Whether you specialize in medical facials or tummy tucks, learning how to save money on credit card processing fees can bring your medical business great financial benefit. In fact, we’ve seen clinics increase profits by more than 10% just by learning how to avoid credit card processing fees. But how do you save money on credit card processing fees? Isn’t the 3–4% fee per transaction just part of the cost of doing business?Unfortunately, you can’t just tell Visa you’re no longer going to pay these fees. But what you can do is optimize your strategy for accepting payments. This will ensure that card transaction fees don’t impact your bottom line, allowing you to take home 100% of your revenue. In this guide, we’ll show you how to start saving money on credit card processing fees. After reading, you’ll know how to make your medical business more profitable overnight.

Examine the impact of credit card fees on your bottom line

Whether you own a spa offering medical facials or a plastic surgery center specializing in nose jobs, it’s important to understand how credit card fees impact your bottom line. After all, since many patients’ insurance plans don’t cover such procedures, most of them will pay out of pocket (and often with plastic). Calculating this shouldn’t take too long, as long as you have numbers on hand that detail your total revenue, revenue by payment type, and effective rate (percentage of all the credit card fees you have to pay per transaction). For your reference, you should understand the different types of fees your business pays. These include:

• The interchange fee: Paid to the card-issuing bank, like Bank of America
• The network fee: Paid to the payment network, such as Mastercard
• The assessment fee: Paid to the card-issuing brand, such as Southwest Airlines
• The merchant service provider (MSP) markup: Paid to the payment processor (they need their cut!)

Needless to say, these fees can add up—even if they don’t seem like that much at first glance. That’s why you’ve got to read the fine print when choosing a merchant service provider (MSP). If, for example, your healthcare clinic generates $1.5 million per year in revenue and 50% comes from credit card payments, that leaves $750,000 subject to processing fees. If your effective rate is 3.5%, you’re paying $26,250 per year in card transaction fees. That should be motivation enough to learn how to save money on credit card processing fees. Now, let’s take a look at a more specific example.

The medical facial example

The average medical facial costs between $175 and $500. Since they take just 30 to 90 minutes, your spa could perform many medical facial treatments each day. Let’s say you perform 1,000 medical facials at your spa per year at an average cost of $400 each. That means you generate $400,000 per year from medical facials. As part of this example, let’s assume the following:

• You earn a profit of 20% per medical facial. That’s a yearly profit of $100,000 from medical facials alone.
• Many of your medical facial clients pay out of pocket, so 70% of your revenue comes from credit card transactions. That’s $280,000 of revenue subject to credit card transaction fees.
• If you pay an average fee of 3.75%, that means you pay $10,500 per year in credit card processing fees just on payments for medical facials.

Now, imagine if you could get rid of those credit card processing fees. Your profits from medical facials would increase from $100,000 to $110,500. That’s an increase of 10.5%!

Partner with a better payment processor to save money on credit card processing fees

The next step in how to save money on credit card processing fees is to find a better merchant service provider (MSP). Because the medical payment processing industry has a lack of regulatory oversight, you must exercise caution and look for only the most reputable, affordable MSPs. Otherwise, you may accidentally pick an MSP who has hidden surcharges and complex fee structures.When choosing an MSP for your medical spa, do the following:

• Only choose MSPs with pass-through pricing: When learning how to save money on credit card processing fees, know that tiered pricing makes processing fees too complicated. Tiered pricing often ends up with you paying more than expected. So, only go with MSPs that have pass-through pricing.
• Compare services: You want a payment processor with 24/7 support, the latest software and hardware, and the ability to process payments online, on-the-go, and in-person. Having virtual terminal credit card processing is a good idea for processing medical facial and other treatment payments over the phone.
• Compare fees: After narrowing down to MSPs that offer the services you need, you should then compare fees. Make sure to look at all the fees. Choose the most affordable three to five MSPs.
• Negotiate the MSP markup: We’ve seen med spas lower the MSP markup by 5-10%. Over time, this can save you thousands.

After doing all these steps, go with the MSP that offers the combination of quality and affordability you need. This way, you don’t spend too much on processing fees when clients pay for medical facials, microdermabrasion, and more.

Implement a credit card surcharge program

Here’s the last step to start saving money on credit card processing fees: implement a credit surcharge program. Thanks to the Dodd-Frank Act, merchants, including your med spa, can use credit surcharge programs to avoid credit card fees. The idea is simple. When a client pays for a medical facial, stretch mark removal, or another service, you give them the option:

• Pay with a credit card and pay a surcharge fee, or
• Pay with cash or debit and save money.

Now, you may be wondering: Won’t my patients get angry about having to pay a surcharge?But as long as you're transparent about how you process payments, your patients will actually appreciate being able to choose between the convenience of a credit card or saving by paying with cash and debit. For example, at Nadapayments, our surcharge program helps med spas and other healthcare clinics avoid CC fees with a solution that involves:

• Clear signage at the door and point of sale
• A 3.5% surcharge on CC purchases (you pay zero)
• Payment processing on-the-go, in-store, and online
• Full compliance with surcharge rules, such as creating a separate line for the fee on receipts, being registered with major credit card brands, and not charging a debit card fee (you pay 1% + $0.25)

As you can see, a credit surcharge program is a win-win for medical businesses and their clients. You give your customers flexibility with how they pay while ensuring CC fees don’t impact your bottom line.

Now that you know how to save money on credit card processing fees, let Nadapayments help boost your profits!

At Nadapayments, we’re ready to help you see how to save money on credit card processing fees. Through our surcharge program, we can help your business earn 10% or more per year. With 24/7/365 support, we’re with you every step of the way to ensure you get the most out of Nadapayments’ industry-leading surcharge solution. Even better, our solution can be implemented within days. Within a week, you could eliminate the impact of card transaction fees on revenue you get from medical facials, rhinoplasty procedures, and more. Ready for the best credit surcharge program? Dial +1 (929) 293-1800 or click the link below.

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