Sage 100 Payment Solutions: Avoid Hidden Fees

Beware of Hidden Fees in Your Sage 100 Payment Solutions Agreement

Don’t get surprised by termination fees when you want to change your Sage 100 credit card processing service and Sage 100 payment solutions provider. Based on your processing volume, those "small" fees can add up to big penalties when leaving early. In extreme cases, the terms that processors have snuck into the contracts have cost companies 6 figures in penalties. Here's what's important to understand and what to watch out for to avoid costly headaches down the road.

Liquidated Damages Clause

When reviewing contracts for businesses, we've seen some scary liquidated damages clauses. It may have different forms and names, but it typically requires that you process all your transactions with that processor for the full term of the contract. If you want to leave early, the clause states you owe the processor the fees that they would have gotten to charge under this agreement if you stayed with them for the entire term of the contract.

They use your historical processing volume and the length of time of the contract term to calculate those “fees,” and they can add up really fast. In this example, if you're currently paying $4,000 a month in processing fees and you're in a three-year agreement and you terminate after year one, they would charge you $4,000 for each of the 24 months left, a whopping $96,000? Clearly, that’s a huge problem that can easily be avoided by watching out for this costly provision.

Early Termination Penalties

If you terminate early, a more reasonable Sage 100 credit card processing agreement may have a fixed fee. This is also frequently referred to as an Early Termination Fee, or ETF. In most cases, you may owe up to $500. This is another term in your contract that should be reviewed.

All contracts have a termination clause, so be careful. Make sure you have the ability to terminate for price increases or for any reason. Price increases can be a normal thing in the processing world and some of them are specific to the processor. If you've got a clause that allows you to terminate if they raise your prices then that will be beneficial for you. 

Get Help from Experts

Be sure to watch carefully for those liquidated damages and ETF clauses so that you know what your risks are because the fees and penalties can be huge. Usually, the reason for changing processors is to save money, and the next thing you know you're stuck with a processor claiming you owe tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in liquidated damages or ETFs, so be sure to pay extra attention to those clauses because they can cost you a lot of money.

While credit card processing may seem intimidating, it's easy to get started. Find an expert not a sales person to guide you.

Start Saving with Help from Paya's Integrated Payment Experts

Paya is the leader in delivering simpler, more efficient, and deeply integrated payment solutions with more than 25 years of industry experience and 2,000+ industry customers and partners. Paya is committed to delivering best-in-class integrated payment solutions across the full suite of Sage ERP products. We are proud to be Sage’s preferred partner for Integrated Payments in the US.   

At Paya we are unique from our competitors because we emphasize solutions engineering, engaging our domain experts as part of the early sales process. Through a collaborative but simple hands-on process, we develop a deep understanding of our partners’ current processes and pain points and requirements to ensure you get a platform and system with the capabilities you need. Paya has enabled businesses to optimize billing and invoice processes, deliver more payment options and greater flexibility to their customers, and improve back-office efficiencies.

Contact Paya's Acumatica Integrated Payments team to schedule a free consultation today! 

Learn more about how our credit card processing experts, solutions, and processes can benefit your organization and save you money!! 

See Paya's Acumatica Integrated Payments solution on ERPVAR's site.