Steve Ciabattoni started his career in payment processing right out of college where he was recruited (by his current partner) to work for a very large payment processing company. In 2011, he and jumped ship and created 360 Payment Solutions. Now, 360 Payment Solutions serves nearly 3000 merchants and employs 28 people. They label themselves as a Payment Processing provider, meaning that they help companies accept all types of payments including: checks, gift cards, electronic payments online (paypal), as well as credit card processing

In this interview, Steve discusses the new chip card technology (known in the industry as EMV - Europay MasterCard Visa), Apple pay, pay with phone, and integration with business software.

Back on Oct 1, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express shifted their liability statement and said you are going to be responsible for any chargebacks that come through if you don’t have the ability to accept the chip cards. And you cannot fight it. This is a shift in responsibility and something that you should consider.

Steve advises business to NOT lease your machine. Often times, this contract cannot be canceled and you will spend $40/month for a $300 machine. So over the life of the contract, you will be paying hundreds more than just buying the machine outright.

If you are in the market for a merchant provider, you want “interchange plus” pricing. This is the best fee structure for business and will give you the lowest rates for all types of transactions. And you will sound smart to the salesman!

For automotive businesses, you should have an “effective rate” below 3%. Your effective rate is calculated by dividing Total Fees by Total Sales.