Merchants Against Unfair Interchange, Where Did They Come From?

Online, March 21, 2011 (Newswire.com) - It's not unexpected that there are heated arguments on both sides when the discussion turns to what ISO's & Processors should or should not charge their clients. We are a capitalistic society and businesses are run and services provided are paid for. It's the way our industry, the Payments Industry has worked for decades. However as we're still reeling and working through the recession that has hampered the global economy the credit card industry came under scrutiny and by association the payments industry has as well.

Merchant accounts, payment processing and ancillary services are always hot topics. Merchants continually look for services that will help improve their business. Service providers clamber over each other to show they are the best candidate making outrageous claims about what they can do for the merchant. Chiefly among the issues discussed is price, how much will the merchant account cost the merchants? Many merchants have no idea what they should be paying, which has created a market where some organizations unfairly exploit the lack of knowledge to the benefit of their own company. That practice has been going on for years, but as scrutiny towards the credit card industry as a whole increased light was shed on the fact that many merchants were paying too much for the services being rendered.

Along comes Merchants Against Unfair Interchange, ("MAUI") an organization espousing fair pricing practices and fair treatment of merchants. Many questions have risen to the tune of; who is MAUI, where did MAUI come from, and who are they to tell us (the ISO's/Processors) how we should run our business and price our accounts? Because of those questions, and the frequency of which they are being asked MAUI decided to come out and be as transparent about themselves as they ask everyone else to be. Here MAUI answers those and other questions about who they are and why they're working to bring fair pricing practices to the payments industry.

Where did Merchants Against Unfair Interchange come from?

After years of working in the payments industry, on the side of the acquirer David Toney the Founder of Merchants Against Unfair Interchange decided to make a change, this was after he had retired for the second time of course. Through his work David had become intimately familiar with the inter-workings of interchange and pricing methodologies as this was his area of expertise. As David was finishing work in an Advisory role to another acquirer he continued to struggle with the way some merchants were being treated. More specifically why merchants did not have someone working for them, making sure that their needs really are being met? There had to be some way to make sure merchant's had someone really working for them, right?

Testing began in 2008. Starting with the large merchants, Dave began one by one working with and showing first-hand each how they were being treated unfairly or even errantly paying more than they should. Then taking it a step further he began speaking with the merchant's processor to make improvements for their merchant. The impact this had on everyone involved was profound. With some simple communication a merchant had been shown a great level of support by their processor and the processor had retained a substantial merchant account by providing fair rates and excellent service.

Treating merchants fairly and actually working for the merchants caught on. As more and more merchants he had helped spoke about the services provided the number of merchants contacting him began to explode. Merchants were looking for help they just had nowhere to go to get it. Word got out, merchants were talking to other merchants and the phone was ringing off the hook. "There was something to this idea, merchants need representation and a voice", Dave remembers thinking.

At the end of 2009 Senate Bill 1212, now known as the Durbin Amendment came to light and the discussion around interchange began to heat up. With government involvement now a reality there was an opportunity to show firsthand the real impact of unfair processing practices. Being uniquely positioned and having access to the actual data related to interchange Dave asked his clients if they would be willing to allow him to use their information and send it to congress for their research and support.

Almost every merchant he contacted jumped at the chance to be part of this movement, to take part of in the change that was surely to sweep the payments industry. Overwhelming was response to his request. Merchants were banding together to make a difference, to change their status within the industry. By banding together and making their data readily available merchants had begun a form of advocacy for themselves, taking a stand and making the statement that no longer were they going to be taken advantage of.

"I was amazed at the excitement merchants had, at the desire they each showed to make a difference, recalls David, "all of these merchants were coming together and standing up against unfair and unscrupulous practices".

It was this demand to be heard that brought about Merchants Against Unfair Interchange, it was the demand from the merchants and driven by the merchants.

That was more than he had expected, much more. Merchants were looking for an advocate, a source of verification and trust. With no other source out in the market filling the need for merchants, Merchants Against Unfair Interchange was born.

Starting out with the goal of righting wrongs within the payments industry has turned into much more, it's turned into advocacy, and a conduit for merchants to voice their dissatisfaction.