Credit Cards??

We have always been a cash or check business and are now looking at if it is a

good idea to offer credit cards.

 

Anyone have a positive experience? Costs seem to be all over the place. Did do

PayPal for a while but it took so long to get the charges credited that it got

hard to keep track of.

 

Thanks

Brooke

Larry: if you go with PayPal's premier account (rather than their simplest consumer-grade one), you'll see the funds immediately available. Likewise, they'll issue you a MC/Debit Card that can be used directly against the funds in the account, and which kicks 2% back into the account on purchases. You will give up 3% on payments, but that's actually fairly competitive, and you don't pay any monthly fees. It's not for everyone, but you can put together a click-to-pay online invoice for people in a matter of minutes, and people do not need to have PP accounts to just pull a credit card and pay you online. Haven't had a customer express any discomfort about it, and the money is always right there, immediately, where I can use it, or earn interest on it (currently, just over 5%). For what it's worth, I've never experienced any trouble with charge backs, locks, etc as some people report - mostly because I'm very careful to only request payments on invoices that I'm comfortable everyone involved will respect.

Brooke,

 

1. Get your own photo.net account. I'm not sure what name to call you by. ;)

 

2. We used PayPal for quite a while, and we had issues with them processing large sums

of money. Anything over $1000 was at risk for getting denied -- a HUGE pain for our

clients.

 

A few months ago we got a merchant account with NOVA, and it's been fantastic. It winds

up being about the same price as a PayPal Website Payments Pro account, but the funds

automatically go into our checking account and we receive better statements than PayPal

ever provided.

 

Also, with NOVA, we haven't had any trouble accepting payments for several thousand

dollars.

 

We only accept Visa and Mastercard, but you can add on AmEx and others if you like.

 

As to whether it's a good idea to offer credits cards: YES. Especially if you're working a

higher-end market. About 50% of our clients pay with a credit card - nearly 80% of our

retainers come in by credit card. I'm certain that the fees we pay are made up in higher

sales.

 

Just be sure you're running an ethical business. You open yourself up to possible

chargebacks by accepting credit cards, so your contract needs to be rock solid and your

product needs to be stellar. You don't want to get stuck with thousands of dollars charged

back on you because you didn't fulfill your end of the bargain.

I do have a credit card machine and a regular account through Bridgeview Bank. I set this up several years ago and really had no options. I think if I was doing the same thing today I would look into something web based. It was very expensive to lease the equipment ($40 a month) and then the monthly processing fee was 10.00. Then each individual charge was like 2.4% but I believe that percentage went up to 2.6%. If you do AMEX and Discover there is also a monthly charge for them I believe it was $10 for each or maybe $10 for both. I do not offer those since it wasn't worth it for me. Anyway look into all your options there do seem to be a lot out there right now. I know own my equipment or I never would keep paying all that.

I have been using NOva for over 12 years as well, it has been great