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

From Ready Set Exec: The Podcast by Ready Set Exec Inc.

May 1, 2026 · 48 min · Season 1 · Episode 27

About this episode

Joe Zahaitis discusses how businesses can choose the right payment processor and avoid overcharging.

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 story 5:17 - Why payments are taken for granted (and why…

People in this episode

Guest: Joe Zahaitis

Topics covered

payment processing
business revenue
vendor relationships
predatory pricing
crypto payments
merchant services

Keywords

payment processor
business revenue
vetting
predatory pricing
crypto
chargebacks
vendor relationship

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bank of America Merchant Services, SPS Payment Systems, Bank Card International Group, Manirpay, Ready Set Exec Inc.