Credit Card payments for your work

[greg lindsey]

I don't do much retail work but every now and then a customer wants to pay with a credit card, I didn't take them for not wanting to pay terminal fees and any monthly fees. This is a really cut and dry way to go, a 2.75% tranaction fee, no terminal, no monthly fees, plugs into my cellphone and payments hit my acct in 24 hrs. Works for me , I thought I would share. square dot com.

[Gary Hair]

I have been using Square for about a year and love it! I have an account setup for my business and one for me personally. The fee is a bit higher than I could get at most other providers but when you consider there is no monthly fee or minimums, there is no comparison. I have it on my iPod as well as my Android phone, works perfect on either one.

Gary

[Mike Null]

I rarely see my customers and therefore don't swipe credit cards. I have a system with my bank where I key in the credit card number, expiration date, amount and my merchant number and they give me an authorization number over the phone. I pay about a dollar per transaction more but that's peanuts for the convenience. I also don't have to pay the PIC (??) fees which can be excessive.

[Tim Bateson]

I have one government customer that can only pay by Credit Card. so I setup a shopping cart that only I can use using PayPal - no fees beyond the normal PayPal fees.

[Ron Chapellaz]

I use PayPal. Their rates are good and cover all major credit cards. I, like Mike don't swipe cards. The customer gets an email notification and makes payment online. The rates listed below are in Canadian funds:

$0.00 CAD to $3,000.00 CAD 2.9% + $0.30 CAD $3.20 CAD fee on a $100.00 CAD sale
$3,000.01 CAD to $12,000.00 CAD 2.5% + $0.30 CAD* $2.80 CAD fee on a $100.00 CAD sale
$12,000.01 CAD to $125,000.00 CAD 2.2% + $0.30 CAD* $2.50 CAD fee on a $100.00 CAD sale
$125,000.00 CAD 1.9% + $0.30 CAD* $2.20 CAD fee on a $100.00 CAD sale

If you want the credit card terminal where you enter in the card numbers yourself then the rates are higher:
$35.00 monthly fee.
$0 to $3,000 3.1% + $0.30 $3.40 fee on a $100 sale
$3,000.01+ to $12,000 2.7% + $0.30 $3.00 fee on a $100 sale
$12,000+ 2.4% + $0.30 $2.70 fee on a $100 sale

You can also add a "buy now", and "add to cart" button on your website.

[greg lindsey]

I have one government customer that can only pay by Credit Card. so I setup a shopping cart that only I can use using PayPal - no fees beyond the normal PayPal fees.

Tim, I have Paypal as well, but, they're so damn flaky that is scares me about using them for receiving payments, I only use mine for ebay transactions. I do alot of govt work and have found out that if you keep the payments down to under 2500.00 they can pay by ck or direct deposit, I have some that if over that amount, we just break it up in a few payments. You should ck with them and see if they will do the same, saves you money on PP fees.

Good thing about Square is, if you swipe the card there is no limit on what you can take, otherwise it starts at 1000.00 weekly, but you can
request increases in the limit.

[Khalid Nazim]

I use Paypal for receiving funds for my sales. Paypal - flaky? Paypal did on an average $315M transaction per day. That's $100+B of financial transaction on that platform.

Having said that, if I need to get a credit card swipe arrangement I would seriously consider getting the Square setup.

[greg lindsey]

I use Paypal for receiving funds for my sales. Paypal - flaky? Paypal did on an average $315M transaction per day. That's $100+B of financial transaction on that platform.

Not flaky as in ripping you off, but, I have had them hold money and even reverse transactions without notifying me, and there are plenty of horror stories about them here on SMC alone.

[Tim Bateson]

I guess, I've been lucky. After 10 years+ of using PayPal - eBay and business, only one customer had issues and PayPal paid both of us. No credit card transaction fees and only the minimum PayPal transaction fee that I consider a cost of convenience.

[Neil Pabia]

I've been using a company called Propay for many years, they are easy to work with and I've never had any problems with them. I used to do shows and didn't take credit cards, at one show I had a customer select a few high end items and when I said I didn't take plastic he walked away and I have been taking cards ever since.

[Jimmy L Taylor]

We use square also, very handy and simple to use.

[Jim Beachler]

I also use Square. Because of the volume of cards that I key in, I got approval for up to 5k per week. That will do for now but they told me that the process is easier once I have a history with them. Swiped cards go right in.

Have used a terminal for years. Did a comparison with my transaction statement versus Square fees. I found that I could save over $350 in just December by using Square. I also love that they take out their fees with each transaction. Didn't like that the credit card company would sweep in and remove all their fees at once at the end of the month and then you got the statement in the mail. Besides that, who understands all those extra charges due to rebate cards or commercial cards or whatever special card some one had. That stuff just keeps adding up but it is not included in your agreed upon percentage fee.

[Edi Royer]

Square is awesome for shows! I take mine with me to every show I vend at and sell twice as much on CC sales as cash sales. People love it!

I use Paypal on my website and love it too. But their fees for a terminal are expensive.

I used Propay for about a year. They offer a nice service, but I didn't like having to enter the data when I got home after shows and the annual fee. I like the Square gives instant approval.

[Darren Hollinrake]

Intuit's GoPayment might be another option to consider. You can look it up and compare it to square if you're interested.

[Neil Pabia]

I remember when the Square first came out, there was all sorts of security problems with it, did they ever get all that worked out?

[Gary and Jessica Houghton]

Intuit's GoPayment might be another option to consider. You can look it up and compare it to square if you're interested.
I have Intuit tied directly in to my terminal. After an analysis of how much we paid last year, we found out it is cheaper for us to use square 100% of the time. We even bought a tablet to use at the store. The payoff for the purchase will be less than 1 year. We love square. Before anyone uses Intuit I would ask for a sample bill and ask for all of their fees to be spelled out.
Intuit charges extra when a company card is used, when a card is manually processed, when you don't have every piece of information to go along with the card, just to use the service, and I think when you sneeze while using their service.

Do your homework!

[Darren Hollinrake]

Do your homework!

I agree, do your homework before picking a service. Each person will have their own set of circumstances that will determine what option they should use (or not use). I've used both options and still switch back and forth depending on what is cheapest for me at the time. If you're sharing information, be sure it's correct information.


Intuit charges extra when a company card is used

That information is at the bottom of their pricing page.

2"Key-Entered Rate" will be charged on all qualified manually keyed Visa/MC/Discover Network transactions that have AVS. All Visa/MS/Discover Network transactions that do not meet the requirements stated above, business cards, foreign cards and transactions that do not meet Visa/MC/Discover Network requirements for the best interchange program will be charged a "Non-Qualified Rate" of 3.7%.


Intuit charges extra when ... a card is manually processed

So does Square: Manually-entered cards cost 3.5% + 15¢ per transaction.
And Intuit:Keyed Rate2 3.7%


Intuit charges extra ... just to use the service

There is a low- and high-volume plan. The low-volume plan has no fee for use of the service. The high-volume plan has a small monthly fee but it also has lower swipe and keyed rates.