ASTA Marketing Services Inc. believes it
has finally solved a problem that bedeviled ASTA members in the
last few years: Gaining approval when they apply for status as a
credit card merchant.
In October, AMSI
tapped a new vendor that gives members a good chance of obtaining
merchant status.
According to Bob
Kern, a Los Angeles travel agent and president of AMSI, in its
first six months as an AMSI supplier, National Transaction Corp. of
Coral Springs, Fla., approved 91.5% of ASTA applicants. 
So far, the
numbers are small (71 applicants, 65 approvals), but Kern said the
goal was to get to a point where agents could get approvals, not to
get big numbers. We needed to solve the problem first.
The initial
successes should help bring in the numbers, too, he
said.
AMSI previously
had vendors for merchant programs, but the approval rates were too
low, Kern said, and retailers need to become merchants has
grown.
For one thing, he
said, merchant status becomes more of an issue when agents sell an
increasing amount of noncommissionable products. By taking plastic,
he said, agents can sell net-priced products with mark-ups that are
hidden from the customer.
Way
bigger than service fees
He said, This is
way bigger than service fees, the initial reason -- after airlines
began cutting commissions -- that many agents began to shop for
some ability to accept credit cards.
Credit card
processors have often been wary of the travel business, figuring
the risks are too high in businesses that sell services to be
delivered at a later date.
Meanwhile, with
NTC, the ASTA subsidiary offers Society members a program that
provides for a $99 set-up and discount rates on cards not swiped,
as follows: American Express, 2.75%; Discover, 2.25%; MasterCard
and Visa, 2.39%, all plus 25 cents per transaction.
Rates for swiped
cards are lower. In the case of MasterCard and Visa, the rate is
1.89% (plus 25 cents per transaction), Kern said.
To contact
the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Nadine Godwin
at [email protected].