Accepting cc's for your small business

[njpooldude]

I have a small service company and im looking for someone with info or experience accepting credit cards. There are so many merchant companies online and also alot of scams! I did take a quick look at BBB.com and found some good ones. Just wondering if anyone here as a service business they run out of their home & accept credit cards. Who do you use, would you recommend them? How much was it to get everything set-up? Im not looking for a wireless card swiper to take on the road, just something at home.

Thanks alot

 

[aeliop]

I am not bitter!

I have a small service company and im looking for someone with info or experience accepting credit cards. There are so many merchant companies online and also alot of scams! I did take a quick look at BBB.com and found some good ones. Just wondering if anyone here as a service business they run out of their home & accept credit cards. Who do you use, would you recommend them? How much was it to get everything set-up? Im not looking for a wireless card swiper to take on the road, just something at home.

Thanks alot

For starters I would recommend just doing a paypal. This allows your customers to pay you with credit cards. If credit card activity starts to increase, it might be worth your while to invest in a Merchant account, but until you have an overwhelming need for it, it would be a 40$ or so monthly expense (+ start-up costs) you probably don't need. If and when the time comes to take this next step, go to the bank that you have your business account with. They usually have a variety of small business tools to help you in your business. Sometimes they have merchant account programs for small businesses.

 

[J.Blaze]

The best i found was my local bank. They had a good program and the funds went straight to my account with them.Good idea accepting cc's. Makes it easy for customers to pay.

 

[njpooldude]

another local pool guy i talk with uses bank of america. He just keeps the old school credit card slider on his van, and then calls BOA and punches in the credit card info on his cell and they put the funks into his checking. Only problem is he's paying like $65 a month.. to me thats crazy... I dont want to advertise that i accept credit cards.. i just want the option if its the only way a customer can pay me. In the last few years ive only had a handful of ppl ask if they can use a cc.

With paypal, that would mean the homeowner would have to go online and pay me right? Seems easy for me, but not sure how the customers would like having to do that...

If i can just use an old school slider and find a company i can call and type in the cc info from my phone for like 30 a month that would be perfect. I just spoke to a nice guy from pnc bank. They dont offer the dial up service, but hes gonna work up some numbers and get back to me. Ill use the slider on my van, and then use the electronic terminal once i get home. Its like $300 for the terminal though... ehh ill figure something out.

Thanks for the ideas guys.

oh, and someone else on a pool forum i vist actually uses costco for their merchant company?? Kinda weird since when you shop there they only accept AMEX...

 

[eazy]

PayPal sucks. Don't use them. You can use your bank.. Sometimes they can be good. You have to be careful choosing a mechant account provider. THere are a lot of shady individuals in the industry who will rip you off with fees and contracts that you cant understand. You can send me a PM and I can give you a company that I use for my stuff i found them because I had a friend that was selling merchant accounts for them and he made sure I wouldnt' get ripped off. Most merchant accounts check credit, I had bad credit and i was able to get an account with this company at good fees.

 

[Sassy]

We've been thinking about doing the same thing. The one thing we've notice when we talked to people was they couldn't afford our quotes. We're not quoting really high. It's just people don't have the cash flow they use too. We don't offer any financing or credit cards, so I've been looking into ways for our customers to be able to pay us.

Going to your local banks is the best and safest way to get set up for credit cards service. You should talk to a couple of different banks to find out what their fees and services. One might fit your needs better than another.

Another option that my ex used for his DogWatch hidden fence business was a personal loan. He went to a lending company and got set up for his business to refer customers to them for financing. This worked out great because they were responsible for collecting the money each month. My ex was paid in full. I know one example is Columbus Finance Inc. They may not be able to do financing in your state.

 

[jalsmiley]

hey bro, i dont know much about it but look into the iphone...there is an app that allows you to run cc's for business...i here it is very easy but i havent seen it...do a search about it.

 

[xslippzx]

For starters I would recommend just doing a paypal. This allows your customers to pay you with credit cards. If credit card activity starts to increase, it might be worth your while to invest in a Merchant account, but until you have an overwhelming need for it, it would be a 40$ or so monthly expense (+ start-up costs) you probably don't need. If and when the time comes to take this next step, go to the bank that you have your business account with. They usually have a variety of small business tools to help you in your business. Sometimes they have merchant account programs for small businesses.

bump for paypal... Its definately cheaper starting out, especially if your not doing a high volume of cc transactions ...But I would also start out by checking out the bank. When I started taking cc for one of my companies, the bank set me up where I would just call in the card numbers and get approval codes and run my transactions in that manner... It was way cheaper than getting a terminal and was easy/fast especially since I wasn't doing a high volume of cc transactions

 

[Ash2021]

Hey if you are interested, I have a Nurit processing terminal (with additional pin pad for customers to enter their debit card pin) with built in receipt printer that I would not mind clearing off the shelf. I'd sell it cheap. I used to have a tanning salon and used it for that. The merchant processor will usually rent you the machine for like $35 per month or just sell it to you outright for around $700. If you are interested PM me. $50 (plus shipping) and it's yours.

 

[jbud]

The best thing to do is talk to your local bank, and a couple of other local banks, or businesses where you know people. rates vary greatly so do just take someones word for it. I always try to use as many local people as I can to support the local business and so that they are close if I have issues.

 

[Sassy]

Thanks for the info on Paypal. I haven't even thought about it. I've looked further into it and I think it's a good option of E's business.

 

[QVolt]

I think PayPal also has an option to call orders in, the customer doesn't have to go online.

All the Best

 

[QVolt]

double post, not sure what happened.

 

[taz]

merchant acct stuff

paypal has several options. the first option is for orders totalling less than $3k per month and that option is free. it is simple and anyone can use any cc as well as Paypal.
the other options go by rate of dollars. i am opening a couple of websites shortly and one of them will be using the free service. the other 2 sites i will actually be using a different service because of the type of shopping cart i will be using.

yahoo small business has some options. maybe check them out?