Credit card processing has risen over the last several years, placing a financial burden on many small businesses. Dual Pricing is a merchant processing program that allows merchant businesses to significantly lower or eliminate their credit card processing cost. The merchant presents the customer with a cash and a credit card price, which allows them to decide on their preferred payment method. Dual Pricing is a program introduced previously in the credit card processing industry. Many U.S. gas stations have offered both cash and credit prices for over a decade.
Other types of businesses have not offered this program until now. Dual Pricing was not suitable for most retailers and restaurants because their POS system needed to support dual pricing differentiation and calculations. Additionally, the payment processing cost of each transaction took a lot of work to calculate. As technology has evolved and processing costs have become more transparent, so has the availability of Dual Pricing to businesses.
What Business Types can offer Dual Pricing?
Dual pricing is a pricing program that works best for Brick-and-Mortar retailers and restaurants that see a high majority of face-to-face transactions where the consumer can pay with cash.
Benefits of Dual Pricing
Benefits to Businesses
The primary benefit of a dual pricing program for business owners is that you don’t need to stress about the rising costs of accepting payments. When a business offers Dual Pricing, they keep 100% of the price for each product they sell.
You no longer must be concerned with rising costs of accepting payments. Your profit is the same as if all transactions were made in cash. Your POS system distinguishes and calculates the total between cash and credit card transactions and re-routes that difference to the credit card payment processor, thus, eliminating the monthly processing fees for merchants.
Benefits to the Customer
When your small business offer customers a cash and a credit price it enables your business to continue to offer low prices while keeping your overheard low. The alternative would be to increase pricing across the board which means even cash customer would pay the higher price, which would seem unfair. With Dual Pricing your customers will love that you provide them an option to pay with cash and receive the lower cash price. You no longer need to increase your prices and bury the cost of processing credit cards in that price. You are fully disclosing both price options to customers and allowing them to choose how they want to pay.
How Does Dual Pricing Credit Card Processing Work?
As a business owner, you determine how much your cash price will be for each item or SKU on your menu or pricing list. Add 4% to your cash price and that will be your credit price. The POS software can do the calculation for you. For Example: Suppose a retailer wants to earn $20.00 from the sale of a shirt. The cash price would be $20.00. If they chose to pay by credit card, the price would be $20.00 x 1.04, or $20.80.
The difference between the credit and cash price pays for the business owner’s processing and program costs. When your customers check out, your POS will keep a total of the cash and the credit price. Once the customer chooses their payment method, the POS prints the itemized receipt with the corresponding prices.
What is Required to Offer Dual Pricing in Your Business?
- A merchant services provider who offers a flat rate percentage fee that aligns with the Dual Pricing Program difference between the regular and cash prices without levying any additional charges.
- A POS system which can support a Dual Pricing model with both a credit and cash price for each product or SKU in a business while providing the accurate reporting needed to support the business operations.
- Clear Signage at each of the merchant’s POS terminals notifying customers of the cash and credit card price and their savings if they choose to pay with cash.
- Employee training on the dual pricing model, so each employee is delivering the same message to customers to promote the program.
Your POS needs to support a dual pricing model and many POS solutions today still need to be upgraded support a dual pricing model. Our expert staff can evaluate your current system and recommend a POS hardware and software system to handle your current operational needs, fit your budget, and support dual pricing.
Opening a merchant account with a reliable merchant solutions payment processor is a wise investment.
- Finical mobile payment solutions accept signature credit and debit cards from a smartphone or tablet.
- Our card reader terminals allow you to process EMV chip cards and mobile wallet payments such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet.
- Finical provides innovative credit card security technology (EMV), offering PCI-compliant end-to-end encryption to protect your customer’s credit card data.
- Fast Payment Funding to Your Business Account.
- No Long-Term Contract.
- 2/7 World Class Customer Service and Support
Finical provides a variety of merchant account and credit card processing solutions for your small business including dual pricing and zero fee credit card processing. Our solutions will allow you to accept payments from your customers quickly, securely, and efficiently. Ready for a free consultation?
