From time to time in life and in business we all need some extra cash to cover expenses. In this particularly, shall we say, interesting economy, many businesses are finding alternative funding methods such as merchant cash advances quite useful.

Merchant Cash Advances are simple: the cash advance provider ‘purchases’ (advances you money for) a specified amount of your future credit card sales at a discount.  Collection of the purchased credit is processed automatically through your credit card processing provider.  The merchant cash advance provider receives a small, fixed and agreed upon percentage of your daily credit card sales.  Since it is a set percentage the provider only gets paid when you do - so when your business is booming you pay off a larger portion of your advance, and when business is slow you pay less.  The best part is that you’ll know exactly what the total cost of the funding will be upfront.

It’s quick, easy, and predictable. If you find yourself in need of a little extra money for advertising, expansion, payroll, inventory or anything else, you might consider tapping into your credit card sales. If you have questions about our cash advance program, or you would like to get pre-approved, we are always available to assist you. Contact us anytime.

In an ongoing effort to increase card holder security and to minimize credit card fraud, Visa and MasterCard (V/MC) now require all businesses to truncate both the customer copy and merchant copy of credit card receipts. This means that both copies of the receipt should only show the last 4 digits of the credit card number. Penalties can and already have been issued by V/MC for non compliance in this area, so this is something to be mindful of. 

The good news is, there is no need to purchase new equipment to stay in compliance. Receipt truncation can be taken care by simply contacting your merchant services provider and requesting a software update. This is a point worth emphasizing because some merchant services companies out there use compliance issues as a way to sell expensive equipment, not to mention the over-priced processing programs that go with them. 

If you currently have a processing account with Gravity Payments and would like more information about truncation, please contact us. If you’re not yet a Gravity Payments customer, I encourage you to contact us as well. In the meantime we will continue to keep you informed as compliance issues surface.

We’ve all made purchases we regret, eaten at restaurants we wish we hadn’t, and gone to movies that have left us mourning the $10 that left our wallets in vain…. It happens.  For those of you who have switched credit card processors in the past, I’m sure some of you kicked yourself for that decision as well. In fact, I was inspired to write this after speaking with a gentleman who recently switched to a ‘no-name’ company for promised savings—that in hindsight were unrealistic to begin with—only to find out after two months of processing that he was actually paying more. A lot more.

Unfortunately I hear stories like this, and worse, all the time. As a business owner it’s in your nature to want to cut costs, so don’t blame yourself for falling for the ‘too good to be true’ processing quotes. Just don’t fall for the same trick twice!

At Gravity Payments we take the time to get to know your business, your method of transactions, and your unique processing needs. We also prepare a no cost or obligation statement analysis for you which illustrates the savings our program can provide. Not only that, we will also explain our analysis so that you can be sure the savings quoted are accurate. In short, we prove our worth before we ever ask our customers to sign on with us.