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The rates aren't that competitive. A true merchant account can be had with no monthly fees and about half of the 2.9% paypal charges. True merchant accounts also don't hold or freeze your funds like Paypal does nor do they give customers money back for no reason.
I didn't see that they have monthly fees, but the $0.30 they charge per transaction is ridiculous. I didn't realize they did that. It depends on the amount of transactions and how big the transactions are that he is doing. If it's a part time gig, I don't see him being about to do better then 2.5% through a traditional merchants service. I haven't looked at the mobile merchant service providers in a while, but Square or one of their competitors is likely the OPs best bet. Quicken had a good one at 1.5% with a monthly fee of $10, or no monthly fee at 2.0% (I think), again the last time I looked was probably a year ago. We use Heartland Merchant Services and like them. Our rates are a little higher then what we would like, but the service is good and being able to keep track of sales on a cloud database is nice. We average around 2.5%. We've been using them for 2 years, and have been considering changing to Square, Quicken, or someone else at the start of the year and using an IPad as our POS.
I didn't see that they have monthly fees, but the $0.30 they charge per transaction is ridiculous. I didn't realize they did that. It depends on the amount of transactions and how big the transactions are that he is doing. If it's a part time gig, I don't see him being about to do better then 2.5% through a traditional merchants service. I haven't looked at the mobile merchant service providers in a while, but Square or one of their competitors is likely the OPs best bet. Quicken had a good one at 1.5% with a monthly fee of $10, or no monthly fee at 2.0% (I think), again the last time I looked was probably a year ago. We use Heartland Merchant Services and like them. Our rates are a little higher then what we would like, but the service is good and being able to keep track of sales on a cloud database is nice. We average around 2.5%. We've been using them for 2 years, and have been considering changing to Square, Quicken, or someone else at the start of the year and using an IPad as our POS.
0.25 or 0.30 cents is pretty standard for processing. Especially considering if your a low volume seller going through stripe, square, paypal, etc. Your paying no upfront fees and no commitment so they gotta get their money somewhere. Sometimes you can get rid of that 0.25 or 0.30 cent or at the very least get it knocked down if you sell low cost items to where that makes up a significant chunk of your payment. on a dollar item or dollar charge thats 30%.
i dont know how thye do it but ive seen some processors at interchange which i believe is 1.5%. payline does that or something similar as well as charge.com on many accounts.
theres a new system called kash thats like 1%, however its like an ach type thing not cards.
0.25 or 0.30 cents is pretty standard for processing. Especially considering if your a low volume seller going through stripe, square, paypal, etc. Your paying no upfront fees and no commitment so they gotta get their money somewhere. Sometimes you can get rid of that 0.25 or 0.30 cent or at the very least get it knocked down if you sell low cost items to where that makes up a significant chunk of your payment. on a dollar item or dollar charge thats 30%.
i dont know how thye do it but ive seen some processors at interchange which i believe is 1.5%. payline does that or something similar as well as charge.com on many accounts.
theres a new system called kash thats like 1%, however its like an ach type thing not cards.
Maybe those per transaction fees are standard or common for mobile processors, but that's not common for traditional merchant service providers. The 2.5% we pay includes all monthly fees, well everything. We can do 50 transactions a day being a restaurant and I imagine that is on the low side for most businesses. I would never accept a processor that charges a fee per transaction. But again, if a business has an average transaction of hundreds of dollars, like a contractor, then it could make sense.
For example we sell a lot of soups and those receipts are typically under $5.00, we still pay about 2.5-3%. Larger transactions we pay a smaller percentage.
Edit: I should have added, we've used 4 different processors over the years and talked to a handful more. I do think a couple providers we didn't use had transaction fees, but I was thinking they were like $0.05 per transaction.
For paypal I notice the fees are 2.9% and $.30 per transaction. Do you put these fees on the customer or do you absorb them?
I run a small animal caregiving service. Until recently I only accepted cash or check, but I'm noticing that my newer clients want more options. I have a PayPal account and I don't mind using it, but I just don't know what to do about the fees... my rates are below market for where I live and I want to charge my customers using this service the 2.9% and $.30. For one of my clients it is $7.56 extra per month. I certainly would prefer to write out a check each month instead of paying that fee, but it's her money.
Is this how I should do it: She wants to pay me twice each month and I'll let her know that she needs to add on an additional $3.78 to each payment?
You're not supposed to charge different rates, as that can violate some of the terms of your agreement. Some offer "cash discounts" for the difference. I don't know if they have been litigated, though.
What you have to figure is if you get more than 3% business by accepting credit cards. If you do, it's a no brainer.
You're not supposed to charge different rates, as that can violate some of the terms of your agreement. Some offer "cash discounts" for the difference. I don't know if they have been litigated, though.
What you have to figure is if you get more than 3% business by accepting credit cards. If you do, it's a no brainer.
A few years back they actually changed the law, you can charge I believe its up to 4% for paying by card, there's certain rules you have to follow in terms of disclosures and I believe you have to notify either your merchant processor or visa/mastercard.
Another option is to use something like Kash, which is like an ACH type transfer. They charge only 0.5% and is almost as convenient as cards. You may also want to look into using Venmo.
If you don't need to take credit cards regularly, another option is using the fairly new paypal.me feature. You set it up and give your customer the link to pay you online. If they use a credit card, they pay the fee on their end.
You can give them a card with the link on it or email it to them. It looks something like this (with your info): paypal.me/mycompanyname/120
We used it for our club dues.
Tell cust to get a paypal account and tied it to there CC. than tell them to gift you your fee. IT doesnt charge you the fees.. that a workaround i do when i sell stuff on the side.
Tell cust to get a paypal account and tied it to there CC. than tell them to gift you your fee. IT doesnt charge you the fees.. that a workaround i do when i sell stuff on the side.
Very bad advice if someone sells volume Paypal will realize your just trying to avoid fees and will shutdown your account eventually.
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