Joe Zahaitis: How to choose your payment processor for your business | Ready Set Exec

Most businesses hand over 90–95% of their revenue stream to a payment processor they've never properly vetted, and that processor is counting on you never looking too closely at the bill. Joe Zahaitis has spent 32 years in payments working for Bank of America Merchant Services, SPS Payment Systems, and now Bank Card International Group and Manirpay. He's seen every trick in the book.In this episode, we get into the one formula that exposes if your processor is overcharging you, how predatory pricing creeps in when you're not watching, why crypto could eliminate chargebacks, and how to finally build a relationship with your vendor instead of just chasing the lowest price.About Ready Set Exec: Founded by Managing Partners Patrick Shea and John Pezoulas, Ready Set Exec is a premier North American executive leadership recruitment firm specializing in Sales, Marketing, Human Resources, and Operations. We replace hiring chaos with a repeatable process, boasting an average time-to-hire of 39 days and a 100% placement success rate.Chapters: 0:00 - Intro: Who is Joe Zahaitis?0:52 - How Joe got into payments, the Sears interview story5:17 - Why payments are taken for granted (and why that costs you money)5:47 - What to look for beyond just price in a payment processor8:13 - How to vet your merchant services provider properly11:23 - Predatory pricing: how to spot if your processor is ripping you off13:57 - High-risk industries and what that means for your business17:37 - Crypto, stablecoins, and why there's no chargeback on digital assets19:37 - Friendly fraud, consumer abuse, and the chargeback war23:21 - Subscription scams, auto-renewals, and the trap that survives card changes29:04 - Best practices for any merchant, regardless of budget32:07 - How to minimize chargebacks (the right way)38:11 - Rate creep, contract rolls, and the cash discount debate47:25 - Customer segmentation: your A, B, C, and D clientsConnect with Ready Set Exec:John Pezoulas LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnpezoulas/Patrick Shea LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-jm-shea/Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ReadySetExecListen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6clqPWbF2yFRlsFUOXY0CO?si=UuOAbZeiQMKpgSjV5Od5_gListen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ready-set-exec-the-podcast/id1837951413Connect with Joe Zahaitis:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joezahaitis/#MerchantServices #PaymentProcessing #Ecommerce #Chargebacks #BusinessGrowth#SmallBusiness #CryptoPayments #SubscriptionTrap #BusinessPodcast #Podcast2026#HighRiskPayments #PaymentFraud #EcommerceStrategy #FounderMindset #Entrepreneur