Payment Gateways for Coworking Spaces: Cardconnect

Payment gateways options such as Stripe, Cardconnect, and more, allow coworking spaces to have more flexibility and control over transactions. To make our platform fully integrated, we have always worked hard to provide integrations with the most popular billing software out there. Following is a detailed overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the two famous vendors in the US.

Guest blog post by Tom Cooley from GoCardconnect:

Stripe is a Brand Name

Due to Stripe’s commitment to streamlining the payments integration to third-party applications, Stripe continues to make significant strides into third-party software applications. Coupled with their “Pay as you go” model, Stripe is also a great choice for new businesses and merchants that are unable to obtain traditional accounts due to time in business, credit underwriting or the sale of products that most processors view as “High-Risk”. For Stripe users, obtaining an account is easy and there are no fees unless you use the service.

Understanding that most of the OfficeRnD customers are “traditional” merchants with the same needs that most businesses have, including choice, representation and omni-commerce functionality (card present and card not present transactions), choosing an alternative to Stripe was important.

Enter Cardconnect

At the core of the Cardconnect platform is card data security. As one of only a few payment processors to achieve P2PE (Point to Point Encryption) and Tokenization certification from the PCI Board, the Cardconnect platform reduces the scope of PCI compliance significantly by completely removing card data from your operating system. Their API, and the way OfficeRnD build the payment interface makes validating your PCI compliance extremely simple.

Pricing

One of the most notable features for Cardconnect is the ability to offer Interchange pricing to each of their clients. Rather than the flat rate model offered by Stripe, Cardconnect passes through the exact cost of each transaction, as defined by the card brands (Visa/MasterCard/Discover/AMEX). This means card-not-present business debit cards with the Visa/MC logo are billed at the Interchange rate of 0.05% + $0.22 per transaction. After adding Assessments and processing fees, the total cost is 0.38% + $0.32 per transaction.

Compare this to 2.9% + $0.30 on $10,000 in processing volume, and the cost differential is significant ($10,000 X {(2.9% + $0.30) – (0.38% + $0.32)} ) = $10,000 X 2.52% = $252

For every $10,000 in Business debit cards processed, Stripe is an additional $252 more expensive than Cardconnect!

Interchange Optimization

There are over 200 different Interchange categories based on the type of credit card, how it was processed, what data was passed with the card, and how old the authorization is. Interchange Optimization, one aspect of the Cardconnect product that is so valuable is a feature that recognizes the type of card based on the first 4 digits and provides specific card data needed for that transaction to receive the lowest Interchange cost. For example, a Business card requires a tax amount. If nothing is included with the authorization, a tax amount of $0 is added to the transaction, and the Interchange cost goes down. Interchange Optimization is responsible for a decrease in fees from 0.05% to 1.05%.

Account Updater

With the rise in data breaches, it is becoming more common for us as consumers to reach out to all the places that bill our card on a monthly basis and update the credit card. Account updater eliminates that by contracting with the card brands to automatically retrieve updated credit cards when cards on file are changed for any reason. This means, no more declines due to lost, expired or stolen credit cards. Some exceptions may apply. For customers that have many recurring charges, this is often the time that they purge any rarely used subscriptions, resulting in a loss of revenue for your business.

Omni-Commerce functionality

Cardconnect is a traditional payment processor and can offer a multitude of payment options. Does your coworking space have retail, special event, fundraiser or any other function where you’re taking payments directly from cardholders? With CardPointe, offer Mobile, Desktop, and terminal solutions and enable card acceptance in any place and form, your customers would like to pay. The best part, all card data rolls into a single reporting portal, where transactions can be sorted based on authorization method, cardholder name, last four of a credit card, and a myriad of additional fields that are customizable for each merchant.

Personal attention

Do you have questions about processing credit cards, availability of deposits, methods for reducing costs or would just like to speak with someone regarding your specific payment processing needs? Then Cardconnect is the perfect fit. They take a concierge approach to payment processing and are available at your convenience.

Our goal at OfficeRnD is to address the needs of all of our clients. We wanted to offer a standardize payment solution that many people were already familiar with, plus a solution that allows for significantly lower costs, additional features and a personal touch.

For a limited time, Cardconnect is offering $5,000 in free processing for all new OfficeRnD accounts. Click here to learn more about the Cardconnect solution.

Guest blog post by Tom Cooley from GoCardconnect.

If you want to read more on the topic of billing and accounting in coworking spaces, you can check out the following resource: The Coworking Integrations Trifecta: Invoicing, Billing & Accounting.