Credit Card Payments

Anyone here accept credit card payments and want to share what service they use?<p>

Also, do you just use if for prints and products? Or do you let your clients pay for weddings, retainers,

and other photo shoots/services with a credit card?

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I don't think I'm really doing enough business to warrant a merchant account, so I've kind of ruled that

out, but open to what others say.<p>

What about paypal virtual terminal or something else like that?<p>

I know some people think negatively about paypal, but I think that's the minority. It's used by so many

bigger online places now.

I use Card Service Intl & accept Visa, Mastercard & Discover. I used to do American Express but I dropped it because I only had 1 sale in 2 years. Alot of people are using debit cards & it works out well to be able to accept them.

We have used PayPal with overall positive results.

 

We now also have a merchant account with NOVA, which has proven to be much more secure.

Great customer service, too!

I am not sure where you are from but here in the Louisville, Kentucky area you can rent to own a credit card machine from Heartland Payment Systems and it will pay for itself in no time.

Your clients are more likely to spend more money when they can put everything on credit as well. You can get rates down to around 2% to 3% I believe. So if you are getting clients pay for $1000 they get $20-$30 and you get the rest of the money. Check around your area.

I also use paypal. It's super easy and I haven't had any problems yet. :) I think the veiw of paypal is changing because you an use whatever card you want now, and you don't have to have a paypal account. Since I signed up every person who has ordered any prints onine has used a credit card.

I rarely have a need to accept credit cards, but have used PayPal successfully in the past (I also do this part time). If you're going to be accepting cards on a regular basis you might want to invest in a machine of some sort to look more professional.

There is some concern that if you take a credit card for a retainer. If your couple decides they no longer wish to have you as their wedding photographer, they can get a charge back and you would be out your retainer.

But wouldn't you make it clear that retainers are non-refundable. I guess that doesn't prevent them from doing a charge back.

I also recommend using Paypal (and their virtual terminal is great). You don't pay for it when

you don't use it, its cheaper than all merchant accounts I've found, and its easy to integrate

into your site. If you have a contract stating that the retainer is not refundable, I doubt a

credit card company would (or Paypal) would grant a chargeback.

I've found that PP is competitive in terms of overall cost compared to a low volume merchant account.