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If your business touches Bitcoin in any way, there's a good chance you've been declined by a payment processor. Or worse: approved by an aggregator like Stripe, Square, PayPal, or QuickBooks, only to have your funds held or your account shut down without warning. We've heard dozens of these stories from merchants on every one of those platforms.

While instant setup via Stripe or Square is fine for a coffee shop, businesses near a "restricted" industry risk sudden, devastating account freezes unless they secure a dedicated merchant account approved upfront.

Here's something most payment companies won't tell you: we sell both. Polaris Payments is an authorized Square reseller, and we also set up traditional merchant accounts through direct processor relationships we've built over 16 years. Because we sell both, we're not stuck recommending whatever we happen to offer. We can put you on the setup that actually fits, so you're not switching processors again in six months.

For years, choosing a credit card processing partner has felt like a compromise. Big tech companies offer slick software but leave you to struggle through setup alone. Traditional providers offer a local contact but stick you with outdated hardware. Business owners shouldn’t have to choose between world-class technology and a real human in your corner. Now, you don’t have to.

Our investment in security isn’t just about protecting transactions—it’s about forging a lasting partnership built on trust and reliability. Part of trust is also transparency, so we want to give you an overview about our practices at Polaris. 

We all want transactions to hit that sweet spot where speed meets supreme security—it’s here, now, with Tap to Pay technology.

Could AI help small business owners and payments? If so, how so? I was puzzling over these questions, so I asked an AI! But first….

Choosing a payment processing solution for online payments is one of the most critical decisions you can make for your business. Enter Stripe: one of the most popular payment gateways in the market today. Let's review Stripe and look at the pros and cons of using the popular payment gateway.

Ever felt bogged down by those high B2B transaction fees and seemingly never-ending processing times? Well, there might be a silver lining you haven't discovered yet: Level 3 processing.

If your business sells goods or services to other merchants, you may be eligible for discounted rates on some credit cards.

Follow these tips to maximize your return, and minimize stress this tax season!

To ensure the success of your business, the best thing you can do is to invest in customer service. Customer service plays an important role in purchase decisions, and we must consider our interactions with customers carefully. 

Polaris Payments has recently joined One Percent for the Planet and EnviroStars in Washington state.

Rolling out in the coming months, your customers may no longer be asked to sign for credit card transactions.

We learned last year that Amazon had filed for a patent that would allow users to take a selfie as a way to validate their identity in credit card payments. We really enjoyed this article from Bloomberg, where Apple's iPhone X is taking facial recognition technology to the mainstream stage.

At Polaris, we often find new and innovative ways to make cashless payments an interesting topic. Samaritan is just that - an app that allows citygoers to give cashlessly to individuals experiencing homelessness.

Chargebacks can erupt into a huge hassle for any business that accepts credit cards.

Here at Polaris, we are strongly committed to giving back to the community and helping nonprofit organizations.

Here at Polaris we don't usually get too excited about fashion, but this ring might be an exception. Now available for preorder, Visa's NFC ring employs similar technology to the Apple Watch to make credit card payments as easy as a flick of the wrist.

We love using ApplePay to buy groceries and coffee. Since our phones are already in our hands, it makes for a quick, convenient transcation that’s secured brilliantly by fingerprint identification.

Around the world, cash is giving way to credit cards. Parishioners text tithes to their churches. Homeless street vendors carry mobile credit-card readers.

You've probably read the headlines. From Home Depot to P.F. Chang's, and many others, card data breaches have almost become commonplace. I know I've experienced it firsthand.

Debit cards are different. And fraud is on the rise.

What if you had one card in place of several credit and debit cards? If this were Lord of the Rings, the phrase comes to mind “one card to rule them all”.

Bitcoin, the digital currency (that we've written about before) may have hit another snag in the road for those with dreams of seeing it as a popular/widely used currency.

We are excited to announce the opening of a new Nashville Tennessee office!

Don’t ever get lax. Don’t ever stop focusing on security. Even for one of the largest retail establishments in the U.S., data can be compromised.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's an Amazon drone delivering your package!

Cyber Monday - the first Monday back at work after the Thansgiving Holiday, was first started as a gimmick to boost online sales back in 2005. It turned out to really stick! Check out the below infographic (courtesy of the folks at HSN).

As a merchant, you want to offer a wide range of payment options to make it as quick and easy as possible for your customer to buy your products.

Authorize.net is making it easy to accept and mange payments with your smartphone.

If you’re interested in monetary economics, you’ll have heard of Bitcoin. So how will Bitcoin change your business? At this point, in my opinion not much at all.

This is one of the top questions we get from clients, and it’s a tricky one: Should a business accept American Express cards? It's not a simple yes or no. Here's a breakdown to help you decide.

We all know local businesses face high states when it comes to online reviews. In 2011, a Harvard study concluded that a one-star increase in Yelp reviews of Seattle restaurants led to a 5-9% growth in revenue.

Your credit card processor is an important part of business, and you need to make sure you choose a company that's worthy of your trust. In the merchant services industry, it is very common for processors to abuse and mislead business owners with bait-and-switch rates, hidden fees, and false advertising.

If you're a business owner, you've probably come across the phrase “PCI Compliance.” My clients are frequently asking about PCI Compliance – what it is and why it's important to them.

In the spring of 2011, when my wife and I first moved to Tacoma, we found a fantastic little hole-in-the-wall soup shop.

Since 2020, the U.S. dollar has lost roughly 20% of its purchasing power. Your business cash reserves are quietly shrinking. Here's how automated Bitcoin treasury can help — and how Flash and Polaris Payments are making it practical.