Accepting credit cards

frans

TreeHouser
Joined
May 31, 2013
Messages
1,064
Over the years we have danced around the subject of accepting credit cards.
To date, the cost per transaction has been prohibitive.
Lately more and more clients mention how they don't write checks anymore.


Last I checked, the cost is still too high for the one or two transactions per month to make it worthwhile for my Business.
Is there anyone here who can educate me on this???
Thx
 
I'm not a businessman, nor am I in the tree business, but it doesn't seem to me credit cards bring much to the table in this case. IMO, for a businessman, a card's value is bringing a sale that would otherwise be lost. A quick stop in, an impulse buy, selling online... Something carefully considered and ordered like tree work... Well, they can get cash, or buy a money order from the post office. I don't think card acceptance is a determining factor.

I don't write checks. Aside from online, everything is cash, or for something like taxes, I get a money order.
 
On the other hand, some people need work done but don't have cash..... very interested. Maybe simply use pay pal and inflate costs to cover it?
 
We use Square in my x-ray business...I still encourage my customer's to pay with a check but our largest customer now pays via ACH....direct transfer to our bank....magic.

We HAD to accept to CC's to maintain our CDC accounts....we take care of several x-ray processors there. I do not add anything extra to their bills for using the CC...Square gets 3.75% of every sale.

When regular private practice customers (doctor's, med clinics, chiro's, etc.) ask to pay with a CC I tell them, "OK, but we add 4% to the total owed to cover the CC processing fee." They almost always go ahead and write a check. Lots of folks want to get a rebate back for using their CC's....my wife and I do that...get 1% rebate for all CC purchases. It adds up to several hundred dollars each year.

If you do decide to accept CC's don't go with Merchant Services or similar companies that specialize in CC's. They ate us alive for years until I realized they are scammers....annual "security fees", mystery "Data omission fees" (that no one could explain but they charged us from $3 to $35 per month for "omitted data"...although every transaction had ALL the data they insisted upon.

Use Square is my recommendation. I did have two cat rescues that insisted on paying with CC's...crazy. It was a hassle but the money came thru.
 
I'll process through a Jobber once in a blue moon. For the same customer mostly.

People can pay electronically through their bank, POPmoney pay other people money. The bank will mail you a check.


WA law allows you to add on fee if disclosed in advance. If they want to pay via credit card, add 5% to the bid, call it paid for and a bit more, no discussions needed. Last 4 cc payments, same guy.

Useful when storm damage leaves people unexpectedly needing to pay for emergency service until reimbursed by insurance, or not.


CC s allow someone to contract more services than they can afford to pay all up front.



So long as the customer ends up paying their cc fees, it's all good.
 
Of the six or so people who have ever asked me about CC pay all but one was after the rebate they could get. Tacked on % to cover costs should handle that most of the time. (Which I saw was made totally legal in CA or the US some time ago - I believe.) Obviously I'm not a big fan etc.

I had a retail store with a partner years ago and he was against credit cards at first. Changed his mind at one point and it doubled our yearly sales in pretty short order.
 
Here in Norway, it is a cashless society. I don’t think I have seen a check or owned a check book myself for a good few years now.

My invoice goes out, it has payment information and a payment date on it. Customer then just transfers the amount via their online banking.

We have an app as well called VIPs, you install in and set it up to a bank account. Then you just text the amount to the recipients phone number via the app. Job done.

I still use cash occasionally for small purchases but people look at you like you’re a weirdo.
 
Here in Norway, it is a cashless society. I don’t think I have seen a check or owned a check book myself for a good few years now.

My invoice goes out, it has payment information and a payment date on it. Customer then just transfers the amount via their online banking.

We have an app as well called VIPs, you install in and set it up to a bank account. Then you just text the amount to the recipients phone number via the app. Job done.

I still use cash occasionally for small purchases but people look at you like you’re a weirdo.
I don’t like the sound of that!
 
I don’t like the sound of that!

I don’t like it. Just feels plain wrong to me but I am getting used to it.

More than once, I have tried to pay in a shop with cash to be greeted with a look of ‘WTF do you expect me to do with that?’.

On a related note. Most populated places in the UK have plenty of cash machines. There are hardly any in Oslo and I don’t recall seeing one the town I live. You can get cash back from supermarkets or fuel stations. Again, it leads to less cash in hands.

You even buy coffee from a vending machine with your mobile or wireless card. There is an app for everything it seems.
 
We accept CC's all the time... sucks it's like 3-4% but it's a business cost. People want to use apps to pay me and I look ag them with that Atari look on my face.... already feel obliging accepting CC's.
 
Buddy of mine introduced me to Cash App for my phone, but it is not used by all the banks yet. It's more a peer to peer transfer with no fees. I don't particularly care for the program as it is vague on how to switch payment points. Like if I transfer from an account or a card, I should be promted to choose. But it's there if you dig in, just not apparent. So I sent a payment from the wrong account once. Damn good thing I had money enough in it. Had to get a deposit in straight away to cover my arse otherwise.
Nice that it t is fast with no fees though.
We are kind of like you Mick. Mostly checks. Rural as we are, that's pretty standard.
 
With the VIPs payment, I only use it for personal stuff not business. I know the personal transfers are free. Or at least I assume so as I have never been charged to receive money from friends or whenI transfer to them.

I would have thought the business edition would have charges. Someone will want to be paid along the line. Similar to PayPal I guess.

I suppose it costs money to process cash.

I was thinking about this last night. I havent handled cash in a long while.

I go to work and earn digital credits, get a coffee on the way, pay with digital credits. Customer transfers digital credits to the number on the bottom of the invoice. Digital credits built up in a bank account, every month a portion of the digital credits gets paid to my personal bank account.

I pay my mortgage and bills in a similar way, digital credit transfer via mobile or wireless bank card.

Definitely a strange thing and how times have changed. The whole process of earning and living without the actual handling of cash. It is like something from a scifi movie.

Just hope they don’t change from bog roll to the shells, like in Demolition man. ;)
 
I try to stay with checks as much as possible, but I can take cards with my Jobber account. I do add 3% on bigger jobs.

I find I get paid faster some times than I did before I accepted cards. I've had several people that basically just don't do checks anymore. The times they are a changing...
 
I've been using Square for years now. We only get a few credit card payments per month but some customers prefer to use them for the points. It's less than 3%, the entire transaction takes about half a minute on my phone, and funds are deposited into my account the next day. EZPZ
 
Funny how people don't mind so much if a cc charge is built in, unbeknownst to them, but if given the chance and info that they will pay a processing fee, they opt for other methods, rather than pay more. Suddenly, CCs aren't free with free 'points' door 'miles'.


A good question is when do people spend more when paying with CCs.
 
I've got a couple of $5K+ jobs lined up over the next few months, and all were glad to hear I take CCs. When I mention that sales tax is included, some will cut it down to a half/third paid that way, and the rest cash. The couple hundred a year it costs is baked into my biz plan anyway (and the service I use, Clover, takes other methods including Apple and Google pay).
 
They didn’t want to count out fifty plus Bennies?😁

(Is the sales tax a local or state thing? No sales tax on services here.)
 
Back
Top