One thing that I've really found useful with CC's is getting a deposit.
Often I will go out and give the customer an estimate, then a few days later get a call from them telling me to go ahead and do the work. When it's a bigger job like a service upgrade I require a deposit, the way I used to do it was to either setup a time to go back to their house to pickup a check or ask them to mail it to me. Now I just tell them over the phone that I could accept their deposit by credit card and 9 times out of 10 they go for it. Now with Square Invoicing, I send them the e-mail invoice, they pay on the secure website, and everyone is happy.
Another thing I do is I mention the fact that I accept credit cards while selling the work. People use credit cards as loans to buy things they don't have the cash for all the time, why should electrical work be any different? A customer might be more willing to add a few more hihats, a surge suppressor, or a generator connection if they know they don't have to pay right away
yeah, we are a credit culture.
the only thing i'd be concerned about, would be a merchant charge back from
a customer. i don't know how much recourse you'd have against that, if any.
i suspect that is more a problem with retail stuff than service providers.
anyone here ever have experience with charge backs?
on that credit culture thing..... it's weird, but CC companies are now all
offering 6 months no interest on CC purchases. almost all of them are.
i got one of those "preapproved" CC offers from capitol one, a business
oriented one, called spark, and i bit on it. logged on to the link they gave,
put in name and SS number, no banking information, and clicked submit.
figured they'd come back with a credit line of $1,200 or $800 or something.
nope... $30k, and a note saying if i wanted up to $50k, i'd have to chat
with a customer rep, and did i want to speak with one now?
a bit flummoxed, i clicked no. $30k is fine, thank you. geez. they don't know
squat about me....
but this "no interest for six months" thing had me wondering... i've got this
powerful lust for a new race bike running, so when the card showed up,
i authorized it, and bought $20 worth of gas to see if it really worked...
and i called up their friendly customer service folks, and asked about purchases.
yes, any purchase you make, no interest for six months. so i said the purchase
i was going to make, the merchant didn't accept credit cards... what do we do now?
they sent me a check for $15,000. no fees, no interest if paid within six months.
made payable to me. deposit it in my checking account, and do whatever i want
with it.
i read the fine print.... you don't want to go past six months, and you sure don't
want to miss a payment. past six months, and you get interest starting FROM
THE TIME THE PURCHASE WAS MADE, at 24% interest.
miss a payment, and you get interest, from time of purchase, of 30%.
guess they are really hoping i'll miss a payment. oops.:happysad:
