Does Size Matter? In an Age of Major Mergers, what do Merchants Gain from Going Big?

On May 28th, 2019, payment processing giants Global Payments and TSYS officially announced a merger in a deal worth 21.5 billion dollars. That merger was just the latest in a series of mergers and acquisitions that have seen some of the industry’s largest players become even larger. In fact, the Global/TSYS merger was the third major merger in the industry in as many years. In January 2018, Vantiv announced a $10.4 billion merger with Wordplay, coming together to form Wordplay Inc., and in July 2017, First Data Corporation acquired CardConnect for $750 million.

These mergers demonstrate a clear trend towards consolidation and rapid, massive growth among the largest players in the payment processing industry. And with each new merger, pressure grows for other payment processors to follow suit in order to avoid being run over or swallowed up themselves. But, whether or not these mergers are good for the companies involved or for the industry as a whole, the million-dollar question is: are they beneficial in any way for merchants?

Advantages of Partnering with a Smaller Provider

The reality is that there is no real benefit to going with a large payment processing service provider. BAMS is a fully registered provider with Visa and Mastercard, just like our enormous competitors, so they have no advantage in their relationship with the credit card companies or in the rates they can provide. In fact, since BAMS uses the interchange-plus pricing model, our rates are based on the publicly available interchange rates published by the major credit card companies – rates that the companies set, and are no different for the industry’s giants than they are for anyone else. 

Conversely, there are some major benefits to sticking with a smaller provider. While our interchange-plus pricing is unbeatable, it has nothing to do with our size. What our size does allow, however, is a higher level of personalized service to be delivered to our merchants – a level of service that is impractical or even impossible for bigger payment processors to offer. Our customer support, for instance, is fully individualized, with each merchant receiving an assigned customer support specialist that handles their needs every time they call in, and every time they have an issue. That kind of direct support access just doesn’t exist among the largest processors.

Another example is our unique five-step price comparison. The bigger a company gets, the less time they have and the less interest they have in going the extra mile for any given individual customer. At BAMS, we not only go that extra mile for our customers, but we also do it for our prospects as well, by carefully analyzing their existing merchant account statements and providing a personalized report outlining each area we can lower their costs, and by how much. That’s something only BAMS can offer, and we provide that value upfront because we know its an important step in building a strong, trusting relationship.

So, when it comes to payment processing, size really doesn’t matter. If anything, when considering service quality, larger competitors actually offer less. To find out more about what makes BAMS unique among our competitors, or how your company can benefit from the elevated levels of service we offer, contact us today to speak with a member of our team or submit a quote request to receive your five step price comparison!