Originally Posted by ryanlanane

Jason, added you to Skype ... Waited a bit but no response,

Getting caught up in some things now but wow ! Taking a look at ALL 3rd party credit card processing rates is blowing me away. Typically starting around 15 % with the $500 surcharge ( I expected, that rule went into place about 4 year before I left the industry).

However back when I processed with Epoch, I was getting around 8.5 % rates. This was in the early 2000's ... I understand some rate increases, but profit margins were already being squeezed, sure it's gotten even worst. It was becoming a pure volume game. From the few times I've checked in it seems like there are the 'big guys' that control a lot of the affiliate market under different brands ... and many many less smaller guys. I could be wrong, but a few years ago that's what I read into it when I was checking in.

Now, checking into rates, laying out a business plan etc .. I expect maybe top end of 10% CC processing rates and I see I'm looking at 15% everywhere.

Can anyone explain what happened to the explosion of processing rates ? From what I got the $500 fee was a small way of putting pressure on merchants processing for other adult companies. As were the charge back rates above 1.5 % (i think) having astounding fees or your accounts closed unconditionally if I remember right. I crossed that margin 1 maybe 2 months out of 18 but the rest of the months I was always under 1% very well.

It seems like that was a period of EXTREME chargebacks from all pay sites. Many pry due to the companies that literally were screwing companies. Some run by the aussie boys offered free trials and 24 hours later charge upwards of $75 a month. So people were pissed in general. It's also when people officially came to realize 'recurring billing' was something they could get out of in adult without being embarassed about it due to the lack of descriptors. I think adding descriptors for the $500 probably actually helped with that. Anywways it was the perfect storm for a chargeback boom. That passed, a lot of people got killed. Some companies exceeded 20 % that had bad business practices - at $25 a pop for chargebacks, ouch !

Anyways I'm rambling ... Seriously what happened and why did rates almost double ? I was only at the percent I was at due to my volume. I'm still pretty sure top end was no higher then 10% back then.