Best Online Merchant Services Rates • My Story

In May of 2015 I was looking for a new online internet based Merchant provider that offered the lowest and best online merchant services rates for my needs, and allowed me to process my fees monthly rather than per transaction (easier bookkeeping, see below why I like this). I had been a customer of Merchant Warehouse since 2009 whom at the time had the best online merchant services rates, based on my research then.

However over the years Merchant Warehouse continued to change their fees and their customer support got worse. They added a costly annual PCI compliance fee, and then they started passing more of the Authorize.net fee to me. Recently they changed their name to Cayan, but not their merchant services rates and fees.

Finally I made the space in my schedule to do some research, looking for the best merchant services rates for my needs, which included my bookkeeping needs.

So who did I find? A company called Moolah.

And here is the best merchant services rates deal.

  • Monthly minimum of $14.95 in fees but nothing if you reach that,
  • no more batch fees,
  • no more higher rates for non-qualifying cards (most of which seemed to be and the rates were like 4%+),
  • and no more annual PCI compliance fees.
  • I don’t even have to pay for for the use of Authorize.net as a payment gateway and Authorize.net is by far the most supported gateway out there (take a look at any ecommerce system) and Authorize.net offers many other services as well, see below.

With Moolah I just pay only 2.89% plus $0.29 per transaction.

UPDATE: As of January 19, 2017 their standard rate offered is down to 2.79% plus $0.29 per transaction – however using the links in this post, YOU CAN NOW GET 2.69% plus $0.29 per transaction.)

I love the fact that they even made their rates slightly less than the ubiquitous 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction (PayPal, Stripe, 2Checkout, Square).

No setup fee, no termination fees, 2 day funding and no cost to use Authorize.net. Just the 2.89% plus $0.29 per transaction. That’s it. And if you process more than $50,000 a month, well than talk with them about better rates, but for me, I am far from that.

This is what I read about them when I discovered them, which attracted my attention:

Moolah is a boutique merchant service provider with a simple philosophy to deliver the very best payment experience to their clients. The company takes a fresh approach to the payment space by providing technologies of tomorrow, being transparent with the costs and over delivering on customer service.

I say sign up and give it try! Switch out your old merchant services provider with lower merchant rates.  There is no risk as there is no sign-up fee nor termination fee and it only takes 15 minutes to sign-up.

[button link=”https://designsbytierney.com/moolah” color=”orange” window=”yes”]Moolah: Sign up Now![/button]

Authorize.net Services & Easier Bookkeeping

Some services like PayPal, Stripe and 2Checkout, which are all great merchant service providers, have their own merchant gateway services. They act as both a merchant provider and as the merchant gateway combined. 2Checkout is my favorite in this bunch if you process international transactions because they are best supported worldwide, even better than PayPal.

What I do not like about these services is that every time there is a transaction, the transaction fee is deducted from my bank account at the same time. I manage my bookkeeping in Quickbooks and so I have to enter tons of transaction fees using these services. I have to login to my account, find the transaction fee amount and then account for it in Quickbooks. Time consuming. Not what I want to be doing with my time.

With Moolah and Authorize.net I can choose to have my fees totaled and charged as one flat amount at the end of each month. One fee to enter. Much easier. I like that.

Other options that you get with Authorize.net

They have many services like eCheck so that you can choose to accept checking account information from people, (no credit card fees, great for recurring clients); you can use their virtual terminal to manually process one time or schedule recurring transactions; you can create buy buttons that send people to their site to enter their credit card information to process, in the same way as you can do with PayPal except the user is only asked for credit card information rather than PayPal. And they have many other services. Best of all though, as I said above, they are integrated with more ecommerce / internet commerce payment processing systems than any other system besides PayPal and are most often a free integration option, (often if you want to integrate with Stripe, or 2Checkout or one of the dozens of other gateways or merchant service providers, you have to pay a fee for an additional add-on, if those options are available at all).

So that is my story. If you are looking for the best internet based merchant rates, then this is why I recommend Moolah.  And I like them so much that I have partnered with them through an affiliation system.  So now they like me too.

Good luck! And if you need a good web designer or developer – check out the rest of my site to learn more about me and my work and what I offer.

Comments? Feel free to share yours below.

12 thoughts on “Best Online Merchant Services Rates • My Story”

  1. Thanks for the info, I will sign up with your link, however only if it will integrate with shippingeasy. I cannot find the integration, they do have the logo on shippingeasy. I use wix and wix is a pain because you have to manually add orders to shippingeasy. Right now I dont get a ton of orders but I am slowly growing.
    Any ideas?

    Very nice blog, colors are soothing 🙂

    Rod

    1. Hey Rod,

      I have never heard of Shippingeasy. Sorry. Can’t help you with that one. If they are limited you may have to go with what they have. What you would be looking for is compatibility with Authorize.net and then Moolah would connect through that Gateway. Authorize.net is fairly commonly integrated. I would just ask shippingeasy.

  2. There is actually a monthly fee:

    NO SETUP FEE. PAY AS YOU GO.
    2.69% + $0.29per trans.
    $14.95 monthly minimum*

    * Total cost each month is either 2.69% + $0.29 of your sales or $14.95, whichever is greater. Pricing for US businesses only.

    1. Yah. They started the monthly minimum after I wrote this. I will update the information on the post. I still like them and their rates but if you do not rack up $14.95 in fees then yes you now have that bottom. Thanks.

  3. Hello. Thanks for the information. Very helpful. I noticed on Moolah’s website that it says once you apply, you’ll receive an email letting you know if you’ve been approved or declined.
    I’m a new online store…what criteria do they use to decline you the opportunity to open a Moolah/authorize.net account?
    Just wondering after I read through their FAQ.
    Thanks

  4. Hi David 🙂

    I just ran into your site because I was checking out the reviews on Moolah, it seems like it’s a good fit! I also have Cayan and the fees are just outrageous, i can’t handle it.

    I will sign up through your site, thanks 🙂

  5. I noticed your referral link actually charges a higher fee. A tad bit shady, don’t you think? Your referral link charges a 2.89% rate but the standard moolah sign up charges 2.79%. You should make this known to your visitors.

    1. Hi Chris,

      Thanks for responding on my blog. And, it is better to go through life giving people the benefit of the doubt rather than assuming people are trying to rip you off and accusing them of such. I was not aware that Moolah had dropped their rates and had not updated the rates offered on my affiliate page. I do specify in my post what the rates are that I get, and that is what I get. They dropped their rates. Thanks for letting me know.

      AND – after my contacting Moolah to share this with them, you can now get 2.69% using my affiliate link, which is BETTER now than their standard rate (which is not a perk I had in the past with my affiliate link). So take your chance. I think 2.89% is good enough for me, and 2.69% is great!

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