PCI Compliance Fee: How to Eliminate?

Updated on November 22, 2021

pci DSS ComplianceHave you ever noticed a PCI Compliance fee or worse, a Non-PCI0 Compliance fee when looking at your merchant processing statement? Over the years, we’ve heard about this topic from many merchants and business owners that wanted clarification of why they’re being charged this PCI Compliance fee or if there was something small businesses could do to eliminate it.

What is PCI Compliance and is there a way to get your processor to stop billing you for this industry standard fee? Answer is yes, please keep reading to learn more.

Why is there so much confusion about PCI Compliance? PCI DSS is a standard created by the credit card industry to reduce fraud and virtually every merchant is exposed to some level of risk when accepting credit cards and is required by Visa/MasterCard for all businesses that accept credit cards. To learn more about the most frequently asked questions regarding PCI DSS, go to pcicomplianceguide.org. One of the biggest issues to date is the ISO’s, merchant providers or sales reps aren’t doing a good enough job when it comes to educating their merchants. Many times the only time you hear about it is when you see the extra charge on your monthly processing statement which even makes it worse. Another issue is that merchants don’t take the time or just don’t want to hear about it, they’re too busy and don’t want to hear from another merchant rep or company as they get bombarded by sales people all week long, every week, all year long. That’s understandable, however don’t let the argument put you in jeopardy of fines, breach remediation’s that could reach ten thousand dollars or more.

When the Durbin Amendment rolled out the banks became limited to recover fraud costs and now the merchants bear the cost of breaches and fraudulent transactions. One way the industry is hoping to help is through the EMV mandate by limiting fraud for credit card transactions.

There are two ways to eliminate the PCI Compliance fee?

• Over the last several years, I’ve personally had clients that would call me every year and request to receive a refund or credit back into their bank account for the PCI Compliance fee. I would send in request to corporate and typically it would be credited back to their account. If you try this method and are not successful, I would recommend finding a new processor.

• The second and easiest way to resolve bearing the cost of PCI Compliance fees is to find a merchant account provider that doesn’t charge this fee to their merchants. This is easier said than done as 99% of processors charge for PCI support, however we happen to review payment providers and recommend Dharma to many companies when searching for a new provider.

 

David Gilliam

Founder at Best of Category Reviews

David has worked in the payment industry since 2005. Prior to that he was a publisher when print media was still popular. After running across so many merchants that were having issues with their processors, he founded Best of Category Reviews with one goal in mind, transparency. With over a decade of research on credit card processors, he helps merchants find the best possible deals through interchange-plus pricing, new technology and demands month-to-month agreements with no cancel fees. He really does go the extra mile for his clients.

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