I've been working books on a bill and pay through check or cash system for years and years. Lately I've been asked about accepting credit cards by people from out of state more and more. I'm thinking of doing the mobile credit card route and I'm wondering about the good and bad parts as well as the costs of the process. Any comments are greatly appreciated.
My wife and I use Square, for a vacation rental property that we own. works good. Can take cards from USA and Canada. But not international. We only use it 6-7 times a year. no fees when not using it. Costs a percentage of the charge when we do. 2.75% if I remember correctly. easy to set up. Money is in your account fast.
Square here also. We tack on 3% as a "handling" fee to the customer. No problems or complaints. I only have one reader and it stays at the office and they call in. I don't send readers out with the operators to do billing in the field.
Always check the 'actual fees' charged in your statements!!! A few years ago we started taking cards using a PC in the office... when we first got set up they told us the 2.XX percent charges on everything... across the board... right.... so a few months later we're checking the statements( as cryptic as they are) and come to the conclusion they are closer to 6 percent fees!!!!. So after hours and hours of phone time trying to get a straight answer out of em' turns out the 2.xx percent was only applicable if you had the card in hand when entering the transaction!!! well most of our billing is done through the phone and the rep knew this when we signed up!!! and then we also got dinged 5.xx percent for taking american express cards( which they forgot to mention when we signed up!!!) there were a few other 'criteria' for the higher charges that I don't remember right now but you definitely need to check things when you get statements to make sure they add up to what the card company told you in the first place.
So how do you get a hold of the people a Square to sign up? Is there a web site or do you do it through a bank?
https://squareup.com/ Can do on line. Or call support number.
Thanks, I'll contact them in the morning.
Set up payments to an account that is dedicated to that purpose, nothing else. Then once you get a payment, transfer it immediately to another account. That way, iffn you are hacked, they can only get what is in that 1 account...
I've used square for several years. There are different rates for swiped vs keyed in. They are one of the pioneers of this service. I believe they even have chip readers available now. 24-36 hours you'll have your $ minus the fee. Great for cashflow. Consider a process for the data you'll collect with numbers taken over the phone. Don't want to be in the chain of custody if fraud occurs down the line somewhere. Very simple setup and good customer service, I don't recall having any issues with them.
The is super information. Those will make for good questions to ask. Thanks!
I use Square too. If you want to be compliant just type numbers taken over the phone directly into their website or app, do not store in your office anywhere. Then they are the only ones that have the info. They are set up to help you in this regard. I think I my wife has only taken one card # over the phone ever. I just create an invoice in my app for the amount owed and send it to the customer via email or a simple copy and paste link they give. Then the customer is typing it directly into Square instead. Also their commission is less if you let the customer do it. And the customer has the option of saving their number with your account so you can bill them again if necessary. Just a great system all around, they were the 1st, still seem to be the best and their commissions are as low as anybody. I still use the free mag reader, I know all my customers so not worried about fraud but you can pay a little and get a chip reader if you want.
That's some good information there boys.. I'v often thought about it too.. 80+% of my work WAS out of State.. & they either sent a check, cash or money order WITH the pump or I had to wait an additional 4-5 days for the "snail mail" to bring me the money.. which means the CUSTOMER had to wait an additional 4-5 days for their pump & factor in the 2-3 day shipping time for the returned pump & "a quick turn-around time" was/is out of the question.. What about cell phone reception when using the reader?? I live in a place that's VERY spotty.. A "CALL" is difficult to make, let alone sending data over the airwaves.. any comments?
Is your internet connection a land line, or through your cell phone? if its landline, you can do it like birken does and do it all through email and internet. We do a lot of entering of phone #, and they do not like that as well, fraud claims numbers go up statistically. Rarely are the credit card, the employee and crane, the guy who is paying the bill, and the reader all in the same location in our business. We use it mostly with out of town customers, but some local guys use it also. The great thing about square is the low up front cost, no POS (point of sale, not the other POS) that has a monthly fee and service agreements etc. Really pretty simple. Works great for us because we don't do a lot of tickets per day.
Also I don't waste a lot of time figuring out extra 3% here and there for credit card pay. It is getting more common so figured into hourly rate/prices of parts. You can discount for cash or check on site if you want to. Otherwise don't discount because chasing down paper checks is a lot of work also. When they pay by card you have the money now, easy to track and you don't have to run to the bank for anything.
I despise going to the bank.. as a matter of fact I just went TODAY & opened a checking account in my little small town. THAT was a small nitemare.. & when she told me they have a 2.99 maintenance fee per month!!! I almost got up & left.. I said whats the minimum for NO FEE?? she said 5 THOUSAND.. ***?? I opened it w/ 1000.00 I'm ONLY going to use it for cashing out of state checks.. & I bank w/ a BIG BANK for everyday transactions but there are none where I live.. It was either that or drive 40-50 miles EVERYTIME I get a check.. I "USED TO" drive 50 miles to the city for work everyday so banking wasn't a problem.. but now..?? It wasn't enough that I "GAVE THEM" 1000.00.. they gotta suck more & more outta me..?? GEEZ..
Search around, you will find other small or large banks, or credit unions, that will do it for free. Or you can just deposit your checks with a smart phone app. Then you will be able to fulfill sentence #1 and never set foot in the bank.
I did some checking with my regular bank today and their fee is 2.75% on all transactions with no fees unless you go a bunch of months without using their service. Then they will charge a fee for the equipment. They put the money in your account by the next day. Square charges extra if you have to key in the card information plus they have a transaction fee. This is all great info and I sure appreciate it. Thanks to all!
I wonder if it was Square and their competitors that got your bank to give that good rate. Used to be the banks got you coming and going. Nothing prevents you from doing it both ways, either. You could use your bank for phone orders and still get a Square reader and carry it with you on job sites to get immediate payment from a customer on site, and for generating online payment invoices.
Pump guy, I feel your pain. I too live in the land of slow or no internet. Uploading a picture or two of a check or swiping a card would likely time out. I have staked out pockets of service in a lot of the areas I travel, and got to stop on the spot. I live seven miles from internet (town)at my home. My kid is sometimes expect to complete school assignments online. He seems to want to learn skills anyway.
Square lets you turn on "offline mode". I do mobile work out in the sticks and I use it once in a while. You swipe the card as usual but with no connection it waits to go through until it finds a signal. Usually happens on the drive back. The risk is that their card was no good but it has not happened to me yet. I am pretty sure that if you have only wifi at home that Square will still work. Of course at home you can also do it on the computer screen so why use the phone. In any case it does not need a fast data connection to send 10 digits back and forth. Any connection will do so long as it is something.
Details make the difference. Square might be worth a try. I could just stop at the spot and collect.
I asked the question about the reader and you only get a swipe reader from square. If you want the chip reader you have to pay extra for it. The one from my bank has both and it hooks to my phone through blue tooth instead of through the head phone jack. Anyway I haven't done the deal to sign up yet. At this point it kind of sounds too good to be true. I'll make a decision after the holidays and work it through next year.
One more little detail is that the square swipe reader just plugs into the phone jack directly and always works. The chip reader or anything bluetooth has its own battery and of course you always know how that is going to go....
That is exactly one of the issues I'm thinking of. I'm thinking that one more piece of tech gear to have to keep the batteries charged.
You have a nice thinking and it think you should properly check its pros and cons from some professional php developer who have a great experience in this field.
^^ what kind of php developers were you thinking of? I only ask because most of the ones I see are busy inserting link submitting apparatuses into the ww stream for various reasons.