San Diego, California – In a recent announcement, AppStar Financial informed all their merchants that they can now accept American Express payments just as they accept payments through Visa, MasterCard and Discover. The program was automatically incorporated into AppStar’s comprehensive merchant services accounts with no need to fill out any additional paperwork for the OptBlue® program, nor is there any additional cost unless and until American Express transactions are processed by the vendor. No additional set up is required for existing merchants using AppStar’s program.

In the past, merchants would often have one merchant account that would handle Visa, MasterCard and Discover payments and a second merchant account at a higher rate to handle American Express transactions. Under the new American Express OptBlue® program, AppStar’s merchants will now enjoy one deposit and one statement instead of dealing with multiple deposits and statements, helping streamline the merchant’s accounting process. In addition, merchants be able to contact AppStar Financial with their customer service needs instead of going to American Express to resolve issues that arise during business operations.

AppStar chose to add the OptBlue® Program from American Express due to the host of unexpected benefits the program can deliver to AppStar Financial’s merchants:

The OptBlue® program is available to merchants bringing in under one million dollars of annual American Express sales revenue, opening up the payment process to many merchants who have found accepting payment through American Express to be too difficult or too costly in the past. Merchants are now able to accept American Express cards with the same ease and similar expense as other credit card brands while simplifying their accounts receivable process with one deposit, one statement, and one customer service contact for all card brands carried through AppStar. The merchants will be able to reach more customers and provide additional payment options, which they have not been able to do in the past, while at the same time driving customer satisfaction and increasing business. AppStar Financial is offering the OptBlue® program at a comparable cost to similar Visa or MasterCard card processing currently offered to its merchants, with rates tiered to transaction totals to help small business merchants save on operational costs.

It’s a whole new way to accept American Express and it provides great benefits for low-cost, high-quality merchant services for businesses. All AppStar Financial’s merchants have to do is take the first transaction! All rates & fees are set by AppStar Financial, correlated to American Express rates based on the actual amount of each transaction and the assessment of any additional American Express pass-thru fees. AMEX prepaid transactions will be processed at the same AMEX Discount Rate.

Founded in 2002, AppStar Financial is an industry leader in the electronic payments sector, providing the highest quality payment processing services and solutions for merchants. It is a Better Business Bureau A+ Accredited Business and is based out of San Diego. The BBB has rated AppStar Financial as an A+ Acredited Merchant.