If you’re looking for the ideal payment processor for your business needs, don’t be fooled by the first quote that you receive. Often, the quotes supplied by salespeople are based on qualified rates alone. This rate is often termed the “loss leader,” because it is just that, the leader rate for your fees. If you read the fine print, however, you may discover a few surprises.

Forty years before credit cards were invented, science fiction novelist Edward Bellamy predicted the economy of the future. In his 1888 novel Looking Backward, he imagined simplifying finances by replacing bulky cash with individualized cards that store credit. More than a century later, we’re living the dream.

You’ve ordered a delicious bowl of vegetable soup from your local diner for a very affordable $2. It arrives. You indulge. That warm, satisfied soup feeling settles over you, and then your waitress drops the bill off.

Did you know that North America is the largest target of credit card breaches in the world? In fact, we account for about 72% of breaches. Drill that down to the US of A, where card theft is a whopping 47% of all worldwide fraud, but we only account for around 24% of worldwide credit card processing volume. So why is our ration of transaction to fraud so high?

If you’re still on the fence about accepting credit card payments, the first thing to consider is this finding from a 2012 Intuit study: Businesses without card-processing options lose $7,000 per year to their competitors.

Great question! IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE.

Yes, I do get asked this all the time. But since there are no dumb questions (ok, yes there are, but very few) I wanted to address it with the world.