Why are small businesses still leasing credit card machines?

Amazon and eBay have been selling credit card machines at a competitive price for quite some time.  Yet after working in credit card processing in Dallas Fort Worth area for the past several years it really shocks me at how many time I have seen basic credit card machines being leased out at such exorbitant prices.

I lost a customer to a competing merchant service provider who saved them around $30 a month. Which was disappointing because I would have matched the rates that this particular merchant was offered. I was surprised though at how competitive they were on their pricing.

After speaking with this particular merchant, I learned that they had signed a 48-month lease on two credit card machines at $100 a piece!! This particular machine the merchant leased retails at $350. This means that the merchant is paying $4,800 on a machine that costs $350. Yes, the merchant saved $30 a month but they spent thousands of dollars on a credit card machine that they could have bought out right.

Buy Your Own Credit Card Machine

One of the things that I allow and recommend to my customers is to buy their own credit card machine through Amazon. I simply ask them to send to me the link to the machine before purchase so that I can verify that we can work with it.

On Amazon, you can buy a Verifone VX 520 for $145. This same machine I saw lease out for $125 a month while working in Fort Worth. The main thing is that you verify that the machine is unlocked and was not previously owned.

How/Why are Credit Card Machines Locked?

Businesses that provide services are often trying to figure out ways to make their services proprietary instead of just offering competitive services. When a credit card machine has a particular processors’ application downloaded, a certificate is placed in the machine. This certificate makes it impossible for another credit card processing company to download their application inside of this credit card machine. Often times only that same processing company can remove the certificate. What will happen is you’ll end up buying or leasing the machine, but it can only be used with the processor that set you up with the merchant service account because of the certificate inside.

That’s why it is always important if you are purchasing a credit card machine from a third party like Amazon you should double check with your merchant service provider if they can or able to work with the machine.

Verifone VX 520

This is the most common device out on the market for basic credit card transactions. It is an affordable option that can do EMV and NFC (Near Field Communication).

This is a great option to avoid leasing or paying an excessive amount of money for a credit card machine. Working in credit card processing in Dallas Fort Worth has been a great experience, but unfortunately, it’s too often that I see small business owners being taken advantage of.

I hope this helps you realize you don’t have to lease a credit card machine in order to sign up for a merchant service account.

For further information on this topic or on any of our services, please contact Bryan at 817-228-7245.