your clients? Allow your clients to buy your products and/or services with their credit cards; personal or business. If you own a Smart Phone, let Card Solutions International turn it into a swiped credit card processing terminal. Now you can sell your products and services and benefit from swiped rates while on the road. Card Solutions Int'l can now turn over 200 different models of Smart Phones into a credit card terminal. Don't lose a sale because you are not equipped to let your customer pay the way they choose. Contact Card Solutions Int'l at 800-530-2440, info@cardsolutions.us, or www.cardsolutions.us and let our staff help turn your Smart Phone into a money maker!!!   Donna Broder Card Solutions Int'l 800-530-2440 info@cardsolutions.us www.cardsolutions.us   ...read more

<p>Freddie Mae and Fannie Mae will punish homeowners who walk away from their homes. I am serious, the same two companies the tax payers saved during the great recession announced plans to punish underwater consumers who walk away from their homes. A process also known as <a href="http://www.mackenzycreditgroup.com/"> strategic defaulting</a>. Homeowner who can afford their mortgages and decide to walk away because they are underwater will have to wait 7 years before they can buy a new home and they might get sued for deficiency balance in states that allow creditors to go after debtors' other assets.  <p>I know what you are now saying. We saved those two companies and this is how they pay us back. I agree with you but we need to analyze the other side of the issue. <a href="http://www.mackenzycreditgroup.com/">Strategic loan default</a> is not illegal but it raises an ethical question. Homeowners who walk away from their homes even when they can afford them hurt their communities and their neighbors. The more vacant house on a block, the lower is the price of homes on that block. So, you obliquely hurt your friends and neighbors by strategic defaulting on your mortgage <p>There are a selfish and survival ways to justify strategic defaulting. If your home is underwater and he or you have one of the exotic mortgages with balloon payments, adjustable rate, and prepayment penalties, strategic loan default can be justified as a survival move. Strategic defaulting is justified as a selfish move when you have a 30-fixed interest rate, fixed income, and no serious change in your financial situated and you decide to walk away. <p>Genuine homeowners who were misled or forced into signing lousy subprime-mortgage contracts are the best candidates for strategic defaulting. Moreover, strategic default can a path of financial stability for those people. However, homeowners who operate in the "ME Business" where they make decisions that benefit them deserve the recent punishments from Freddie Mae and Fannie Mae. <p>About 24 states including my home state of Florida allow deficiency judgments. Before you walk away from your home, ask yourself one simple question. Am I being selfish? ...read more

Card Solutions Int'l offers an Internet Gateway withFREE Fraud ControlsAvailable Many people ask "why is credit card processing over the internet, over the phone or by mail such a high risk venture"? Well, just think about it...you take a credit card order over the internet or by phone for $200.00, process it in the normal fashion, then 60-90 days later your customer calls his credit card issuing bank and states that he never ordered anything from your company and now wants a credit issued for that "erroneous" charge. You don't have his signature and can't prove whether or not he received the product or service. It's your word against his. His bank then issues him his refund for the $200.00 sale and charges your merchant bank account for $200.00 (plus chargeback fees). You only have $125.00 in your checking account so that $200.00 charge comes back to the processor marked "NSF-Insufficient Funds”. Now, who is going to pay for that disputed charge? The processor who set up your merchant account has to pay! They will make every effort to get the money back from you, the merchant. This is why the processors consider these types of accounts to be "high risk", and "high liability"!! If over 3% of your monthly charges are disputed for over 2 consecutive months, your merchant credit card processing account may be subject to termination and it may be possible that these poor percentages may cause derogatory information to be posted to your personal credit report through the national credit reporting agencies! Unfortunately, the rules are not written to favor the merchant. There has been much discussion in the media about the impact of Internet and MO/TO credit card fraud from a consumer perspective. This is somewhat surprising really as the incidence of fraud perpetrated by online merchants against consumers is fairly rare and consumers are typically only liable for the first $50 of any fraudulent transaction, and even this liability is often waived by the credit card issuers. In fact it is usually the merchant who is the true victim of Internet credit card fraud. This is because Internet credit card transactions fall under the heading of MOTO (Mail Order / Telephone Order) transactions, also called CNP (cardholder not present transactions). Most credit card merchant account agreements leave the merchant 100% liable for fraud committed via this type of transaction as well as requiring them to pay a $15-$25 chargeback fee. And as if to rub salt in to the wound, if a merchant experiences a high level of chargebacks they are often hit with an increase in the discount rate they have to pay on each transaction or may even have their account terminated. And once lost, a merchant account can be almost impossible to obtain again Card-not-present (CNP) merchants must take extra precaution against fraud exposure and associated losses.  Follow these recommendations to help prevent fraud in your card-not-present transactions: 1. Always obtain an authorization as soon as possible; at time of delivery, immediately when the Internet sales come in, as soon as the product/services are ready for shipment/delivery. 2. Verify the card’s legitimacy:            A. Ask for the card’s expiration date and include it in your authorization request. An invalid or missing expiration date might indicate that the customer does not have the actual card in hand.            B. Use all fraud prevention tools such as Address Verification Service (AVS) and the Card Verification Value (CVV) to verify the user truly is the cardholder.  3. If you receive an authorization, but still suspect fraud:            A. Ask for additional information during the transaction (eg. A faxed copy of a utility bill with the cardholder’s address on it, a faxed signed Payment Authorization Form, a faxed copy of the front and back of the credit card used).            B. Contact the cardholder directly with any questions.            C. Confirm the order separately by sending a note via the customer’s billing address rather than the “ship to” address.            D. Whenever possible, obtain the signature of the cardholder on a Visa/MasterCard sales slip to authenticate all sales in case of an inquiry.  So it is therefore vital for merchants toput in place fraud prevention processes now and not wait until a fraud attempt occurs. Card Solutions Int'l has helped merchants protect themselves from credit card fraud for the past twelve (12) years. Our staff is available to answer any questions and/or concerns about Card-Not-Present transactions. Call us today for a free quote and education on credit card processing. 800-530-2440,info@cardsolutions.us, 561-721-1900 ...read more

Credit card processing has become a necessity for all types of businesses; retail, home-based, internet, product based and service based. The first question we hear from most merchants is “Where do I START??” With the growth of the Internet, and area banks testing the waters with unconventional processing, just the thought of accepting credit cards for your business can be mind boggling. But it doesn’t need to be. Your options are varied, but the process can be simple. Where do I find a processor? The first place most merchants go to find a processor is the Internet. This is not a bad choice, but remember…”Buyer beware”. Unfortunately, when credit card processing came to the Internet, the industry began facing a lot of the hazards that other industries were experiencing. You have to be very careful of who you are dealing with. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it most likely is. A safe source for a merchant account is your local bank. But you must know that you usually will not be receiving the best pricing, most banks are not implementing the newest and/or most efficient processing methods, banks prefer working with the risk free open door retail businesses, and the staff in your bank will NOT be your customer/technical assistants. The smartest place to go for credit card processing is where your affiliate organizations, web developers, and/or fellow merchants refer you. These processors have been found to have the needed experience, knowledge of the newest and most efficient methods of accepting credit cards, and can supply one on one customer service in most cases. For these reasons, web developers, marketing companies, banks, and existing merchants have been referring their clients and affiliates to Card Solutions Int'l for the past twelve years. How do I decide what method of processing is right for me? Just as every merchant runs their business in different ways, every business’s credit card processing needs are different. First you must decide how you will be taking your customers’ credit cards. Will the majority of your sales come from walk-in traffic, mail-order sales, telephone-order sales, tradeshows, or the Internet? This will determine what type of a merchant account you will qualify for. Once this is determined you will need to decide what equipment you will require. No matter what type of processing merchant you are determined to be, you need to use equipment in order to achieve processing. With that said, the equipment can be as simple as a touch tone phone/cell phone, a stand alone terminal, software, a mobile terminal, or an internet gateway. The agents at Card Solutions Int'l will help determine what processing method is right for your unique business. The important point is…don’t get into more than you actually need for your business. Often times, a merchant account salesperson will talk you into a sophisticated method of processing that sounds wonderful at the time. But you soon will find that your type of business may not justify the cost of sophistication. At Card Solutions Int'l you work directly with agents that are not working on commissions. We want to set you up with the proper equipment to fit your needs. How do I get started? The application process for credit card processing is very simple. With Card Solutions Int'l you can fill out our online application athttps://www.cardsolutions.us/onlineapp.htm if you choose to process using a terminal, software and/or an internet gateway. If you choose to use our simpler phone authorization program, you can visit http://www.propay.com/?refid=CS1STLST and usually receive an immediate approval for the Premium Phone Program. The staff at Card Solutions Int'l will always be available to help you with the application process and to answer all of your questions. Once you have chosen the program right for you, Card Solutions Int'l will help you and your staff with all of your training needs and operational questions. Want to add a BUY NOW button to your items on your website for immediate purchase through our phone authorization program? It costs only about $1.00 per month for the whole year. We’ll tell you how! Contact Card Solutions Int'l at 800-530-2440,http://www.cardsolutions.us, orinfo@cardsolutions.us ...read more

I opened my business in 1990. It had been a long-term goal to open my own business and after many years of planning ,Itsa great oppertunity for people to actually make a large amount of money in a short time.Not to mention that it is a real easy program! ...read more