Credit card service options?

T

Tom Manchester

Senior
Jan 11, 2011
607
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Delaware
www.electrosoundsystems.com
It seems like more often clients are asking if they can pay me via credit card for production services. Most are still paying by check or cash, but I'm anticipating some fairly large new contracts coming up that it would be advantageous for me if I could accept their purchasing cards.

Right now, I use quickbooks online to handle book keeping and invoicing. I love their service because I'm really bad about recording payments and invoices. It's been a huge improvement since I can handle everything right from my iPhone / ipad immediately, and I like the apps. They offer credit card service but I have not really investigated the rates or fees. That's option 1. It would be nice since it should theoretically seamlessly tie in with my existing service.

Another option I considered is the square card reader. Again I haven't read too much on it, but it seems like a good option for a fairly infrequent user like myself.

I suppose the third option would be to go through my bank or a card service company and set something up. This sounds a little more complicated and would probably be better if I was handling more frequent retail transactions, which I do not anticipate anytime soon.

Primary reason for needing the card service would be ease and transparency of payments for my new clients. They *could* pay by check but its a hassle and I want to make my services streamlined for them. Figure each show would be in the $3-5k range, about 1-2 times a month with occasional $8k+ shows a couple times a year.

What do you use, and what do you like or dislike about it?
 
Re: Credit card service options?

Personally, I use square reader. It does have either a percentage rate or a yearly fee of $250 for use. I've always like it due to the ease in which to add "standard" items as well as emailing receipts out.
 
Re: Credit card service options?

There was a good thread about it over on the other board here.

One of the ones that looked fairly interesting to me was Punchey, but you'll have to evaluate rates and fees for your own use. I've heard the occasional horror story about Square holding onto large sums of money for longer than necessary, but have no such experience with them myself. I would also check with your bank to see if they have decent merchant card services, although its unlikely they'll have a mobile card reader like Punchey or Square.
 
Re: Credit card service options?

Square is $250 per month, not year. And that will only work on transactions under $500, which puts most system rentals into a % situation again. Square has an option to ask for better rates if you do a lot of business, but I have not explored how low they will go.

If the hardware works for you, Punchey is lower fees and gets your money into your account faster. My wife's accountant can't figure out how Square sends payments and holds money back. It makes reconciling very difficult.
 
Re: Credit card service options?

Hi Tom,
I use Paypal. I was turned onto it by David Little.
The fee is 2.9%. No monthly, just a flat rate.

I use it for sales, so I'm using a desktop. I'm sure they would be easy to use for mobile, but don't have the need, nor the device to do that.
When I investigated it, it was far and beyond better than anything anyone else was doing, bank or card service wise.
When I get inquiries about it, I just ask, "Can you beat 2.9%, no minimums, or other fees?" They never can.
(I think they could beat it, if I was doing a very large amount of use, like retail, but I am not sure.)
And was very easy to set up. (I was already using Paypal for purchases, so it was very easy.)

The client does not need a Paypal account, it is a simple online credit card transaction.

It is very easy to balance. They have a spreadsheet, that includes their fee on every transaction.
The one exception is that if there are transactions that have not been paid, or deleted, they will show up on the spreadsheet, and I will enter them.

As far a quickbooks goes, I don't have mobile, but I set up a new payment method (paypal), and the funds "deposit to" there instead of the
bank account. Then, the transfers to the bank account get recorded when they are made.

I like the idea of the cube, didn't know it was limited to a certain amount.
I saw a church using it for concert tickets the other night, and it was getting us in the door smoothly.
And I see artists using them for merch.

Regards, Jack
 
Re: Credit card service options?

PS, I know there are those that have had problems with Paypal.
That is not me. I have had problems with eBay, and disputes.
But, since most of my transactions are sales, and not auctions, I have not had any problems.
If your clients are all legit, and simply want a CC option to pay you, there should be no worries.
 
Re: Credit card service options?

Hi Tom,

We use a Paymentech Orbital gateway--basically a glorified webform for you to use to run CC transactions manually. Transaction costs are usually around 3% and we were able to negotiate to get them to drop the $25 monthly fee.

The best option that I've come across is use Intuit's ACH system. It's only $0.50/transaction so I pass along savings to the customer and usually get the money in 2 days.

Jeff
 
Re: Credit card service options?

Although the quickbooks integration is very convenient, they want to lock you into a 5 year (IIRC) contract

I'm currently using www.stripe.com as there is no contract and it is very straightforward.
they take a percentage, but there's not monthly fee (which is important especially during transition where you may not do very many CC transactions at first)
And since there is no contract you can accept cards until you figure out your volume and then decide what else might be better for you.

Jason
 
Re: Credit card service options?

Brian Bolly said:
There was a good thread about it over on the other board here.

One of the ones that looked fairly interesting to me was Punchey, but you'll have to evaluate rates and fees for your own use. I've heard the occasional horror story about Square holding onto large sums of money for longer than necessary, but have no such experience with them myself. I would also check with your bank to see if they have decent merchant card services, although its unlikely they'll have a mobile card reader like Punchey or Square.
Click to expand...

Square and/or punchey are both looking like the most reasonable options. If both truly offer just a percentage off the transaction with no monthly fees, that would be good for me, since it would be such an infrequently used service at first. The 2-3% transaction fee is not the worst thing in the world because the clients that pay by card are generally paying full corporate rates for gear and service, so there is a healthy margin built in to cover the added cost. I really like the mobile card reader aspect, it would be good in those situations where someone wants to add something last minute.

Square holding payments for a while is not a deal breaker. Heck, even if I got paid within 90 days it would be faster than half my government clients!
 
Re: Credit card service options?

Hey Tom,

I always used Square too. The difference between the rate they give me and B&C's merchant account rate ($100k+ card business annually) is about 0.25%. Never worried about it, having the money is nice, and I rarely took more than maybe a grand a month by CC. If myself or B&C did more business by credit card it might be worth fighting for a lower rate, but it's just a convenience for both of us.
 
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