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TransFS LLC, a Chicago-based firm that uses "reverse auctions" to help merchants find processing services, has received a $40,000 grant from the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center to help expand the service nationally. With reverse auctions, merchants submit to TransFS the percentages of orders they receive in person, through mail orders, by telephone and online, and a current processing statement or their monthly sales volume and average transaction size if not already accepting payment cards. TransFS then analyzes the data trends in transaction types and rates paid for these transactions, which creates a merchant profile on which merchant service providers then bid. The merchant chooses the winner from among the bidders. The service is free to merchants because the winning processor pays a fee to TransFS for the right to submit bids.
