Residential Payment Question

[windmarkbob]

Considering that plastic (credit/debit) is so prevalent in today's society, and we've never had a bounced transaction when it was made with some sort of plastic, what are likely problems to be encountered with a a policy of "no checks", cash or plastic only?

Thanks in advance,

Mr. Coffee

 

[Ken Snow]

I love it- who the heck writes check anymore anyways?

 

[Brian R]

If you limited anything, you limit something.


That one customer (probably more) that wants to write a check might not schedule because of it.
You need to have options.

I thought about doing plastic only...and over the phone only...but I just couldn't see doing it because of the potential loss of a customer for no really good reason.

A charge back is just as big of a pain in the ass as a bounced check...and with your averages going up for taking CCs the more likely you will have one.

 

[Bruce Humphrey]

I love it- who the heck writes check anymore anyways?

You and I would both think that Ken. We cut out Credit Cards almost 2 years ago and only have had one person that wanted to use it. Almost all pay is with Checks and very little is with cash. I use my debit card for everything.

 

[royalkid]

the down side is with credit cards...if a custy is unhappy afterwards...they can cancel...and CC co. will give them the credit back...it's happened to us (messed up huh) without our side or chance to remedy problem. But once the check is written it's a done deal.

 

[rhino1]

I don't know about that, we don't take plastic and only have 1 or 2 ask if we do in a month. Most of our cust. are older and prefer to write checks or pay with cash (gotta love those!)

 

[klewis4]

The vast majority of our customers pay with check. If they ask what I prefer, I say check (so we don't pay the fees which can fluctuate quite a bit especially for "reward" cards). We've only had one bounced check in 14 months and that customer made it good quickly (we only do about 5 jobs a day average so I guess we don't have as big problem with bad checks as some).

 

[Ron Werner]

I was cash or cheque for years.
Then hooked up the cc machine, hardly used it the first year.
3 yrs later, I just had about a dozen cc payments in the last month. Cheques are still most common, cash least. But the cc are very handy for people and getting used a lot more now.

I used to offer debit as well but I stopped carrying my machine with me.

 

[SFC]

Email money transfers are a great way to do business as well. Instant cash

 

[Brian R]

I also offer paypal on my website for payments...no customers have used it yet.

I really only do about $5000.00 a month in CCs...not very much at all. I discourage them when I can but also use them as a selling tool when the customer is "broke" or whatever.

It's convienience when they are accross the U.S. but the charges do suck.
Pay a little to NOT wait for the check in the mail. I'll deal with that.
But I will always tell the customer (locally) "A check is better because the CC companies charge me to run a CC."

They always understand.