The credit card industry is not generally known for its niceties nor its generosity. As a credit card user, you often pay steep interest rates to the credit card companies themselves. What you may not know is that companies that accept credit cards during the course of their business (which is just about everyone- it’s a necessity these days) also pay a percentage of every sale to a processor, who handles the individual transactions. Those fees really do add up over the course of the month and I am often faint when prying open our monthly statement to discover just how large the fees were for any given month. Worse yet, it’s the businesses that pay for these free airline miles and reward programs- the credit card companies charge that to us, too…each and every time you use the card.
While I do not believe that all credit card companies are evil, I am just continually dismayed at the predatory nature of some. Which is why I was especially intrigued when Cherilyn, a dear friend of mine, told me about Dharma Merchant Services. First of all, “dharma” translates to “right path”…not a word commonly associated with credit card companies. Additionally, dharma is also known to Buddhist practitioners as the teachings of Buddha, compounding my curiosity. I gave Alexia at Dharma Merchant Services a call and was thrilled with what I discovered: my search for a competitive processor with a true sense of ethics was over. Dharma MS was able to save us hundreds of dollars in monthly processing fees (which is always a welcome surprise), and they donate 10% of their GROSS profits to the charity of our choice. Additionally, we received a new processing terminal and they accepted our old terminal in return, which will be given a bit of polish and then sent on (free of charge) to a non-profit in need of the equipment. Finally, the company is green as green can be, obtaining their web hosting through a solar-powdered company and affiliating themselves with a myriad of green businesses that support their work. These people could not get any nicer…
Many, many thanks to Cherilyn for the awesome tip and many, many thanks to Alexia for being so drop-dead fabulous in every way. If you accept credit cards in the course of your business, I encourage you to give Alexia a call- she can be reached at 866.615.5157.
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