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The financial stress many merchants are experiencing because of the economy is causing an increase in service-provider rate reviews, according to industry professionals. A merchant may request a rate review from their independent sales organization to determine if other ISOs can offer the merchant better pricing on processing or payment technology. A merchant also may request a review to negotiate a better rate with its existing provider. "The requests for rate reviews have increased in the past year," says Jimmy Shin, executive vice president at Applied Merchant Systems Inc., a Chicago-based ISO. Competing ISOs frequently solicit merchants, he adds. To improve customer service and better address merchants' financial concerns, many ISOs are requesting pricing data, says Michael Cottrell, vice president of business development for TriSource Solutions LLC, a Davenport, Iowa-based merchant-processing company. Many more ISOs with which TriSource works are requesting merchant pricing data. "There are more attempts [from ISOs] to be proactive and interact with their merchants," says Cottrell.
