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1. twice the rates? That's outrageous. You do know it's SOP to regularly get quotes for your merchant account? First data will match those quotes. Think of their (typically) annual rate increases as motivation to do your job and get the quotes.

2. Read your contract. First Data (and every other processor I've ever dealt with) gives 30-days to withdrawl from the contract when they send their notice of rate increase.

3. Did you look over the interchange matrix first data gave you? It's pretty clear on what you need to submit to receive the qualified rate.

4. Authnet gateway? I like their gateway too... but it's an added and unnecessary expense. First Data has a gateway that you can get them to include for free (although you will have to do your job and negotiate for it).

5. authnet CIM? For a few thousand dollars in hardware, you can store the card data yourself... unless you're dealing with a small number of transactions, you're going to have to do this anyway.

Yes, I know dealing with credit card processing is a pain.. but the above? You're just tossing money out the window.