Every once in a while, I run into someone who openly admits, “I have no idea how merchant processing fees work.” But on a daily basis, I speak with plenty of people who are confident they know everything about it. It takes me back to when I first moved from working in the bank to the merchant processing side. I remember thinking, “This has to be the easiest job ever.” My plan? Simple: if the competition charges 20 basis points for their discount rate, I’ll charge just under that, close the deal, and go to lunch.
Wow, was I wrong. Two weeks in, I was already on the phone with my old boss, asking if I could come back. His response? “Your position’s been filled.” Fast forward a decade, and I’ve learned a lot. I’ve written a book exposing deceptive billing practices, spoken at events nationwide, done countless interviews, and am referred to as an industry expert by every major credit association.
But let me be real—just like I was in my book—I’m not the ultimate expert. I just know more than most. The truth is, no one can know everything about merchant processing. The industry evolves constantly, and staying up to date takes up about 20% of my workweek.
For those who think they’ve got it all figured out, we’ve created two quizzes to put your knowledge to the test.
The first one is a simple exercise: Find the $79,551 in overbillings. And unlike most tests, we encourage you to cheat, Google, call your friends, reach out to anyone in the merchant processing space—anything goes! Click here to get started.
The second quiz is for those who believe they really know this industry inside and out. If you score 90% or higher, we’ll pay you $1,000. If you fall just short at 90%, we’ll still give you $100. But this time, no cheating allowed—some questions are timed, so you won’t have time to Google or phone a friend.
Click here to take the second quiz and see if you can win $1,000!
So why did we create these quizzes?
Because you can’t fix or effectively manage something you don’t fully understand. It’s like playing a casual game of football with friends—you don’t need to know every rule to have fun. But if there’s a million dollars on the line, you’d want to know every loophole, every rule, and every strategy to win. There’s a difference between playing for fun and playing when the stakes are high.
That’s why so many companies trust us. They understand that merchant processing isn’t a casual game—it’s a complex, high-stakes competition where the rules are rewritten over 200 times a year by the very teams they’re up against.