Are these competitive Authorize.net rates?

[markw10]

We have been shopping around for a Authorize.net reseller. We have spoken with one a lot. It appears their fees are as follows:

1. $30 gateway fee/month and $10 statement fee/month for a total of $40. They said after that there's a yearly fee but it's waived the first year.

2. It appears for MasterCard, Discover, and Visa it's 2.29% per transaction and a 25 cent per transaction fee. I was told after the first 250 transactions there's also an additional 5 cent fee but that the 5 cent transaction fee is waived for the first 250 transactions.

3. I was told once we go over $10K/month we could go as low as 2.1%. We were told though that for rewards cards they can go as high as 2.59% or even 3.49% and that there's a different rate structure for American Express. I think it was $5.99 a month flat fee.

4. Chargebacks are $25 each and down to $15 if we do high volume.

I know it's probably hard to suggest a reseller on here but I'd like to ask if these are competive rates? We are happy with this reseller but want to make sure the prices are fair.

Thanks for help with these questions.

[stymiee]

1) That $30 Authnet fee is way too high. It should be half that. You also shouldn't have an annual fee.

2) Those rates are average and can be beaten. That additional 5¢ fee is an Authnet fee and resets each month.

3) Your rates won't go lower unless your merchant account provider actually lowers them for you. Good luck getting them to do that. Especially if you sign a contract with a termination fee.

Amex charges a flat $5 per month for a rolling $5,000 per year. If you exceed that $5,000/yr your rates go to 3.50% automatically.

4) That is an average chargeback fee.

[markw10]

Thank you for your help. Is there a place online I should go to for a comparison of resellers or are there any suggestions?