There are a lot of threads about this. I don't use accepting credit cards as a marketing tool mainly because I feel like accepting credit cards should be standard for any company.

What I do use for marketing is the ability to offer one year no interest payments all the way up to 7 years.

 

I agree that accepting credit cards is pretty much standard practice today. A company that doesn't may be losing business.

 

I just started accepting credit cards last week. I'm with Bam that it's not marketing as it probably won't attract new customers. It may, however, allow you to upsell as some people might want to spend a little more if they are getting air miles or have more time to pay it off.

I'm going with a 2% discount for cash or check. My main reasons for going with cc's is that I work with a lot of second home owners who aren't in the state which makes progress payments slow and I also perform some one day projects where I'd like to write the invoice, swipe the card and be done.

 

That sounds like you have a relationship with whoever you do card business with or are card companies that lax now days trying to make up for some loss?

 

I accept CCs via my phone, used Square Up. I may use it twice a month, as some people want to pay via CC.

I had someone pay me with a CC, and as I was running it through my phone, they were online on their phone paying off the balance. As soon as my transaction went through, they paid the CC the same amount.

I suppose they do this to build up points, but not pay ungodly interest rates.

 

I just started using SquareUp. I had an issue the first week so I started searching online because they don't have a phone number.

I discovered the reviews people were writing and they were horrible. I'm canceling this tonight and going back to my old system.

But yeah, you can market it. I certainly do. Depending on the type of business you have it can be a great way to increase revenue.

I wouldn't say it's a major component of revenue but people are addicted to credit cards.

 

I just started using SquareUp. I had an issue the first week so I started searching online because they don't have a phone number.

I discovered the reviews people were writing and they were horrible. I'm canceling this tonight and going back to my old system.
.

Get Intuit Go Payments. USA phone support. This is their business.

 

Ive been accepting cc for 7 years. Most of the jobs we do are 7-12k. We don't do cc same as cash but charge a 2% premium for the card. and only accept master, visa, discover. I think do a 2% premium is the same as a 2% discount for cash.
We get lots of job deposits this way 2-3 a week and than there is the ecommerce site which is 90% cc. Its best to negotiate you cost with the cc proccessors the best you can otherwise for sure they will shark you out of your money. We pay 1.75% flat rate, period.

 

That violates more agreements with CC companies, read your terms of use.

You can, however, give everyone 2% off unless they pay via CC.

 

The Pay Pal thing is simple Simon

 

don't care about terms, bs, whatever as i see it 1/2 empty 1/2 full

 

I start accepting cc over 2 years ago with PayPal and switch to Accept Pay. All online, e commerce. At the beginning was great 2.2% , but then they keep charging more and more, last month I ended up paying $165 for $4400. That is 3.7%. When I called, they said because the credit cards were high reward cards, they had to charge me more..there is no way knowing if the customer using high reward card or not. Even there is no way knowing if it was a high reward card.:whistling
So I got it enough, I am in the market to find simple flat rate CC processing co. Recommendations welcome..
No leaders though after seeing these reviews..Yelp

 

We regularily do 90k a month on cc during season mar-sep, 40 k a month the rest of the time, i pay a flat rate of 1.75% with no fees. Been offered 1.5%. Biggest problems i see and had my banker sit @ my desk, and say "there sure are a lot of missed opportunities here", when reviewing my deal with the current guy. See the thing is they all look @ you as a target for their avarice. The most they are paying in points is 1% back, and charging people insane rates if you don't pay off monthly. Which is where they really make their money. Google does 2% if you have over 100k a month.

 

This is a tremendous help! Credit cards seem to be a good thing but shop around for rates before you commit?

 

Giving the customers more ways to pay you is a good thing. Cash, checks, credit & debit cards, PayPal, trade for chickens..........

 

If only i could get people to pay me in gum.

 

Thanks everyone for your advice its been extremely helpful and my questions have been answered

 

Glad to help. My fee for this service is $79. Would you like to pay with cash, check, or credit card? :laughing:

 

I agree. Paypal is so easy to use, why not set it up and accept them. I have found the standard for most processing is 2-3%. We charge our clients for this fee, and most either don't care, or don't mind then writing a check instead. Another pretty good method is google checkout. I also had a customer of mine tell me gopay worked really well and he said he used for his business, I believe his one lets you actually swipe someones card on your phone. Hope this helps.

 

So how do you get paid with PayPal when it's just you, your customer and a smart phone?

 

Paypal has a mobile card reader. https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/credit-card-reader

my understanding with paypal is: the money won't post to your account for 2 weeks? We use a cc service at the store, pay a flat fee of 1.75%, get the money in 3 days.
Google was set up with my website, @ 2% but than they said you had to do 100k a month to qualify for 2 % otherwise it was 3-4%

With Paypal the money first goes into your paypal account and then you transfer it into your bank account. From payment to bank account it's been taking about 2 days for me but, as with all banks, they say that it can take up to 2 weeks in the fine print.

My issue at this point is that I haven't been able to find a way to limit my risk on chargebacks for large transactions. If a customer pays a $10k deposit and then cancels the transaction with their cc company after I have purchased the materials, I'm in trouble. I could take out a line-of-credit for insurance but it seems like a lot of risk for limited reward.

I never had these worries when I had a retail operation because a $1k-$2k chargeback wouldn't drain my account while I worked with the cc company.

 

You just email them the invoice, which you could do on your phone, they then click pay now in the email they get, enter their info and that's it. Then the money gets transferred into your bank account, after you set it up. They may even have some way of physically swiping a customers card by now, but I am not sure.

 

You just email them the invoice, .......

By the time you do that, I'm done with my entire Square transaction and pulling out the drive. You still have yet to get paid.

 

We don't normally accept credit cards as it isn't part of our business model. However, we have used PayPal once and it worked just liked Rhodes said. Very easy. They also have a USB swiping device that can be used with your computer.

We've also used Square twice and it was easy enough. I had to manually key in the numbers as the device isn't compatible with our smart [sic] phone. We received our money quickly and the receipts were automatically emailed to the customer. (local municipality)

 

my understanding with paypal is: the money won't post to your account for 2 weeks? We use a cc service at the store, pay a flat fee of 1.75%, get the money in 3 days.
Google was set up with my website, @ 2% but than they said you had to do 100k a month to qualify for 2 % otherwise it was 3-4%

 

I always find it interesting that if I tell a guy to raise his prices to make more, he can't seem to wrap his mind around it, but he can seem to raise prices to be an unpaid salesperson for the bank (CC's)...

You are bringing THEM money... they are getting LOTS of interest on top of it to boot, why are they not paying YOU 2-3%?... they've got you convinced to advertise for them and push their product for free...

 

I used my Square today for only the second time. First time I got the card info over the phone and processed it, a higher % for doing it this way, worked fine. Today I swiped the card in front of the customer and then had him use his finger to sign. Lower % doing it this way, 2.75%. Before I walked out of the house I had an email from Square saying I had used it to accept a card. Money should be in my account tomorrow.

Square was very easy to use.

 

Yes, it was very easy for them to get 2.75% of YOUR gross sale without having to lift a finger...

 

If the 2 week transfer is a problem for you, maybe consider google checkout. It does not require you to do the transfer, it automatically does it. We normally have the money in our account 2-3 days later. Hope this helps.

 

KAP, I understand that you are dead set against cc's. I've read it in other posts as well. I'd like to address the other side of the issue.

I have previous experience in a multi-million dollar retail business so my perspective is a bit different. I agree that accepting cc's does cost you money if customer's are strictly using it as a convenience when they would have payed with a check. One benefit of accepting cc's is to offer added "value" in the customers eyes, either by allowing them more time to pay for the purchase or by allowing them to collect points of some kind. Sure, they could get a bank loan and the extra charge really negates the points but that is not that customer's perception. Perception is what matters.

The other benefit of offering credit cards is the ability to upsell. In my experience, you limit your sales by not accepting credit. I'd offer financing if I could but my sales aren't nearly high enough. If my customer has $10k cash for a bathroom but is really hankering for some details that will bump it up to $12k then cc's are an easy solution. They can pay off the extra $2k over a few months. They're happy and I just made an extra $700-$800 after fees.

I used to offer 5 year no-interest, no payments which cost me 16%! We made a killing on those sales because it was all high margin upsells. The customers were also pretty high income. It's not just deadbeats who want to defer payment. Deadbeats have a hard time getting credit lines.

I think offering credit is a decision every company needs to make based on THEIR sales style, product and customer. It's not for everyone.

 

Ethan, I get the other side... in your scenario, there is nothing stopping the customer from either taking a cash advance on their CC or writing a check off it (most CC's offer this)... no need for you to give up the money... Take the $10K in cash/check, and they will give you the other $2K on the back end when the job is done, unless you have customers who pay 100% upfront... no need for you to give up money to the bank just because the customer wants to...

But I do agree that every company needs to make their own decision, I am just pointing out how you can easily INCREASE your Gross and Net sale just by giving YOURSELF the 2-3% instead of the bank and also how easy it is to justify increasing your price to give it to the bank but for some reason not yourself...

Go figure... :blink:

 

We decided to go with our bank, Chase Paymentech. We enter the customers credit card info over the phone or on our Ipads in the field. Fixed 1.5% on Visa, Master Card, and Discover.

Our average sale has gone up about $150 since we signed on this past summer, and the best part is the money is direct deposited to my account within 3 days.

We also raised our prices 1% to offset the cost of accepting CC payments. It's been a great tool to help close more sales.

 

Been hashing around all the choices. My wife ordered the Cube yesterday.

 

It is very infrequent that someone requests to pay via Credit Card. However, when they do, we can easily handle that transaction via PaPal or Google Checkout. The fee is 2.9% of the transaction and the funds are transferred to my bank account within 2 business days. It is a convenience for my customer and that is why I offer it.

I like the convenience of using the credit card myself for both my personal and business purchases ( I have separate cards for each). Helps to track expenses and it is much simpler than hauling a checkbook around.

 

KAP ..... It's not really this 2-3% you keep throwing out. It's far less than that -unless every transaction is paid via cc-.

If I accept ten $500 transaction per year, that's less than $150 in fees. If I can't justify that piddly amount as a part of my CODB, I don't deserve to be in business.

 

KAP ..... It's not really this 2-3% you keep throwing out. It's far less than that -unless every transaction is paid via cc-.

The 2-3% is what others were quoting...

If I accept ten $500 transaction per year, that's less than $150 in fees. If I can't justify that piddly amount as a part of my CODB, I don't deserve to be in business.

Which is why I said if your transactions were $500 or less in post #35, it's easy to justify... what I am referring more to is people who deal in the thousands and would have to pay hundreds per swipe... insane IMHO... That's money that pays expenses like phone, electric, insurance, etc...

You yourself said that over a thousand, you accept checks...

It is your business and your money, you can give it to whomever you wish.

I wonder if I suggested ALSO raise your rates another 2-3%, for a total of 4-6% including the CC, would you do it? Can you justify it for YOU...

If THE qualifier in using your services is CC's, I would suggest you have more of a problem than convenience for a customer...

Find ways to EXTRACT profit from your business... you only have a limited amount of time to do so...

Best of luck... 8^)