Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
0
What credit card services do you accept?
Currently I do not accept any credit/debit cards at my company, but I am planning on setting up a system within the next couple of months. I have a small interior design organization and am wondering what credit card services should I accept? I've heard American Express can be expensive for small businesses, but does it look bad if you only accept certain cards? What do you think would be in my best interest?
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
Related Activity
4 Answers
It is relatively easy to sign up with a payment provider that will allow you to accept all credit cards.
For small volumes, go with Google (payers have to have a Google account).
For larger volumes go with a provider such as Sagepay, or drop a line to Mocharge, a small startup, who would give you a good service. Contact hans@mocharge.com.
Get a "real" merchant account--not the PayPal or Google type solutions. Try Merchant Warehouse--they seem to be as cheap as anyone who offers "real" solutions. You will need to buy a credit card terminal and ongoing it will cost you about $40/month* if you only process one or two (or no) credit card transactions... That's the maintenance fees and minimum processing fees. Once you process over a certain dollar amount, the $25 "minimum" processing fee will go up, but only as your credit card sales go up. They will also charge you an annual fee for handling your PCI compliance for you and it is about $75 (maybe less).
*If you need a "wireless" cc terminal (you go to your client's home, no?) then you'll pay a little more for the terminal and for the wireless option. This allows you to "swipe" the customer's card, get authorization, etc. without having to use a phone line.
Go for Visa, Mastercard and Discover. If you sell interior design services, it is highly unlikely that your customers only have AmEx cards... As long as you tell them up front which cards you accept, no one thinks anything of your not taking AmEx cards. AmEx will cost you more--it adds about $8.00 in monthly fees and their transaction processing fees are much higher.
We take credit cards even though we only process a few each month. However, the cost of having "collection" issues on even one bill would far exceed the cost of having to pay those monthly merchant account fees. I'd think as an interior designer this would be more of an issue for you than for us (our customers are businesses rather than consumers).
are you swiping the cards? If not go to your bank. I use PNC and get next day funding. You have to take Amex, those customers studies show spend more money.
You have two types you can purchase:
3rd party - like google, paypal or 2check out (and others)
Merchant - Here you can check with your local bank, Costco, SamsClub and usually there are payment or merchant account business owners in your area that could help you.
Online I use a 3rd party merchant and a shopping cart.
Answer This Question