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Who to use for sporadic credit card payments?

Finegrain

Diamond
Joined
Sep 6, 2007
Location
Seattle, Washington
Hi guys,

I have gotten away with not needing a merchant account for some years, but I now have a potential customer that insists on paying with a credit card. So far all I see are merchant account services that have minimum monthly usage requirements and monthly fees. Last time I went down this road the one customer that needed to pay with a credit card ended up not repeating on anything, so I just kept paying the monthly fees for nothing until I cancelled it. Is there a merchant account that is designed for 1-time or rare usage?

Thanks, and regards.

Mike
 
I use wave (waveapps.com) and they have a way to accept credit card payments. Wave is a free service so the CC billing might be also, I have not needed it so can not say one way or the other though.
 
Why not just use Paypal? I understand that requires a little effort on the customers part, but my customers don't mind. There aren't any fees other than 2.9% and something like a 15 cent fee per transaction. They do add an extra 1% if currency exchange is required.
 
For my recoil sales - I use paypal.
I use'ta use their "Virtual sumpthingorother" thing, and that cost some $.

But then I started using their invoicing service.
You just go to your paypal account and make an invoice on their platform, and send it to any e-mail address.

Your customer than pays with either their C/C or even if they have $ in their paypal account already.
You lose the C/C transaction fee, but not sure there is much more loss.
Dual's numbers are likely correct.

There is no monthly fees or whatnot.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
From my research most of the services advertised, like Costco etc, are just bigger services being resold with more fees added on. For occasional use I don't think you can beat Paypal. I think they will even set you up with a normal merchant type account where you enter the customer's information but don't rely on my recollection on that.
 
From my research most of the services advertised, like Costco etc, are just bigger services being resold with more fees added on. For occasional use I don't think you can beat Paypal. I think they will even set you up with a normal merchant type account where you enter the customer's information but don't rely on my recollection on that.


That is the "Virtual Terminal" I mentioned.
It makes you look like the real deal guy - where you can take cards...

It costs $, and it wasn't cheap at that a few years ago.
I'm guessing that the extra co$t$ are doo to the fact that you could run a stolen card, or for a bogus amount.
So it is an ins policy?

Where the invoice that you send out and the customer pays it on their end - is much less likely to have claims agginst it.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
My wife has a photo studio and she uses Square often. I had a customer last fall that needed to pay via card I used it as well that one time, haven't needed it since and I haven't been paying anything for the account.
 
Square for me, too. Last I checked, they had a 'blended' rate that wasn't card-specific, which resulted in being able to accept Amex at a more affordable cut than other sources. Customer wanted to pay via corporate Amex, so it worked out in my favor. I would go months between invoices to them, and there was never an issue of acceptance or quick processing with just the standard baseline account (by phone, not even swiped/tapped). (It's been a year since that client went direct pay, so there may have been changes to Square's process in the meantime.)
 
+1 on sdquare

they sign on your phone

adds 2.75% to the bill so customer pays for the transaction

not sure what you mean there, the fee is paid by the merchant. for a "non-contact" transaction, I.E. where you don't have the actual card to scan, Square is now taking 3.5%.
 
I concur with the above posters recommending Paypal as the best for occasional use.

I actually use Paypal for all of my credit card sales (50 - 70% of my annual gross). Because I'm almost entirely mail order, I use Paypal invoicing for almost everything, instead of hand keying a card in over the phone (which usually costs more than swiping, with any card processing service). 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction for that.

That also gives me the little card reader for my phone, so for the oddball local pickup customer, it's a flat 2.7% to swipe a card.

For the oddball computer illiterate that doesn't use email (to open a paypal invoice link) or that feels that telling me their card number over the phone is safer than plugging it into Paypal's site, I can still hand key in the transaction on the app on my phone, but they charge 3.5% plus $0.15 for that.

$ transfers to your bank are free, and usually happen overnight.

No annual fees. No upfront fees.
 
I use couple-

Stripe, Website Orders Credit Cards/Apple Pay
Harvest- for contract programming/time study's ACH or Credit Card
Quickbooks Invoices- typically bigger business's ACH or Credit Card
Paypal- Website and Separate Invoices- some like just Paypal so I keep it

NO more Phone Credit Card use above options ^ LOL
 
Yup I use Paypal and Square. Paypal if they want to pay online, Square if they want to call in with a card number.
 
I'm late to the party on this one, but I have a grudge against Square. They shut down our account for violating the user agreement, and the best explaination they gave was that we sold to the military. We don't sell weapons, maybe will someday but right now it's just specialty tools. Selling guns is prohibited by them, which just annoys me.

PayPal invoices are really easy, especially for small overseas orders, but for anyone paying over the phone we use Stripe. The website can take cards via Stripe or PayPal.
 
not sure what you mean there, the fee is paid by the merchant. for a "non-contact" transaction, I.E. where you don't have the actual card to scan, Square is now taking 3.5%.

This means you total up your bill, add 3.5%, and charge that total to your customer.

If you didn't add the 3.5%, 'you' would be paying it.
If you do add the 3.5%, customer is paying it.
 
I also prefer Stripe to Square, having used both. Charge is less through Stripe, and they don't bitch or close your account.

Square asked me to close mine because I "illegally sold weapons" :eek:

There words.... not mine...
 








 
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