Credit cards?

[Timothyjkent]

Do you take Credit cards?
If so, how do you deal with the extra fees?
Eat them?
Price higher and give discount for cash or check?

 

[blades]

currently eat the fees, got to change that as they have gotten out of hand. dosen't really matter which processing co you use, (gone through a couple) . I am not a big shop and take just for convenience for my customers. Generally has been running about $50/mo. kinda a killer when you only have one customer use a card for $55. So I think I will have to start a minimum amount for cards like $200. Base fees are billed every month so it would be about $25 /mo with no one useing a card. Debit cards cost you more than a regular charge card. The processing fees vary a little depending who issued the card. You could add 3.5% to a credit sale for card use. That would offset some of it. Some states have a rule that you can't charge more for credit card use. WI used to, not sure if it is still on the books. Raising prices and giving a cash discount is a double edged sword, here we have to charge sales tax on the full amount before discounts or sale pricing- that is a pain as well. Only reason I got into it was of some of my customers are/were corporate accounts, A lot of that has dropped off over the last few years.

 

[Timothyjkent]

I am in MA. One of 2 states (CT, MA) that forbid charging extra fees for credit card use. I can do the cash discount but agree it would be a pain in the ass.

 

[blades]

not to mention the $300 (min.)/year drain on profit weather or not you process a card.
I belong to a barter club as well ( was set up before I bought company) they charge $12/mo. Plus 10% of a sale/ purchase. Problem with these deals is you can only use the barter dollars at another barter member. and then it costs you 10% more than just a plain old cash sale. It can help drive some biz your way. If you want to leave it you lose the barter dollars you may have acrued.

 

[ATH]

@blades you need to explore other options for just a few transactions. Square, for example, has no monthly fees. I have a reader that I'll use maybe 4-5 times per year. It is 2.6% + 10¢ per swipe. NO other fees. So a $10 charge would cost $0.36. A $1,000 charge would cost $26.10.

Most of my customers using a card do so through Jobber. I email or text them an invoice and they pay online. I never see the card, number, etc...that's on Jobber to keep. Those fees are a little more - I am on their Connect plan so the cost is 2.9% for invoices paid online using a credit card+30¢ per transaction.

I just eat the fees...well really the clients do. I've bumped price a little to feed those fees.

 

[blades]

Sq has had problems with hackers and a lot pilshing. I do not do on line banking- again too many hacks. Nothings perfect. I prefer a company that I can actually talk to a human, and that the human has resources to accomplish corrections in A timely matter. (unlike ATT which is similar to a comode communication wise)

 

[northmanlogging]

Do you take Credit cards?
If so, how do you deal with the extra fees?
Eat them?
Price higher and give discount for cash or check?

Square, it works and is free to start, though it does charge a percentage on every sale, it at least isn't subscription based.
I will charge more for cards, cause generally if and when I do charge its got a comma in it, so that % takes a pretty big wet bite. More often then not they will cough up the cash.
If yer afraid of Square there are several other apps that work similarly, PayPal, Venmo etc, little harder to use though.
(note, 95% of my business is logging on % and log trucking, which the mills pay me out of the logs, the other 5% is dumb trucking/land clearing/road building, I've mostly gotten out of "tree work")