Credit card questions? opinions please

There was a recent post on credit cards, I belive the guy was a machine shop or garage. Here is my question: How would it work to accept them for service type buisness? Examples include selling firewood, tractor work, landscape work, your thoughts?

I accepted credit cards for my remodeling business. I had done some work for a MAJOR mall anchor, and was told by my contact there that if I did not accept his credit card it would take 6 months to get paid. For me it was not worth it. I got a real good percentage, 1.9 on Visa and Master Card, (others were more) if my memory is not failing me, but you HAD to swipe the card for that rate. That created a problem in itself as you had to have a phone line to plug into. If you could not swipe the card, the rate was double. Also, there was a minimum charge, $32 per month with a 1 year contract, that was real hard to justify as I used it only 5 times during the contract. Plus, I had to buy all the equipment, another $150.00. For me, I was just glad when the contract expired. Greg

If you get approved and signed up with the card company SURE IT WORKS JUST THE SAME provided they get their commission and you may get more customers. A slogan I once read "People should have the right to spend money they dont have" (But isnt that what got many folks and the government in this whole mess lol)

"Stop Global Whining"

John T

The problem with credit cards as payment is they charge a fee per transaction, plus a % of the transaction. If you do a big volume & are considered a stable business you get maybe a 2% hit on each transaction. If you are just a pop-up, unknown business, you might be double that. Plus the per-transaction fee.

So the problem is, you end up having to charge about 5% more for your goods to cover the credit card fees you get hit with.

Depends if that works for you or not. Those who pay cash might find a cheaper supplier?

--->Paul

We do a low volume with credit cards and and found the best deal was to use Paypal. 3%, no monthly minimum, and we get the money quickly. If I were doing more credit card sales, I would look else where.

AND, the contract says you will not charge your CC customers more, so, if you do raise the rates, it has to be across the board. Greg

The Sign said:
WE HAVE AN AGREEMENT WITH THE BANK !
THEY DON'T REPAIR TRACTORS-WE DON'T GIVE CREDIT!

I understand how credit cards work the real question is for the types of buisness i stated?

Landscape work with town folk - probably work good there.

Seems like you will give up some good old-time customers when your prices go up tho.

Depends on your customer mix. Will you gain more than you lose?

That's the question you need to figure out. Are you servicing yuppies who love credit and pay later, or are you servicing more established bit more conservative folk who prefer a bargin over plastic?

--->Paul

we use credit cards a lot for our moving business, check with a couple of banks to see what kind of service charges they have - we take them all, even the dreaded American Express which charges a much higher rate then others. Our customers must give us their CC info when we schedule a move and if they sound a little "questionable" we pre-run it and if it is declined we won't do the move for them.

Jocco, I think that one thing you have to ask yourself is what is your relationship with your customers. If you know them and you don't have to chase money credit cards would not be a big help. But the other side of the coin is how much bad dept can you absorb and how much of your credit card costs would that cover?

Lots of [mostly younger] folks don't use checks anymore...only debit cards. So if you're set up to accept plastic, it's more likely you'll draw some business from the folks who don't carry cash, and don't use checks...and that could be a plus.

Hey Jocco, Wayne here. I was the one that posted the other week about accepting credit cards. I am a mechanic by trade and work on everything from heavy equipment to lawnmowers to trailers, and everything in between. The reason I asked about cards was that over the years many large companies had started getting corprate cards to pay for small jobs (usually undeer $5000)because it decreased the amount of paperwork involved to one statement vs numerous work orders. As such we had often been asked if we accepted cards but we never did so we had additional paperwork to do also to bill for the job, take the check to the bank, etc. That was the way Dad liked it though so that is what we did.
With the economy the way it is I"m doing more and more on my own, outside "dad"s company" for other smaller companies so I was looking for a way to help out the "little man" that might need to pay for a large job over time while at the same time getting me my money right away. Like another post suggested I figured being able to take cards would also allow me to verify that the credit was available for the customer to spend for me to do the job so I didn"t get stuck eating labor and parts for a job when it was done.
As far as the deal on the rates being different from what I see it"s usually around 1.5 to 2% due to the greater liability they assume with the extension of credit due to more fraud involved with keyed cards vs swiped cards. If you anticipate alot of keyed stuff due to being in various locaqtions they do offer mobile/wireless machines, for purchase or lease, that work via the cell carriers. They are designed to work with all major carriers so you shoudln"t experience many dead zones unless you live in deapest darkest part of BFE. A friend of mine had one for his body shop business because he worked for numerous dealerships so needed to be able to get paid in numerous locations. He loved it.
As far as looking for someone to process the cards for you, what I did was run up on a site one night called Proposal Portal and clicked on the link for credit card info. I wound up with about 8 or 10 companies responding, offering deals, and basically just wanting my business. Just like the rest of us these guys are hurting for business just like everyone else and are cutting some great deals right now on their services.
I wound up going with Merchant Services Inc. Based on what I saw they offered about the best rates, percentage wise, of any of the others on a per transaction basis. Too they had a deal going through Thanksgiving where EVERYTHING was free. By that I mean no contract, free equipment, free set up, no monthly minimum, etc etc. I started to sign up and then realized that there was a minimum on the paperwork and then didn"t. I didn"t get a chance to call back and talk to the girl until Monday, after the deal was over. I was mainly just wanting to ask some questions for future knowledge. When I told her why I hadn"t applied before Thanksgiving she realized she had screwed up when she sent me the application. She then proceeded to talk to her supervisor and got me the totally free deal even though it was a week after the cutoff date.
I"ll include a link here to both MSI and the Proposal Portal for you. If you click on the link on PP expect to get alot of emails right off the bat and you can go through them from there. Many of them right now are competing and offering a price match deal so you csan still get set up fairely cheap. I know MSI has another deal going til Christmas only instead of free, now certain monthly fees and minimums arerequired but they are still less than their normal rates. If you call them the girl I talked to was named Danielle Sylvia at ext 200.
Good luck.
merchant services

proposal portal

Ask 20 people who filed for bankruptcy what started their problems and see what they tell you. $.02, and many will say it ain't worth that much.