What does Clarus Merchant Services offer B2B distributors, and what does it charge?
Summary
Clarus sells two ways to cut the cost of cards for B2B distributors: automated Level 3 data that lowers interchange on corporate and purchasing cards, and a surcharge program called RevNew that moves the fee to the buyer. It does not publish a processing rate, a monthly fee, or a contract term anywhere on its site.
Who Clarus is
Clarus Merchant Services was founded in 1999 and is based in Gaithersburg, Maryland. It says it processes over $5 billion a year for more than 7,000 merchants. Its industry pages lean hard on distribution (electrical, roofing, plumbing, HVAC, automotive products, building materials, food service), and its partner list is mostly purchasing co-ops such as NetPlus Alliance and IMARK Group, plus a few banks.
The footer lists three registrations. Clarus is an Elavon Payments Partner and a registered MSP/ISO of Elavon, Inc. in Georgia, a registered ISO/MSP of Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati, and a registered ISO of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. in Concord, California. An ISO signs up merchants on behalf of a bank or processor. Elavon's name tells you who sits behind the account. It says nothing about what Clarus will charge.
Level 3 without the extra typing
Purchasing, corporate, and business cards carry lower interchange when the merchant sends line-item detail with the sale. Clarus puts the standard interchange on these cards at 2.5% to 3.5% and says correct Level 3 processing can bring it down by as much as 1.00%. The catch is data entry, up to 15 fields per transaction, and Clarus says it built automated Level 3 acceptance with its processor so the merchant does not type anything extra.
Its building-materials case study gives three monthly figures:
| Level 3 transactions | Level 3 volume | Monthly savings | Savings as a share of volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| 51 | $52,000 | $455 | 0.88% |
| 445 | $100,000 | $763 | 0.76% |
| 1,362 | $410,000 | $3,300 | 0.80% |
The page does not say whether these are three customers or three size bands. All three savings rates sit under the 1% ceiling Clarus quotes, and they apply only to the Level 3 card volume, so a distributor whose buyers mostly use personal cards would see a much smaller effect on its total bill.
RevNew, the surcharge program
RevNew adds the processing cost to the sale when a customer pays by credit card, so a $100 sale lands as $100. Clarus says the cardholder sees the fee amount at checkout and can always choose a no-fee method.
The case study is a plumbing supply distributor from January 2017 to May 2019. Before RevNew, $1.69 million in volume cost $42,600 in fees, an effective rate of 2.52%. After, $1.54 million cost $5,700, or 0.37%, and Clarus counts the $36,900 difference as added profit. The fee did not disappear; the buyer paid it. The page gives no surcharge percentage, no cap, and no word on debit cards. State law and card-network rules on surcharging are covered in our article on free processing and surcharges.
What the site leaves out
There is no rate, no pricing model, no monthly or PCI fee, no contract length, and no termination fee on any page. The /pricing/ and /about/ addresses return errors. The only funding promise is "48-hour funding," on the health care and service industry pages.
Sources
- clarusdc.com
- clarusdc.com/company
- clarusdc.com/industries
- clarusdc.com/partnerships
- clarusdc.com/solutions
- clarusdc.com/level-3-credit-card-processing-case-study
- clarusdc.com/revnew
Related on this site
- Who pays when a card processor advertises zero fees?
- Who is the acquirer in a card payment, and how is it different from the card issuer?
- What the headline rate leaves out
- Why interchange-plus pricing cannot be totaled
- Every provider we hold, and which publish a rate
Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from providers' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.