Dharma

• Low Terminal Pricing
• Rate Transparency
• Lack of Certain Fees
• Representation Across Numerous Industries

Low Terminal Pricing

Dharma Merchant Services strives to provide a fair platform that incorporates low terminal pricing. For storefront and point-of-sale transactions, businesses can expect to pay 0.25 percent plus $0.10 per transaction above interchange. Restaurants receive discounted pricing of 0.20 percent plus $0.07 per transaction above interchange. These rates and costs are reasonable compared to industry averages.

B2B merchants will do especially well with Dharma if they choose to use MX, the company's internal payment gateway. While utilizing the MX gateway, B2B merchants can auto-qualify for additional interchange reductions that can add up to thousands of dollars in savings. 

Rate Transparency

Dharma Merchant Services is extremely transparent with its pricing and fees; a full disclosure of these charges is available on the company's website. Dharma's pricing structure breakdown is as follows:

• Monthly Fee: $10/month
• Interchange + Margins: Dependant on business
  • Retail: 0.25% + $0.10/authorization
  • Restaurant: 0.20% + $0.07/authorization
  • Virtual/Online: 0.35% + $0.10/authorization
  • High-Volume: 0.10% + $0.07/authorization
• Interchange Fee: Passed through at cost
• Card Assessment Fee: Passed through at cost
• AVS Fee (for keyed sales): $0.05/transaction
  • High-volume merchants pay no AVS Fee
• Batch Fee: $0.10/batch
  • High-volume merchants pay no Batch Fee
• Wireless Service Fee (if using a wireless terminal): $20/month
• Retrieval Fee: $5/instance
• Chargeback Fee: $20/instance
  • High-volume merchants pay $15/instance
• Voice Authorization Fee: $1.50/authorization
• PCI Compliance Fee: $7.95
  • High-volume merchants pay no PCI Compliance Fee
• Closure Fee: $25
• PIN Debit Fee (if applicable): Passed through at cost ($46/year)
• ACH Reject Fee: $30/instance

Lack of Certain Fees

There are a number of common fees that Dharma does not charge its clients. For example, there are no fees or costs associated with any of the following:

1. Annual fees
2. Monthly minimum fees
3. Leasing/rental fees
4. Early termination fees
5. Long term contract costs

Representation Across Numerous Industries

Dharma works with businesses spread across several industries and channels, from nonprofits to B2B merchants, small mom-and-pop stores to large multi-location entities. Most of the merchants supported by Dharma fall into one of the following categories:

• Retail establishments selling physical goods and services, such as clothing shops, salons, spas, auto services, markets, books, furniture, and other common consumer items
• Restaurants and quick-service merchants such as sit-down restaurants, juice bars, yogurt shops, bakeries, coffee shops, bars, clubs, sandwich shops, etc.
• Online businesses selling retail goods and B2B goods
• B2B merchants processsing large, keyed transactions
• Healthcare merchants such as doctors, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, veterinarians, and any other medical professionals that take both in-person and virtual payments
• Federally registered nonprofits soliciting donations, event registrations, and small product purchases in both an in-person and online environment
• Schools, associations, and other membership-based organizations that accept dues and registration fees

• Not Ideal for Micro-Businesses
• Lack of Support for Risky Businesses
• No Flat Rate Pricing

Not Ideal for Micro-Businesses

Since Dharma's services have a modest monthly fee attached, this company may not be the cheapest option for merchants who process low volumes. Dharma clearly outlines who they work best with—merchants who bring in over $5,000 in revenue per month—and regularly refers merchants to other providers. Dharma is not ideal for merchants who bring in less than the recommended $5,000 in revenue each month.

Lack of Support for Risky Businesses

Dharma typically does not represent the following merchants due to their high-risk nature, where charebacks, disputes, and fraud are more likely:

• Business not headquartered and operating in the U.S.
• Merchants selling in a card-not-present environment with no past processing history
• Merchants with an active bankruptcy
• Merchants on the MATCH or TMF list
• Merchants selling over 10 percent to international clients
• Merchants selling products that are fulfilled from outside the U.S.
• Long-term memberships/subscriptions
• Travel/tourism/vacation clubs
• Adult services of any type
• Sales of drug paraphernalia, spice/vaping, or any cannabis/marijuana sales
• Online coaching/entrepreneur seminars
• Online sales of tobacco
• Online sales with high future delivery where payment is made today, but the service isn't received until more than a week later
• Online sales of custom furniture, electronics, downloadable software, pharmaceuticals, supplements, and diet/weight loss goods
• Collection agencies, debt consolidation, investment advice, get-rich-quick programs, etc.
• Betting, gambling, casinos, sweepstakes, lotteries, sports forecasting, auctions, or eBay
• Sales of guns/weapons/ammo, or any promotion of hate/violence

No Flat Rate Pricing

Since there are no membership packages available, some customers have experienced confusion regarding just how much Dharma will cost them in the long run, which can be potentially troublesome for budgeting. Since Dharma only offers interchange-plus pricing, merchants' rates will inherently have variability from month to month.