I heard of United Merchant but know nothing about them. There are literally hundreds of processing companies.

A little more background in case you are unaware. Most companies will ask you for the last 2 months' of statements from your present company and come back in a day or two with a better proposal. In the end, much of it is baloney because no one can predict how much your fee will be. There are too many variables, i.e., manual swipe, foreign card, rewards card, etc., all having a separate charge. This is not the fault of the processor but it's how MasterCard USA and Visa USA have structured the billing to the processor. The processor simply adds on a fee to what Visa and MasterCard charge. This is sometimes referred to as interchange (what the processor pays) plus.

As a further aside, AmEx used to be very straightforward. They bill directly and there is no middle man (processor) unless you opt for one. Avoid that if possible as it adds a transaction fee to each such transaction. AmEx is no longer as straightforward as it was. It used to be a percentage and that's it. You could determine how much your AmEx bill was going to be very easily. Now, their billing has become more like MC and Visa, though not nearly to the extent. Many merchants refuse to accept AmEx cards in the belief that fees are much higher. Not true. I haven't compared for a while, but MC and visa are remarkably close with AmEx coming in a bit higher.

A quick anecdote about EPS. When it came time to leave them after having been with them for about 10 years, I asked Ron to check out proposals for me. Not a problem. He told me Mercury had a slightly better rate than EPS, something like 5%. How many processors would admit to that? None that I know of. However, if I had my choice, I'd still be with EPS.

Having said that, Mercury is one of the better companies I've encountered. They're not as bureaucratic as other companies but still, I have to give them about 5 pieces of identity information before they'll talk to me. It's not like talking to EPS where I got to know everyone in the office.

thanks for the recommendations and I will look into both mercury and EPS. Have you guys ever heard of united merchant services?

I've been working with EPS for ten years and can also recommend them. Humans answer the phone, Ron is always available, and I've yet to have a competitor quote a better price for mc/visa.

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The reason is simply that the industry is barely regulated. Imagine going shopping for auto financing with no way to compare rates from banks, i.e., no APR, API, etc. Plus there are many unscrupulous services that promise you one thing and deliver another. There's been talk in the Congress about making the industry more transparent, but I can't see that happening in a long time.

Having said that, there are honest firms out there. The only way to find them that I know of is by recommendation. I highly recommend EPS, 516-739-5566. Ask for Ron or call him on his cell, 917-273-5225. They're local, helpful and not bureaucratic at all. They've helped me fight several chargebacks in the past, which was over and above the call of duty. You might pay a few cents more, but it's worth it.

Unfortunately, I'm not able to use them because of how we have our POS set up. We use Mercury. They're not bad and have good rates. However, the personal touch is not there.

Why is it so hard to find merchant services that does not have hidden fees and basically rob you of your hard earned money. Can any restaurant owner please refer me to their merchant services provider that they are happy with?

thanks