Page 13 - GBC Summer ENG flipbook 2024

Merchant processing is a multi-billion dollar industry, with fees charged for every bank card transaction. A massive volume of card transactions flow through the golf industry, making it critical for golf course operators to review their complex transaction fee statements. Occasionally, a message at the bottom of the statement will announce a fee increase, and it’s the only notice you get.
TIMES HAVE CHANGED
Once upon a time, golf course oper- ators chose a Golf Management System (GMS), formally known as PoS, to run their business and a merchant processor to run their bank card (credit and debit) transactions separately. Generally, the GMS companies had partnership agreements with more than one merchant processor with software integrations. The transaction data from the GMS flowed seamlessly to the “brick,” or hardware device on the counter where the customer inserts, swipes, or taps a card or mobile device.
Now that several GMS providers have become bank card merchant processors, it may limit the processor choices enjoyed by golf courses for decades which may result in increased costs in payment processing.
This article has two goals: To help you make smarter decisions and understand the true costs of payment processing which will hopefully save money that will flow to your bottom line. What follows is a detailed description of the merchant processing ecosystem designed to educate and arm readers with the facts and knowledge needed to make intelligent decisions on GMS providers and merchant processing partners.
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Key Merchant Processing
Definitions
• Independent Sales Organization (ISO): is a third-party payment processing company that is authorized to handle merchant accounts for businesses. ISOs have relationships with acquiring member banks, and this allows them to provide merchant services to their customers. Some banks are acquirers, but most banks and credit unions are ISOs. CIBC, for example, is an ISO of USA acquirer Global Payments.
• Payment Facilitator (PayFac): is a payment service provider for merchants. Essentially, a payFac is a company that allows its customers to accept electronic payments using their platform. PayFacs work by having a master merchant account through its relationship with acquiring banks.
• Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance: is mandated by credit card companies to help ensure the security of credit card transactions in the payments industry. PCI compliance refers to the technical and operational standards that businesses follow to secure and protect credit card data provided by cardholders and transmitted through card processing transactions.