Taking Credit Card Payments

13 years ago

You would need to apply for a "merchant account".

However, I have never had a problem with sending clients to a professional payment page and have them pay via PayPal or 2Checkout.

Of course, as you earn more revenue, having your own merchant account will ultimately save money with regards to fees and charges.

Just do a search on "best merchant account", then tread very carefully. Ensure that you are dealing with a reputable merchant services provider.

Originally Posted by ShaneM686

I did a search to see if it was talked about before... but I couldn't find anything.

When taking on clients, clearly, allowing them to do recurring payments via the three most popular credit cards makes you sound a lot more legit.

Not send check / sign up with pay pal.. etc.

How do you go about doing this?

Thanks
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redlegrich

13 years ago

You can use Amazon Payments, Google Checkout, and PayPal to accept payments. The later two take recurring payments. Why bother with a merchant account, lots more pain to setup. the incremental per transaction charge is maybe 1.5 points more, but no application, monthly fee and so on. For whatever you will lose there just add $10 to your fee.

Also check out www.squareup.com for a super cool way to accept credit cards with your smart phone.

Thanks
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CaliChristian

13 years ago

Originally Posted by redlegrich

You can use Amazon Payments, Google Checkout, and PayPal to accept payments. The later two take recurring payments. Why bother with a merchant account, lots more pain to setup. the incremental per transaction charge is maybe 1.5 points more, but no application, monthly fee and so on. For whatever you will lose there just add $10 to your fee.

Also check out www.squareup.com for a super cool way to accept credit cards with your smart phone.

Square (Co-founder is Jack Dorsey the Founder of Twitter) has been getting a bunch of good press lately. I actually used it for the first time last week when taking a cab, the guy used his iPhone as the credit card processing machine and we signed on the touch screen. I gave him my email address and he emailed me the receipt, in real time.

Pretty spiffy...but I don't know what the rate they charge the merchant for processing the transaction; I heard the fee is pretty steep around 4%.

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hotseochick

13 years ago

You should look into getting a merchant account. There are a ton of them out there so shop around (i'm not going to promote any here). You'll need to be able to prove that your business is an actual business by supplying paperwork usually too whether you have a corp, llc, DBA, fictitious business name, etc. Also, it's nice to have it tied to a business bank account and not your personal bank account, especially when you get hit with a chargeback (no service or product will please everyone) because that charge back amount will be taken right out of your account.

Although I am pretty sure most merchant accounts have this, but just make sure they allow for automatic billing or periodic billing as some accounts call them. Last but not least, keep track of your books. You'd like to rely 100% on the automatic billing, but just make sure you check it yourself. Don't want to lose money or over charge customers.

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ADukes81

13 years ago

DO NOT USE SECURE PAY!!!!

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JTDrew

13 years ago

In the "old" days a merchant account was out only option. In todays business world there are so many option for receiving payment as others have posted. I can tell you this: As long as your transaction are not $1000.00's (per transaction) you can use Google check out, Paypal, and even Chase quick pay.

Getting a merchant account is still always a good idea. In doing you will have to apply for credit with a merchant account.

Hope this helps.

Thanks

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talfighel

13 years ago

There are so many merchant services providers out there online that you just have to do some research to see which one best suits you and your needs.

PayPal is great in my view.

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pwk2000

13 years ago

Square is just 2.75% (3.5% if you don't swipe and have to enter manually). I am about to order it and will let you know how it goes.

What's cooler then going into a biz, doing a presentation using an iPad, and then just swiping their card right there.

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AnimalSpirit

13 years ago

Shane!

I recommend 1ShoppingCart. It's the top company that allows you to process customers' credit cards.

Cheers

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mattie77

13 years ago

Talk to you Bank. Im in Australia. Most banks here offer a virtual terminal(processed online) or a POS machine-more for once offs.

The fees are cheaper and the money is accessible immediately. It takes 5 days to get money from paypal here

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karakoram

13 years ago

YOu can create paypal buttons and take payments via credit card without signing up to be a merchant on paypal.

THat being said, I would be uncomfortable with having paypal as my only option. They have been known to shut IMers down, with money in thier account, and they hang on to the money. Just search this forum for paypal horror stories.

Having a backup payment system would be prudent.

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sconlinemarketing

13 years ago

I use merchantone, their fees are lower than the rest. Check them out.

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Alton Hargrave 13 years ago

I just opened an online virtual POS (point of sale) account with Intuit for about 12 or 13 dollars a month with low transaction fees. It was easy to apply online and I plan to use it for my antique store customers and possibly for some online sales. I have been using Paypal for years, but I needed something for the antique store since my credit card machine quit working.

Does anyone here use Intuit?

Alton
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Matthew Iannotti

13 years ago

I would suggest a merchant account if you are a serious business. You have no control with Paypal and they can shutdown or limit your account and there isn't a thing you could do about it. I have also heard of offline clients disputing payments with paypal (much like bandit refunder's) and generally they will get their money back.

I use authorize.net - suggest you do too.

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Hugh

13 years ago

See if your bank will process ACH (Automated Clearing House) payments.
It becomes an automatic bank transfer when set up as recurring billing.

Hugh

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settingsail

13 years ago

Merchant Accounts \ Payment gateways take a lot of fee's out, well, used to. I remember reading a site once that said each $19.99 sale they would take out like $13 or $14 I remember thinking what the heck? Some are cheap though I guess and only take out a small fee.

Thanks
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Danielm

13 years ago

Originally Posted by settingsail

Merchant Accounts Payment gateways take a lot of fee's out, well, used to. I remember reading a site once that said each $19.99 sale they would take out like $13 or $14 I remember thinking what the heck? Some are cheap though I guess and only take out a small fee.

There shouldn't be anywhere near 13-14 dollars taken out of a 19.99 sale. My wife has a merchant account fer her business and there is a low transaction fee, maybe 40 cents or so, and a percentage of the sale depending on which type of card she takes. For example some of them are under 2% of the total sale.

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mr2monster

13 years ago

GoPaymentPro (Intuit GoPayment – iPhone credit card processing for mobile payments) - My primary way to charge credit cards "in-store". It's as close to a merchant account as you can get without just getting a merchant account. Comes with a swiper, fees are comparable to paypal. Funds land in your bank account immediately.

Square - (https://squareup.com/) my reserve payment plan. Same basic prices as GoPayment, same basic features, but they only release the first $1000 per week and hold the other funds for a few days, which cuts my cashflow. That's why I use them as my reserve.

If I come across a client that isn't happy putting their credit card in my phone (only happened once), I'll use paypal...

For clients that I'm sending electronic invoices to: I'm using paypal or picking up business checks.

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Tjason25 13 years ago

make sure and select a credit card processor that is familiar with your model and what you are looking to do. Also make sure the payment gateways they give to you have fraud detection software, credit card updater, and velocity control checks built in. If you need help or advice, just let me know.
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umairsheikh2002

13 years ago

A good offline marketing strategy can help you to promote your online presence and generate a lot of high quality traffic to your website and then convert with credit card.

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danielkanuck

13 years ago

I've had a bad time with Google Checkout. I got a sale, it processed completely, then 2 weeks later, i got an email from Google Checkout saying that a customer disputed the transaction. Needless to say i had to refund the sale, and then Google Checkout shutdown my account for offering products that don't meet their guidelines. I'm selling a marketing book, how in the world does that not meet their guidelines.

I looked online and found that many other people had the same thing happen to them. My advice is to be weary of google checkout. They'll take the money and run.

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vancouverseoconsultant

13 years ago

Did you check with your local bank for a merchant account?

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Rollmodl 13 years ago

Paypal has a virtual terminal that also allows you to manually enter credit card information. Depending on your site there are components and plugins that will allow you to link to your Paypal merchant account and allow customers to enter their cc information.
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redlegrich

13 years ago

You can buy the Square device at the Apple Stores for $10, and it includes a $10 credit for fees so it's free.

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Mwind076

13 years ago

I also vote for paypal, most everyone has it and if they don't it's very easy to deal with and set up. We've had no issues with it in 5 years. Those that don't wish to use paypal will send a check, but they are few and far between. We don't accept checks more than once.

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