Credit card billing

[firstchoice1]

For those that have done credit/debit card billing in the past. please share how you personally set up a program for your clients, who you used, and what it cost.

Ready...set....post!

[grandview (2006)]

Well the first thing you need is a merchant service to accept cc .Fees are anywhere from 1-5% of each transaction plus you have a monthly fee from the cc provider. As for billing you can set it up when they pay each time you cut or a monthly billing

[kaferhaus]

There are a zillion CC processing companies out there. Some are good, most are not. The "fees" will depend on your volume and other things like if you physically swiped the card (impossible in our case) or manualy entered the number (card not in hand) and all the little "hidden" fees the "scum" providers try to hide in the contracts. I went through several of them before I finally learned to take the contract to the bank manager before signing it... I don't pretend to know all the financial legalese that are contained in those things.

I pay 1.8% and no service fee or setup fee. But we run over 100K a month in CC's. We run the card the day before the service just in case.... Our schedule is in the accouting software and it's all automated once the "process payments" button is clicked on. If any are rejected it prints out a "exception report" within a few minutes.

[SfTD_service_CENTER]

on a lower level of card use it is all about what card it is! if it is discover, mastercard, visa, american express. discover and american express are the worst for me they take the most percentages. i would lose money on gasoline sales because they would take more than i was making percentage wise! really! i probly am at a volume of 10000 in credit cards monthly the rest is cash, check or debit what ever it all is a joke service provider i have now is good the one i had before i have been writing letters to to stop them from taking 12.50 a month out of my account but they wont stop lol they will soon when i drive down! cant close the account either it is a bussinesschecking account with intrest! nice! im the only person i know with one!

[kaferhaus]

discover and american express are the worst

Glad you mentioned those!

We don't accept them because the best rate I could get was almost 3% for those. Visa and MC only. I should have made that clear in my first post.

[firstchoice1]

"in CC's. We run the card the day before the service just in case.... "


What happens if there is bad weather and you can't cut the next day. or you can only do a portion of them and then get 3 days of constant rain?

[MowHouston]

I went through Merchant Warehouse.

Paying $7.95/mo - 2.1% + $0.20 per transaction.

I dont accept American Express. Separate application, and more charges, and not that many people have one.

I charge my customers the day after service.

[kaferhaus]

"in CC's. We run the card the day before the service just in case.... "


What happens if there is bad weather and you can't cut the next day. or you can only do a portion of them and then get 3 days of constant rain?

Well it's better that I owe them than they owe me!

If we can't get too it before the next cut (very rare) we'll credit them.

[firstchoice1]

excellent point, any software so I can automate is much as possible?

[SfTD_service_CENTER]

[QUOTE=kaferhaus;3062610]Well it's better that I owe them than they owe me!



haha i know right it never goes that way though! funny!

[Blue2000]

I setup a merchant services account with Bank Of America and Authorize.net and Cyber Source is my processor. I created a simple website and store using GoDaddy Website tonight and created some products for them to buy. I also created an email campaign to send them out monthly emails to remind them to pay their bill online. I am a new business so I cannot say how well it works yet, but it is very feasible for around $300 in Godaddy fees to create all this. I think the convenience of paying online will spread by word of mouth well and be a great advertising tool. please take some ideas from my site. Click on the online service plans to see how I set it up www.brevardlawns.com .... I will be happy to give some advice to anyone trying to do this...good luck

[barefootlawnsandlandscape]

firstchoice,

We process credit cards through Quickbooks Online. Just create an invoice, the credit card is already on file, receive payment right after you create the invoice. All my contracts are set up on a recurring template that e-mails the client their monthly invoice on the 20th. We process their payment on the first. All my per visit accounts are charged the morning I send the crew out to their house. That way if the card is declined I just send my foreman an e-mail to not perform services at that property. As was said before, I would rather owe them money than the other way around. If we aren't able to service them that day we are usually there the next day unless we have two rainouts in a row.

[mikey.hill]

I would recommend using authorize.net so If you ever need to process payment online you will be able to use your authorize account(they also do point of sale CC transactions). They are one of the top if not the top CC processor out there.

[mikey.hill]

I setup a merchant services account with Bank Of America and Authorize.net and Cyber Source is my processor. I created a simple website and store using GoDaddy Website tonight and created some products for them to buy. I also created an email campaign to send them out monthly emails to remind them to pay their bill online. I am a new business so I cannot say how well it works yet, but it is very feasible for around $300 in Godaddy fees to create all this. I think the convenience of paying online will spread by word of mouth well and be a great advertising tool. please take some ideas from my site. Click on the online service plans to see how I set it up www.brevardlawns.com .... I will be happy to give some advice to anyone trying to do this...good luck

Good on you man. Online CC processing is the way to go. Customers don't like giving their CC #'s out over the phone or on paper and for many older folks they find it fun paying for things online. We don't live in the early days of the interweb anymore where people were sceptical of this. Also I see people on here commenting about scanning CC's via their iPhone... my personal opinion on this as someone who has built a couple of iPhone apps and regularly deal with servers/CC processing and everything inbetween - is don't do it. mobile communications are notoriously insecure even with public/private key authentication. How many times have you lost your phone or lent it to someone to make a call - thats just asking for someone to compromise your system. I can't believe apple allowed this app even though it is incredibly convenient.