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If it's only going to be an occasional client, just open a PayPal account. They can pay you online with any credit card and there's no monthly fees, just a fee for each transaction. You might qualify to get a card reader that you can take with you if you see clients in person.
Then you can either transfer the funds into your bank account, or get a PayPal debit card with a 1% cashback bonus, which offsets your credit card transaction fee.
Would paypal work well with me if my prices could be anywhere from $300 to $1200? I'm under the impression that paypal works only if you're transferring small funds.
Go with square as it will cost less than the typical credit card machine and processing fee's unless you are going to do volume sales.
A square attaches to a smart phone and you slide the cards through or manually enter the numbers. The fee is around 3% I believe.
I agree with this. I have an extremely small business and this works great. I can now take cards and not have to pay "through the nose" for the ability. They have a lot of other things that are part of your account, including inventory, etc. No yearly or monthly fees or monthly minimums. Also a flat percentage charged if you scan the card. It is a bit larger if you manually enter the card due to more fraud with card not present transactions. Money gets deposited into my account rapidly. www.squareup.com
They are also currently getting prepared for the new credit card change to chip cards by developing a reader that will work both with chip cards and strip cards. Should be out soon.
Would paypal work well with me if my prices could be anywhere from $300 to $1200? I'm under the impression that paypal works only if you're transferring small funds.
Most of our PayPal payments are over that amount. I think the largest we've had was an American Express payment of $6500. We actually have 2 merchant accounts as well. Don't want to keep all our eggs in one basket.
If you do have transactions over $1200, you need to ask if there are daily or monthly maximums (some of the small companies have limits) and find out if they hold any of your funds. Some not only hold your funds for 2-3 days before they deposit to your account, but will hold 15-20% in a reserve.
Good luck. We got burned once by a company that went out of business and lost our deposits for that day.
Do Paypal or Squared or something unless your going to be doing a ton of CC transactions. Merchant services companies make you pay amonthly fee, you have to have a certain volume and they make you buy or rent expensive equipment. Paypal and squared are fine for small business. My business does about 1.7 million in sales a year and probably 90% of it is by card and I still use Paypal. Because of volume I pay 1.9% instead of 2.9%. It is costly but allows me to transact business more eaisly with more people so its worth it.
Most of our PayPal payments are over that amount. I think the largest we've had was an American Express payment of $6500. We actually have 2 merchant accounts as well. Don't want to keep all our eggs in one basket.
If you do have transactions over $1200, you need to ask if there are daily or monthly maximums (some of the small companies have limits) and find out if they hold any of your funds. Some not only hold your funds for 2-3 days before they deposit to your account, but will hold 15-20% in a reserve.
Good luck. We got burned once by a company that went out of business and lost our deposits for that day.
Great point here. These holds are not that typical but if you have a business they determine is high risk for chargebacks you will have a hold. I finally got mine lowered but was having 25% of my transactions held for 90 days which at one point I had over 100k tied up
Consider the cost of the gross charge vs. your net profit on the potential sale. Some merchants have small margins and the CC transaction costs exceed the margin meaning you actually lose money on the sale!
$1.50 bottle of soda, lets say you make a 50 cent profit. If the buyer pays with a credit card and they charge you 75 cents per transaction then you actually lost 25 cents on the sale.
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