NEW YORK— Advertising dogma of a few years ago aside, when it comes to processing credit-card and charge-card accounts, hoteliers may find they don’t necessarily have a friend at the bank. As noted by Arthur Bergman, president, Continental Card Services/MCCS – Nationwide LLC, hoteliers are likely to lose hundreds— if not thousands— of dollars each month to exorbitant and, on occasion, unnecessary charges and fees for the most part simply because “they’re never really sure exactly what it’s costing them to process their credit-card sales.” According to Bergman, “While calculations [pertaining to the establishment and imposition of processing fees]vary, definitions of the calculations of those charges— and the corresponding education of the merchant— are perhaps the most important factors determining the card-accepting merchant’s understanding, appreciation, and, to an extent, control of the account-processing rate they’re charged.” As the Hackensack, NJ business executive further noted, it is ostensibly “the responsibility of the sales representative of the individual processing bank to educate the merchant on bank-card rules and regulations.” However, it was suggested that because the full scope of such information has historically been extremely difficult to determine, merchants in all walks of business often financially penalize themselves by their own card-information-entry actions and/or inactions. Transaction Costs In terms of transaction costs, Bergman also indicated “when” and “how” one posts credit- and charge-card data can sometimes be equally as relevant as “what” that data is, or to “which” card the transaction is charged. It can be overly simplistic to think that certain credit- and charge-card entities openly levying a higher processing fee on transactions are uniformly the most cost-prohibitive. As Bergman explained: “The big thing to consider is not the name and/or affiliation of the card in question, but rather the bank that will be processing [the merchant’s]accounts.” As such, he noted American Express and Diners Club are widely recognized as being among those cards charging merchants higher processing rates. Instead, these two cards define their actual rate structure, and accompanying fees, if any, much more clearly than do the purveyors of bank cards. Conversely, Bergman said bank cards can sometimes equal or surpass these non-bank-card rates if not calculated properly. Bergman shed some light on what, to many hoteliers, is one of the murkier areas of the accounts payable/accounts receivable part of their business, noting both of the aforementioned cards pay the participating merchant individually— as does Discover— while implementing a “one-rate-per-merchant structure, based on the [size of the]average ticket.” (He noted Discover also tacks on an eight-cents-per-transaction fee over and above it’s levied percentage rate.) However, processing fees for these cards pretty much end here. As Bergman pointed out, the aforementioned cards do not impose a statement fee, a monthly minimum fee, an annual fee or a cancellation fee. On the other hand, bank-card rates, in general, are often more palatable than those of what have come to be called T&E (travel and entertainment) cards. There are significant differences when it comes to those individual institutions processing bank cards, Bergman said. Granted, while processing banks may add “authorization” and “dial-out” fees (ranging between 5 cents and 35 cents) to the percentages in place via non-bank cards when data is entered through a multi-card terminal or reader, the overall rate structure is more wide ranging when it’s a bank card being processed. “While processing banks may well impact non-bank cards,” Bergman said, “their impact is far greater and more direct upon bank cards where they not only process the transaction, but are also the ones paying the merchant.” The result, as he noted, is a wider menu of rates often accompanied by a litany o