Accepting Credit Cards

[FJR]

For those of you that accept credit cards as a form of payment, how do you incorporate the percentage fee into the proposal/invoice? Do you put a disclaimer at the bottom saying that there will be a small fee added on if a credit card is used?

Last year I had a lot of clients ask if they could pay with credit cards, so I just got started with it for this year. I figure it can only increase revenue as long as the additional overhead is accounted for. With your guy's advice maybe I can bypass a few costly mistakes in how to implement it into the sale. I am all ears.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

http://www.merchantcouncil.org/merchant-account/operation/pass-fee-customer.php

Unverified info above. Article cites Visa, MC, AmEx, and Discover policies. Basically, price your jobs with a CC fee involved, and offer a cash price that will in effect reflect your desired price.

I have been curious about this, as I use PayPal as a CC processor for a flat, no obligation, charge of 3%. I only get asked about CC payments about 2-4 times per year.

I suspect that accepting CCs can help a lot during times of unexpected storm damage.

 

[FJR]

Thanks for that link Sean, that was very helpful. Offering a cash discount makes it feel less professorial to me. I guess ideally it would be great to know if the customer is going to pay with a cc before you even write a proposal, that way you can just include it the fee with no worry. But that isn't going to happened all the time.

 

[sotc]

Squareup! 2.5% and 15 cents a transaction. Going to use it today!

 

[FJR]

Have you used it a lot or is this the first time?

 

[sotc]

First time. No monthly fees, minimums, maximums, machine rentals etc

 

[Mr. Sir]

SquareUp looks pretty cool, let us know how that works out. I process CC payments through QuickBooks, it's about 1.75%. Never charged extra for credit cards, I think its illegal to do that. It's just a cost of doing business and is figured into the overhead expenses. If they pay by cash or check it's just a little extra gravy on top.

 

[SkwerI]

1.75-2% isn't a huge amount of money, even on a thousand dollar job. IMO an extra $20 expense on a thousand dollar job shouldn't make enough difference to worry about. If it does then your bid should have been $100 higher.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Orrrrrrrrr, at least twenty.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

SquareUp looks pretty cool, let us know how that works out. I process CC payments through QuickBooks, it's about 1.75%. Never charged extra for credit cards, I think its illegal to do that. It's just a cost of doing business and is figured into the overhead expenses. If they pay by cah or check it's just a little extra gravy on top.

Yes, it sounds to be illegal to charge extra (violation of agreement with CC company), technically.

What percentage of your customers pay by CC?



Good rates, Willie. Let us know how easy it is.

 

[tophopper]

When I accepted CCs, I made the client pay the fee additional to the invoice amount. Why should I pay a fee due to their choice of payment?

 

[SouthSoundTree]

No kidding. If they want their "points" or to have something before they can afford it, they should be the ones to foot the bill, not every customer, or the business owner eating it.

 

[sotc]

Twas easy, its in my square account, hopefuly in my bank account tomorrow

 

[Burnham]

I'm not a business owner, so y'all can ignore my comments without concern ...but never forget you are in a service industry, and the guy who offers the best service usually wins. Making payment options available is a service, a value added to the work you have contracted to perform.

I think if I were running an arb show, I'd price everything to include the use of plastic...just like my favorite restaurant or harware store does. If cash or check comes in, fine.

Unlike a check, the CC will never bounce, well, nearly never. And you have payment in your account now, pretty much...no chasing a guy who is away when you finish up, or says he'll put it in the mail "tomorrow".

 

[tophopper]

So what you're saying Burn..... is, you too, would pass that fee onto your client.

 

[Burnham]

Yep. But I wouldn't price differently, I'd price every job to include that cost of doing business...client decides how they want to pay, not me. Capise?

 

[squisher]

Interesting. I don't currently take credit or debit. But I may have to look into it I suppose. I do pride myself on offering unparalleled service.

 

[okietreedude]

I offered takeing them for about 2 yrs. and used quickbooks as my processor. they wanted 30/month whether i took a card or not. after only taking 2 cards in the same 2 yr span, i dropped it. The other major competitor in town advertises they take them, let them have 'em. every now/then, i get sales calls wanting to sign me up for a merchant service, but i explain the situation - im not paying for something im not using, if its not free, its not for me. they usually hang up on me. while i slide my plastic all over, if a customer doesnt have the money, they shouldnt be getting thier trees worked on. I understand the whole storm damage thing, thats why i got into taking them. fortunatly, we dont have enough storm work to keep it up long term.

 

[okietreedude]

if someone just HAS to, i do have a paypal acct that i can use.

 

[Paul B]

Most computer stores around here have one price, the discount of 3% is if you pay cash or debit Dont charge a fee for extra, give a discount for the lack of fee type payment. I cant do squareup here, its no good in Canada yet but I have used Paypal a couple times for those that have insisted on credit card, as I dont get too many requests, I just sucked it up, on the amount of the invoice the fee and % was negligible and accounted for in the price

 

[Mr. Sir]

I also think it legitimizes you as a professional when you accept credit cards.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Damn straight.

 

[FJR]

I also think it legitimizes you as a professional when you accept credit cards.

I agree. Thanks for all of your advice guys.

 

[sotc]

Twas easy, its in my square account, hopefuly in my bank account tomorrow

Took 3 days to make it into my bank account

 

[flushcut]

Took 3 days to make it into my bank account

I am just subscribing to this thread. So would you say SquareUp is worth it or too soon to tell?