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[mizgemini]

[/b hello everybody,
i have a question that i know i will get the most honest answers and the best advice from you all.

lately, i have had a lot of customers wanting to pay for their purchases with a debit, credit, or check card but i am not equipped with a cc machine. how many of you use cc machines and if so, do u have a relatively good rate? i  am seriously comtemplating getting one for the sake of convience for one thing...any advise is welcomed and thanks in advance
sheila

[binki]

We use the vendor from Sam's Club, First Data.

Beware though, All CC processors are scum. It is one big ripoff.

Paypal is an option at $30/mo plus 2% per transaction. Kind of steep on the per transaction charge.

Here is what you should look for.

Statement fee: This is a monthly fee
Closing fee: This is a daily fee
Transaction fee: This is a flat per/trans fee plus a %
Cancellation Fee: If you stop service withing 3 years (normal) expect to pay anywhere from $100 to $400 to cut your service.
Other Fees: Look out on this one, anything out of the ordinary will yield a charge.

Finally, if you buy a machine it is much cheaper than leasing it. Expect a couple hundred to a couple thousand depending on the machine.

PCI compliance: You need to do a self assessment and then be subject to a quarterly challenge to prove your system is secure.

Now, you can negotiate your fees if you have competitive bids. You can also do this during your contract if you have a competitive bid later on.

Check with your bank. See if they have a merchant service. If not, check out Sam's Club, Costco and Global Processing.

Beware once you get a service. You will get called daily by scammers trying to switch your service. They will pretend they are your service provider but they are not. Your provider will not call you. If they do, tell them you will call back and call your service provider number and verify that they called.

Good luck, don't be afraid. It is pretty easy, just a little involved to get started.

[greeneyeddi]

   If you are only going to process occasional transactions, or would like to be able to process them on the road, and you have an iPhone, iPad, or Android, you may want to check out www.squareup.com --- I have heard some very positive reports about them.
             HTH!
               Di

[jazzygirl]

I was exactly in your shoes a few years back. Be very careful of some of the cc companies.
The one I used for two years had a low monthly rate of $7 a month even if I didn't use the card. It was NOT a wireless unit so there was a chance of getting a bad card. I only used my machine 5 or 6 times a year at craft shows and school carnivals and never had got a bad card.
I loved the low monthly rate, but one day I got a $149 charge on my account without any notice. When I called they told me it was for PCI. At that point I only had accoount for about 6 months and they removed the charge after I complained.
Well... The next year came around and the $149 charge hit my account again and the refused to remove or charge me a lower PCI amount. 
I called my bank, BANK OF AMERICA and told them what happen and basically got my money back.
At that point I started reseaching cc processing again.
I finally went with my bank. If you can't trust your bank who can you trust..LOL
Because Im what they call a "seasonal" user I was able to negotiate a little bit

I do pay $15 a month. No matter if I use the machine or not.
My new machine is wireless so there is no chance or worry of getting a bad card.
The batch process is only 2 steps and money is in my account in 24 hours.
My PCI fee is only $49 once a year
I am paying more a month but I'm happy with who is handling my CC and that's peace of mind so it's worth it.

I know I went on and on and on..LOL
I think it would definitely benefit your business having a cc unit. Lots of people don't carry cash these days so you don't want to loose sales not having one. 
Just ask around and use your best judgement.

Hope this help.
 

[binki]

We got a competitive bid from our bank and sam's matched it.

No statement fees, No closing fees, 1.6% per tran and 10c. that is pretty much it.

[mizgemini]

thank you all so much! u have given me much valuable insight. i will check with my bank/credit union to see if they merchant services. i also use quickbooks simple start and they do have a merchant service available. i think it is about 15.00 bucks a month. jazzy girl, you are so right about losing sales without the machine available. i don't carry much cash so i understand that position totally. AS ALWAYS, YOU GUYS ALWAYS STEP UP TO THE PLATE WHEN AND AS NEEDED! THANK U ALL!.

BTW, HAVEN'T BEEN AROUND MUCH, BUT I HAVE TRIED TO AT LEAST POP MY HEAD IN AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK IF POSSIBLE. I LOVE THIS PLACE BUT SINCE I HAVE ADDED EMBROIDERY TO MY BUSINESS LINE UP, IT HAS KEPT ME BUSY WITH JOBS AND LEARNING THE PROCESS TO IT'S FULLEST POTENTIAL. LOL!

[gprockhill]

A customer of mine who has a nail shop told me that she uses her IPhone with a cc attachment to process cards. She said the fee's and transaction costs were not bad. I do not have any direct experience but am considering this as an option for when I do my mobile shipping services. While she referred to Iphones, my guess is that this option may be available through other smartphones. Intuit, might also be worth a review...in fact, I am wondering if they are not the company she went through... just another thought.

[binki]

When someone says the fees are not bad you really need to know what that means.

[gprockhill]

As I said worth a review. You all can judge for yourselves 'not bad' once all the facts are in.

[MonkeyMeMe]

rock,, i have looked into this as well, as you can do this also thru paypal,,

and i know some do not like paypal, but the frees are equal to what a pay for CC proccessing,, but paypal gives me cash back every month,,

my cc processing does not.

[knifemaker3]

Like Binki I went with first data viz sams club.  the nice thing is I can take credit debit and even run checks instantly with my machine.  When you have big ticket items it's nice to be able to take a check, run it, have them sign, give them back their voided check, and not have to worry as much about the check bouncing.

As for rates, I would say there are no processors who aren't in the business for anyone but themselves.  Just go with what works the best for you and watch the fees as they do add up.

[dan-ann]

Here  is my question about Sams credit card processing -  I need to be wireless and everytime I have gone to first data  to look we are talking $500 + for a wireless machine.     I do not want a stow and go I want to process immediately.   I work 2-4 large events a year. So to pay that much money for a machine is not going to happen

I have looked at square which would be great but I can have $3000-4000 in charges per vent and they will only deposit $1000 and hold back the balance for a month.

I am back to a iphone swipe situation using the veriphone  attachment - anyone know about them

[MonkeyMeMe]

i also use first data...cc machine at the shop, without the check verification

if i take a order over the phone ,, i also get charged for a force sale, of $4.50 per transaction, besides the percent they charge me , as it is a higher risk sale for them.

4.50 per transaction,, if i did 10 of those a day it would be $45.00

This is a interesting thread,, we have had one like this before but technology has changed and it is good to hear now what is going on.

[dan-ann]

So Sandy Jo - how do you handle your charges from all your websites. I don't remember how it was processed when i bought from you. At $4.50 plus  regular charges i would be spending a lot of money  most of the time from orders called in or sent to me

[MonkeyMeMe]

all of my websites run thru paypal,,  so i have a very small fee,,, but i also use that account, for purchasing for my business,, so i get cashback every month for what i spend in the business as well.

And it basically washes all my paypal fees,,

I do know that the slide purchase for the iphone  there is a paypal app for that so that could work right along with my paypal info..

and i am looking into that and getting rid of my CC machine,,

Some do not like paypal,  so i have kept the CC machine but then i also have to pass along the 4.50 per purchase fee to them a processing fee.

[lattemarie]

Hi Guys,

I've signed up and have used Square Up for just a couple of transactions now.  So far what I know about it is that there are no monthly or hidden fees, and they send you a free little swiper for your smart phone.  You only pay transaction fees and they are 2.75% + 15 cents per swiped transaction, and 3.5% + 15 cents per keyed in transaction.  On the $1000 per week deposit limit, I wrote to them right after I opened an account and asked that it be increased.  They immediately granted me a weekly deposit limit of $3k.  Here's the link (just make sure you open an account first):

https://squareup.com/increase-immediate-payout

I think the key is to put one of your higher transaction amounts on the application form.  I've been using Paypal (with no montly fees) and just recently ran into a problem related to some recent changes they've made.  My customer was not a Paypal member, and Paypal now has a $2k limit on payments as a guest.

So now I still use Paypal for keyed in type transactions because the rate is 2.9% (versus Square's 3.5%), but use Square for swiped transactions. 

HTH,

Marie
Sew Much Thread

[MonkeyMeMe]

Good info Marie,, thanks

MMM

[lattemarie]

Sure, np, I just hope that this will help others out there who are paying too much for credit card processing.  I just saw another company advertising a similar type service to Square's.  If I remember the name, I will post it here.  This seems to be a hot topic for us decorators at the moment ... this very topic was just being discussed on two other forums.

[dan-ann]

This was great info - my hang up with square was only getting a $1000 right away and having to wait a month for the rest. 

[lattemarie]

Yep, same here, dan-ann, which is why it took me this long to sign up.  So, I started asking questions about that, and finally came upon the link to apply for a limit increase. I thought since it costs nothing to open an account and to get the swiper, I would give it a try.  So voila!  Once they granted the increase, I was good to go!  And it is soooo easy to process (oh and the app is free too).  My customers have been impressed. :-)