Credit Card Crap

[tmiklethun]

I just looked over my credit card statement from last month and I only had two transactions for a total of 604.00. I am suppose to pay 3% or about $19. They charged my $44.45. I called to find out what the he**. I was told some credit cards that have reward points attached to them and they get charged at an extra 3.5%. They also told me there is no way I can tell the difference at the time I process them.

Does this sound right to you? At almost 8% credit cards probably are not worth the expense.

 

[Able 1]

Discover and American Express have the extra charges, AMEX being the worst of the two.. I use square and they don't charge me extra for any card I have taken, and it's only 2.75%. If you use Square you also don't have to pay for wireless service or a lease on equipment since you use your phone.

 

[floorguy]

yup....

 

[tmiklethun]

These fees were on Visa / Mastercard. They were "reward" card so they charge the merchant an extra fee to cover the "rewards" they give to the card members.

I am looking at other vendors now, I will check out square.

 

[hogjowl]

I remember now that was why I stopped accepting Amex and Discover way back in the early 90's when I had a retail carpet store. The extra charges just ticked me off too much.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

Its 2013, if you are not taking CC by now then you are seriously behind. I use CC transactions for all my personal purchases as I am sure you guys do as well.

I use square and intuit for my CC.. both are great.. during the summer I use Intuit's $12.95 plan to bring the rates down to 1.7% because I have thousands in CC transactions a month during the busy season.

 

[hogjowl]

I don't think anybody on this thread suggested that anyone not take credit cards.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

I don't think anybody on this thread suggested that anyone not take credit cards.

Still read of companies on the BB that still don't take them.. never understood why.

Why make it harder for people to do business with you.

 

[floorguy]

my biggest thing was the monthly $$ a month they wanted even if you didnt charge anything...yes including Intuit....

but i had a few bigger commercial accts that said take a card or wait 45 days....hummmmm

then a buddy of mine pushed me to square...and i am glad he did....I dont do a ton of CC stuff...but happy to only have to pay for when i do

 

[renegade_cowboy]

my biggest thing was the monthly $$ a month they wanted even if you didnt charge anything...yes including Intuit....

but i had a few bigger commercial accts that said take a card or wait 45 days....hummmmm

then a buddy of mine pushed me to square...and i am glad he did....I dont do a ton of CC stuff...but happy to only have to pay for when i do

Thats so funny, I had a big commercial job for $4800 and they wanted to pay with a CC. I tried calculating in my head what the charge would be.. whew.. told them check works best.

 

[Ron K]

Thats so funny, I had a big commercial job for $4800 and they wanted to pay with a CC. I tried calculating in my head what the charge would be.. whew.. told them check works best.

So you do or you don't or you just take credit cards when it serves you best?

 

[renegade_cowboy]

So you do or you don't or you just take credit cards when it serves you best?

In that one case, I offered back to them to pay with check which they agreed. If they would of preferred to use the CC, I would of charged it. Saved me a few bucks too.

 

[hogjowl]

I think it is now legal to charge your customer for the fee's now.

Just a suggestion ...

 

[Ron K]

Brent all I'm saying is....as you were calculating what it would cost....they were calculating their trip to Bermuda.
Glad to here you offered them an option.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

It didn't hurt to ask and it worked out. I was thinking of charging a fee if they wanted to go that route.. but I wouldn't do it for the residential, i hate getting charged fee's like that myself.

 

[GCCLee]

The easier the trasaction the cheaper, gotta call it up front though.

Are you going to be paying ca,ch,cc for the service today ? People aren't dumb and know this now, It gives them an unspoken option of sorts though
If cc comes up, auto increases our price by whatever. example 10% of 100 is $10 so, 5,10,15 whatever depending on the bill
Check.. highest return fee allowable if it bounces, otherwise...no biggie
Cash..Ain't worth the paper it's printed on, but we take it, gladly.

Our Own Bank offered us the Square reader at a flat 10% per... Shoulda seen their faces when I told em jus checking done deal at 2.75% direct, bwahahhaa thanks though.

Square and Intuit Go Payment both offer Free Card Readers with some killer % rates for per transaction swipers.

 

[Bruce Humphrey]

It's been about 5 years since I have taken a credit card , in those 5 years we have had 3 people want to pay with Credit cards , 2 said they could pay with check or cash and the 3rd who was a previous client called someone else.

The reason we stopped taking credit cards was simple, nobody was using them to pay us for carpet cleaning, we advertised the payment options like any business would. I don't regret not taking credit cards but if we start getting a rush of people wanting to pay by credit card I will be set up the next day to take them.