Credit Cards? Who accepts them?

[Furness & Sons L&L]

Well we have put off accepting CCs as long as we could. At one point we were taking care of no less than 300 customers we are now around 125 great clients. At any rate none really ever asked or requested that we accept CC's. That was until the end of the season. i have a friend/client that workd for Compass bank here in town and he has set us up to now accept CC's. I have yet to actually take a payment as we just got it set up yesterday. My question is how easy or diffucult is it to deal/handle taking payments say for like a 100 or so plus clents? Do u sell more high end installs because u accept CC's now. Has it helped your bizness grow in a good way or does it attract the wrong kind of customers? The ones that charge everything sky high then cancel everything when they reached there limit? Just wondering what some others are dealing with as i have not seen much on this subject. Happy new year.:usflag:

[David Haggerty]

Sorry, no answers, just questions. How does that work? Are you accepting their card on site at their house and somehow instantly processing it? Or do you take their number on a slip of paper then take it back to the office and process it? Do they write their CC number on the bill & return it as payment?
I thought of setting up a PayPal account so customers could pay me on line. But you're dealing with a bank/cc company direct? What kind of documentation does that generate?
I have a bank account where people who owe me can deposit money. We only use it for tennants. We give them deposit slips and they write on the front what it's for. Then my bookkeeper-wife views the deposit slips on line and gives the depositor credit for payment.
There's no fee doing it this way, but it wouldn't work for 125 clients.

I'm searching for a good method of electronic payment. I believe the easier you make it for the customer the more business you'll do and have a higher percentage of collections.

[jbmillion]

We accept them..it has definitely helped land some jobs. I feel that if you dont offer them youre loosing out on some business...sometimes it may give you an edge over competition who doesnt accept credit cards also. The way the economy is right now it will definitely give you and edge and more and more people are paying with credit/debit these days anyways.

[jeffmoore]

Yeah we use them also. We have a machine that we take to each site and it stores the info till we get to the office then hook up to our land line and it process' it. It has made it easier for the customers and for us and we have landed more accounts because of it.

[ford550]

At this point we don't accept CC and to this date I have not lost any jobs b/c of it (that I know of). In the last five years, I might have gotten 5 requests and of those five, 4 did the project anyway. With that being said, I think this year might be a little harder. I say this b/c I think people are going to have a harder time getting home loans, ect., so writing checks is going to be harder, so I think this year I might consider taking CC b/c of the economic situation. JMO

[Furness & Sons L&L]

Sorry, no answers, just questions. How does that work? Are you accepting their card on site at their house and somehow instantly processing it? Or do you take their number on a slip of paper then take it back to the office and process it? Do they write their CC number on the bill & return it as payment?
I thought of setting up a PayPal account so customers could pay me on line. But you're dealing with a bank/cc company direct? What kind of documentation does that generate?
I have a bank account where people who owe me can deposit money. We only use it for tennants. We give them deposit slips and they write on the front what it's for. Then my bookkeeper-wife views the deposit slips on line and gives the depositor credit for payment.
There's no fee doing it this way, but it wouldn't work for 125 clients.

I'm searching for a good method of electronic payment. I believe the easier you make it for the customer the more business you'll do and have a higher percentage of collections.

To be honest I have no idea yet, The guy hasnt come by to give us the lowdown......with that said we dont anticapate it being a paper copy rather something that we use to run there card on site and then process it when we return to the office or they just give it to us over the phone or we have it on file(not leaning toward that one at all). Once we get setup sometime next week/month whenever the guy comes, we will pass it along. Im not chomping at the bit as we r in our slow season and the yearly customers all pay electronically thru there bank, or with a personal check.

[supercuts]

i do get asked if we accept them. not all the time but enough to make me consider it. i dont however, want to pay out $10K a year for their 3%. things have been workign and im booked but i do think about it.

[Scagguy]

i do get asked if we accept them. not all the time but enough to make me consider it. i dont however, want to pay out $10K a year for their 3%. things have been workign and im booked but i do think about it.

You can find a lot better deals than 3%. Go shopping for a CC vendor. I'm paying 1.5% through Chase bank.