When was the last time you took a good look at your credit card processing statement? If you’re not processing with 360 Payments, chances are excellent that you’ll see some suspicious little line items. They might be called PCI fees, or PCI compliance fees, or even PCI noncompliance fees – and regardless of what they’re called, you probably shouldn’t be paying them. In fact, 360 Payments never charges a PCI compliance fee. For some of our customers with specific processing needs, we create custom solutions that may include passing along a PCI fee from a third-party, but we do not charge the fee ourselves. Let’s look into these fees a bit more.
They Don’t Really Protect You
Some processors may claim that PCI compliance fees are a form of insurance in the event of a data breach. Essentially, they’ll tell you, if you pay these fees you’ll be protected if there is an information security incident at your business. Don’t believe them. If you read the fine print on these “policies,” you’ll quickly learn that your processor can and will deny your claim for a whole host of reasons. The chances of this data breach insurance actually helping you out are slim to none.
They Don’t Help You Get Compliant
If you are not PCI compliant (and you really should be, there’s no good reason not to), your processor may charge you PCI compliance fees every month until they can prove that you’re compliant again. These fees don’t actually make you compliant, and unless you’re reading your statement carefully you may not even notice they’re there. In fact, you may even be compliant but your processor just doesn’t know it due to a systems glitch or reporting requirements you didn’t remember to complete. Most processors aren’t actually interested in helping you become compliant – but they’re definitely interested in taking your money if you’re not!
You’re Not Getting Your Money’s Worth
If your credit card processor is seriously going to charge you monthly or annual PCI compliance fees, you better be getting a whole lot of benefit for it! The reality is that you’re not. For those PCI compliance fees to be worth it, your processor should be reaching out to you regularly to teach you about PCI best practices, offering you scanning tools and services, and updating you when the rules change or when your business might be at risk. Can you honestly say that your processor is doing all that for you?
Stop Paying PCI Compliance Fees
At 360 Payments, we never have and never will charge PCI compliance fees (although we may pass along fees from third parties in some specialized cases). That’s not because we don’t think PCI compliance is important but because we don’t see the value in charging you an extra fee over it. We’ve written several articles and guides on PCI compliance (you can check them out here), and our team is always happy to help our customers with any additional questions. If this sounds like a winning setup for you, give us a call at 1-855-360-0360 or drop us a line on our website. We’d love to help you get junk fees out of your life.
PS – While we’re talking about security, check out our tips for combating online credit card fraud here and here.
PPS – Did your PCI compliance scan fail? Here’s why that might have happened.