If you accept credit cards....

[MASTERMOWER]

If you accept credit cards, what company do you go through for the processing?

I plan on beginning to accept credit card payments this year and need to find a company with reasonable rates. I just requested a quote through Advanta...supposedly they offer the lowest rates. But I want to check all avenues....

[GrassMaster]

If you accept credit cards, what company do you go through for the processing?

I have not been pro paypal until they started making additional services on to their merchant services offers...

Check this Virtual Terminal out. If I was to be accepting charge cards over the phone I would be looking at some of this.

Virtual Terminal

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_vt_hub-outside

Then there's this which leads to the above...

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_merchant-outside

They are now offering 5 different payment solutions. It's a lot different than it was 5 years ago.

[Scott]

I paid a one time fee to JDL and I can offer 180 days same as cash or 6.9% for 48 months.

[OLD HAT]

When I get to that point I am thinking sams club I dont have the info right here on me, but they had the best rates that I have found. I have heard a lot of people talking about pay pal I might have to look into also.

[Stephen M.]

Costco has a good program.

We switched last year from the nursery and landscape assoc. plan to one done by the builder's assoc. plan done by Solveras 1-800-817-5267. They are saving us alot of money over our old plan. We pay 2.5% plus a small transaction fee for Visa and MC. American Express and Discover is somewhere around that also.

[bcg]

Charge.com has consistently had the lowest rates when I've needed merchant accounts. They're currently 2.25%.

http://www.charge.com/compare.shtml

[60miles2tahoe]

I plan on beginning to accept credit card payments this year and need to find a company with reasonable rates.

Costco has some of the lowest "plans".

I say plans, because "rates" can vary and can mean different things.
I used to be in the "merchant" industry.

This is a scam industry. You HAVE to read the WHOLE contract when signing up to fully understand all the fee's that go along with those great "rates".


Don't get sucked into leasing a machine. That is the biggest rip of all.
Also, look at the monthly mins that apply to the rates they are quoting. Most of these programs require a min. $ to meet the rates they tell you about. If you don't meet those mins, a monthly service charge can and will be charged. There can be multiple fees on a monthly min., so it can get expensive quick.

Banks are usually the cheapest and will rent you equipment for much less than the small guys do. Costco seemed to have the cheapest all around plans when I was in the industry.

Pay pals is the cheapest form for an alternative and is well reconized.
Many web hosting companies offer on-line payment via credit card programs which are very affordable. Nice thing about the online services are that customers can pay or you can enter their info for payment via secure
log- in's.

Whatever you chose, read the terms and the contract WORD for WORD.

[jagmagic]

Honestly, I think paypal is awesome. No equipment, accept credit or debit, even check by phone. Most C.C. vendors don't offer a feature of check by phone. It would make for a great collections tool. No more "the check's in the mail" not only that, if you wanted to you could even process all checks mailed to you through the system and it will keep all the records for you and save you a trip to your bank.

Here is another plus. You can get a paypal debit card and just use paypal as your "business" bank account. The debit card could if used correctly could keep track of your business expenses too.

It's very much in my opinion the cream of the crop as far as C.C. agents. Oh, I forgot, you can also set up your money to gain interest at like 5.04%. that's higher than any bank will give you.