Merchant Account for credit cards

[L8model]

I did a search and seen a couple of older posts that had a brief discussion on this subject. However, there may be others who have recently joined this forum that may be able to contribute to the discussion regarding merchant accounts.

I know many of you do not want to bother with credit cards, but I feel that the cost is so minimal that if you only get two extra jobs for the whole year it could pay for itself.

One merchant account in particular, which I am expecting to sign with, only charges $5 a month with a $39 sign-up fee and only 3.95% per transaction with no other regular charges or equipment to buy or lease. The customer's card info is just keyed in on your cell phone (or any phone). With this plan it only costs about $2 in fees for a $50 repair, that's no different than doing an insurance job using GlassComp or DataTranz.

I found this company at merchantseek.com or thompsonmerchant.com.

Is anyone using a plan better than this?

[CGlenn]

Thanks for the info.

I have been trying to decide on whether to accept credit cards or not. This seems pretty good.

If anyone else accepts credit cards, could you list off whether or not you think it is worth it or not. This could be good info for all to see, especially those undecisive about this.

Chris

[glassdoctor]

I signed up at my bank, but I haven't actually used it yet. The monthly fee is $3.00 and the % varies with the card used... I think nothing is more than 5%.

So, you might check your own bank of all places.....

[DaveC]

My 2 cents .....

If these rates are legit., the service is paid for each month with just one repair!

As a warning, in order to CYA when it comes to potential (and costly) chargebacks, if you utilize a system that does not involve the direct swipe of a credit card and provides a receipt for customer signature, you would want to ensure that your invoice at least has a space for entering the customers CC#, Expiry Date and has the customer's signature authorizing the charge.

Further, with all of the fraud protection that has been enabled by the merchant banks, if you do not personally know the customer, request a driver's license to verify that the CC that they present you with is in their name.

[gold star windshield repair]

It would probably be a good idea to have the manual machine that you run the card through and it makes hard copy of the transaction that the customer signs, so in the outside chance he tries to say it wasnt his transaction, you will be able to produce the evidence. An alternative to that would be to enter his cc# on the invoice that you have him sign. This would also give you the info you need to follow up if for some reason you dont receive payment from the cc company. I used to take plastic, but the request for it here was so minimal (fewer than 6 a year), that it truly was not worth the bother and expense. There was no deals out there that even came close to what L8model has quoted. Its been a few years, though, and none of my clients seem to be bothered that I dont accept cc, so I dont think I will be adding them back into the mix any time soon.

[StarQuest]

L8model,

I've set up credit card accounts in the past soley because one Penske fleet business paid by "p" card only. I must admit I didn't have much luck using it with individuals. They either paid cash or with personal check.

I'm not sure how everybody else feels today with credit card fraud running rapid but I personally wouldn't give my card and license information to somebody I just ran into off the street. Another problem I'd worry about is taking card for payment without having electronic means of validating usable balance. I suppose you could call in every transaction prior to repair but you'd most likely be stuck on cell phone forever waiting for aproval.

Just my opinion -

[L8model]

Great feedback from everyone!!!

After doing more research, I did choose to apply for accepting Visa/MC/Amex cards. Where I live, people do not hesitate using credit cards. In fact, that is what I use 90% of the time, myself, because it is so much easier than dealing with cash & checks (I just pay them off every month).

I cannot say that I have never experienced a problem related to credit cards, however, there has been a few times where using credit cards has saved my butt. The credit card companies usually make sure they take care of their customers.

I have been robbed in the past, my wedding ring & cash (around $400 in cash) were never recovered (or replaced). However, in one instance the crook attempted to use my credit cards without luck & was nearly caught because of it & the credit card company never charged me a dime (they actually gave me a $10 credit for some reason). I've had a few instances when there were charges on my account that were not mine & the credit card company resolved them without issue.

As a business owner in the past, I would accept credit cards and NEVER had one charge-back. Everything was smooth sailing for me.

Personally, if I only get 3 extra repairs all year, because I accept credit cards, I'll be happy. If it doesn't work out, I can cancel at any time without penalty.

I will cetainly get an imprint of the card and check ID's. It would be foolish not to. However, I would just like to have the imprint on my invioce without having to use those pesky credit card slips (what a pain). If I have to, I will figure out a way to get the imprint on my invoice, even if I have to scribble over the credit card with a pencil, but there has to be a more professional way to do that. Any suggestions without having to use and NCR paper as the top copy of my invoice?

[Bois]

L8model,

I opened a Merchant Account through my local bank when I went into business a couple of months ago. The "knuckle buster" (manual swip machine) and forms were free, and there were no set up fees. I use my cell phone to process charges. The fees are $5.00/mo for statement plus 2.85% of charge plus $0.50 for each phone authorization.

So far, I have not used the service. Most folks around here carry $ bundles and would rather pay cash. A local university will be starting their Spring semester in about a week. I plan to run an ad in the student newspaper that references MC/VISA. Thought being that students don't carry too much cash. We'll see what happens.

[JSmith]

www.chargeamerica.com is also an inexpensive alternative