The United States hotel market size is estimated at $263.21 billion. Most of these companies will be assigned merchant category code (MCC) 7011. Because hospitality transactions involve cancellations, advance bookings, incremental adjustments, and no-show charges, they require specific types of payment processing services. The MCC 7011 (hotels) classification has a direct impact on interchange rates, […]

The United States is the fifth-largest producer of tobacco in the world. In a typical year, the country produces around 359 million pounds of tobacco. While some of that tobacco is sold abroad, a great deal of it ends up being sold to American consumers.  If you are considered a cigar store or tobacco shop, […]

Merchant category code (MCC) 5812 is given to restaurants and eating places by the merchant’s payment processor or acquirer. From fraud monitoring to credit card rewards, this code plays a major role in your company’s payment processing setup. It can affect your approval rates, processing fees, and dispute patterns.  To learn more about how MCC […]

Each year, more than $1.5 trillion is spent in the United States on vehicles and parts. Due to the high-value transactions, deposits, financing, and refund complexity involved, the MCC 5511 (automobile/cars) designation is considered moderate to elevated risk by payment processors. If your company falls under this code, understanding how to improve your account approval […]

If you run a travel-related business, you will be assigned a specific merchant category code known as MCC 4722. This code represents the specific risks and challenges associated with the travel industry. From how customers receive credit card rewards to the payment processing fees you pay, this code can affect all aspects of your payment […]

No matter what type of business you operate, payment failures are bound to happen. By being strategic about how you approach these failures, you can recuperate lost revenue. Failed transactions can lead to a higher churn rate, so companies need the right retry strategy to process these payments. With cascading payments, transactions can be distributed […]

With a standard payment processor, you can expect 99.9% uptime. This works out to 43 minutes of downtime or less each month. However, top-tier payment processors experience just five minutes of downtime each year. Even with the best processors, downtime can still happen. When a payment processor outage does occur, the costs can quickly add […]

Whenever a payment fails, a decline reason code is created that explains the exact failure reason. These codes can vary between payment processors, although many processors use the same ISO 8583 codes used by Visa and Mastercard.  As a merchant, understanding these codes is essential for authorization optimization. Once you understand why transactions are declined, […]

As a merchant, your cash flow can quickly take a hit if you are only accepting a handful of payment methods. Today’s shoppers use buy now, pay later (BNPL), digital wallets, cash, cryptocurrency, and cards to pay for their transactions. If you don’t have the capacity to accept multiple payment methods, it’s going to quickly […]

Accepting payments isn’t as straightforward as just handing over cash. With credit cards, debit cards, and mobile payments, an entire web of interactions takes place in the background each time a card is swiped. Besides the basic transaction processing, this network of activity also works to inspect for fraud, authenticate the payment information, verify that […]