Here are some ways existing users may be able to reduce (or eliminate) some recurring Sage Payment Standard Fees:
PCI Compliance – $25/mo recurring – can be waived if you test yourself at https://pci.trustwave.com/action.php though there is a $75 annual fee for a Trustwave scan which is now billed in June per Sage Payments posting here
New Chargeback Assistance Program – $3.95/mo – web site leads you to believe it’s optional (and some at Sage say that it’s an opt-in program) though a call to Sage Payments by one of our 90 Minds members led to a response from someone at SPS saying that it’s mandatory. They were able to get the fee reduced to $1.50/mo after complaining (this was reported by only one of our members – so your mileage may vary in convincing Sage to reduce your fees or Sage may come back eventually and reply to us that the SPS representative was mistaken – we have an inquiry into Sage Payments about this matter).
http://na.sage.com/sage-payment-solutions/support-resources/sage-chargeback-assistance-program
Rate review – Sage Payments doesn’t come out and tell you this but you can ask them to review your rates at any time. Since credit card processing is a highly competitive area – it’s probably not a bad idea to shop this every 6 months if you are doing a fair volume of monthly charges.
Other items worth noting:
Sage Moving Sage 100 ERP To Sage Exchange – Expected V5.0 – read the latest FAQ about Sage Exchange and credit card processing.
Beginning with Sage 100 ERP 5.0 Sage will use Sage Exchange technology and PC Charge will not be supported (Sage will only support the ERP side – though this has been our experience for at least the last two years as Sage has forwarded all PC Charger users’ processing related tech calls to the PC Charge support lines)
http://na.sage.com/sage-payment-solutions/products-services/sage-exchange
With Sage Exchange credit card data formerly stored inside Sage 100 ERP will now be stored in your “Sage Vault”. Once payment data is out of Sage 100 ERP then reportedly Sage will no longer be required to undergo expensive PCI compliance audits with each software release.
This foregoing of compliance audits is a touchy subject with Sage since technically it means the Sage 100 ERP software hasn’t undergone any PCI compliant audits to which Sage have responded that with the use of Sage Exchange (ie – storing all payment data outside the software) they are not required to be compliant or undergo a PCI compliance audit.
All of the above is likely true (Sage is a big company and I’m sure they’ve checked and double checked this with their legal eagles).
Recommendations
Without PCI audits (performed at the direction of Sage- due to stop with v5.0 aka Sage 100 ERP 2013) you can’t store any credit card info within Sage 100 and be considered PCI compliant (Note: Yes I know you can – and people do – create UDF fields and some customers demand it – good luck avoiding legal liability in the event of data breach either internal or external).
Do not store any credit card data within modified Sage 100 ERP fields – memos, UDF, etc. To do so may put your company at risk in the case of a data breach.
We recommend Sage Payments coupled with a frequent review (as you would for any credit card merchant) of your statements to insure that you receive the lowest possible processing fees. The integration to Sage 100 ERP is slick, easy to setup (and upgrade) and seldom prevents any type of errors (which was most definitely not our experience with other third party credit card integrations).