Hi moms,
Do you have a business and do you take credit cards? If so, do you use Paypal, a bank credit card machine? I would like to take them over the phone and am trying to find the best situation for me with the lowest fees.
Your advice is appreciated.
M.
Thank you Moms. This is a lot of great information. Now I have a couple good options to look into for my business.
My company Arbonne International processes credit cards which makes it really easy for everyone and it doesn't cost me anything either.
We just started using Authorize.net to process credit cards. You still have to find someone for the credit card processing and get a merchant ID but after that you get a virtual terminal and can take credit cards over the phone or online. The fee is about $20 a month it will depend on how much business you do to make it worth it.
Hello,
I tried taking credit cards for my small business last year, and the fees were way worse than dealing with paypal. There was a setup fee around $160, and then the monthly amount I had to pay, even if I didn't run any cards, was around $35, which seemed silly to me. Paypal rates can be pretty great especially if the client/customer already has a paypal account. It seems a little less 'official' to work through paypal since you're doing it via email, but none of my clients seem to mind. Over the phone would be trickier, but definitely investigate the banks if you decide to go with credit card processing to make sure the fees are worth it for you and that you either have the volume to cover it, or that you can adjust your pricing accordingly.
Good luck!
Use paypal, it is so much easier, easy to set up too.
I use itransact. I love it.
i have a paypal account. since i have a ebay store. but paypal and ebay are linked you should be able to do paypal via phone. I think.
Dear M.,
I use authorize.net and cybersource.com for my online business at www.stompstressaway.com. I heard mixed reviews with Paypal from other merchants. You will want to set up something that is the easiest to use from the customers end so that you can maximize sales. Hope this helps.
Regards,
C. B., Ph.D.
www.stompstressaway.com
In all of my research (which I did for a year) I found that what I like best is PayPal virtual terminal. You can do it over the phone, in person, whatever. It even generates a mailing lable for you, if you need that.
I pay about $30/ mo plus a small percentage. Other services charge $25/mo but you have to buy or rent their swipe machine, plus fees per transaction.
I like the Pay Pal solution. I've been using it for a myear now and it works well for me. I'm a high-end photographer, and I thought it might look less professional, but it really works well for me.
I used to be a general manager and we took credit cards at the store (very small franchise only 300 Stores total in the system when we entered it). Rates were about 5% average so that's lost income that our owner made up for by raising prices 2% figuring not all people will charge, and those that don't make up for those that do. Also, FYI in most states it is illegal to require a "minimum" charge in order to allow someone to use a credit card. I have no advice on how to take cards, because I do not know pp rates, but I do know that no local bank-even those that tried to win our cc business-could meet the rate that the corporate offices of the company worked out for us. The banks are usually about 7-10%.
What I've used in the past (and plan to again here soon...yay!) is the portable electronic swiper... but that's because I deal with people primarily face to face. Swipe and done.
I'm going to have to look into the paypal virtual terminal though... and see if that's comparable.
r
Pay pal is probably the best route to start with. Otherwise you need to comply with laws aimed at protecting credit card numbers/info you collect from people. With paypal, you can email a link to the customer to enter their own information and you never have to handle it.
We accept cards. Our bank actually set me up through a third party company. we have an a/c business so i needed the guys to be able to call it in & process in the field. Very technical name for this...touch tone processing! LOL. basically I call an 800 # punch in my merchant #. bank # then customer's info & then it gives me an approval #. they charge me 5.00 a month for the service & then 3% of each sale total. So if sale is $10.00 then they charge you .30. There are loop holes on passing this on to the customer by charging a cash discount not earned fee and make that be 3%, although visa & mastercard really state that your not to charge the customer for choosing to use credit. Anyway, about 2 days later your account will show the $ deposited. Hope this helps you.
