SUN COMMUNICATIONS SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH PREMIER, INC. TO HELP REDUCE PAYMENT PROCESSING COSTS FOR ALLIANCE MEMBERS.

Stamford, CT – December, 2014 – As more businesses realize credit card processing is a tax on their business, Premier, Inc. of Charlotte, NC has awarded a new group purchasing agreement to Sun Communications Inc. of Stamford CT to advise and reduce costs for it’s nationwide alliance of approximately 3,400 hospitals and 110,000 other providers.

According to Cardfellow.com, businesses incur an average expense of 2% of goods sold as a result of fees related to payment processing. All businesses that process credit cards pay a set amount – called Interchange – to the major credit card companies (Visa, MasterCard, and Discover). The Interchange rates are non-negotiable and are the cost of accepting credit cards. However, (in most cases) a credit card processor then adds a rate and / or fees on top of Interchange, which increases the costs of every transaction. In some cases, it can be as much as 5%.

“Businesses need to be more aware of processors costs and understand exactly what they are paying,” said Greg Schneider CEO of Sun Communications. “There has been very little transparency in the payment processing businesses as processors quote ‘rates’ and ‘fees’ that add to the cost of processing credit cards. Businesses should be asking a processor ‘what’s your pricing model and mark-up’. It’s not the processors ‘rate’ that matters; it’s the pricing model and mark-up over cost that they charge – ‘cost’ being Interchange.

The fairest and most transparent pricing model is Interchange Plus. Sun Communications will be making their Interchange Plus model available to Premier’s alliance members, providing a mark-up of only .07% over Interchange for most members.

Sun Communications will not only be educating Premier Inc. Members on, and offering them, the fairest and most transparent pricing - but advising and helping them with key industry changes and trends that make a difference. For instance:

• All US credit card processing terminals must be EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) smart chip technology capable by October 1, 2015.
• And many businesses don’t know that they must be PCI Compliant, and if they aren’t are open to fraud and cyber-attacks that they are ultimately responsible for, not to mention being charged fees of up to $100 per month for not being compliant.