Credit Cards

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macmikeman said:
You can open a Paypal account and then customer's can use their credit cards to make a deposit into your Paypal account. The fee is applied only to the transaction, there is no monthly minimum, and it is competitive with the major card rates. https://www.paypal.com/us/mrb/pal=A7M2EBN5EB762 Let me give credit to my friend KB for letting me know about this really good method.
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I assume you use this? I'm considering using it also. The method that would apply (in person payment) uses what they call virtual terminal, which isn't free. So do you have a website that you have a customer go to or send them an email? These seem to be the only ways to use it with no monthly fee. What happens if the customer has no online access?
 
paypal mobile

paypal mobile

The three services currently available ? Obopay, PayPal Mobile and TextPayMe.com ? all let you send and receive money via text messages. You can send cash to anyone with a mobile phone number. With each, you'll need to sign up for an account online, linking a bank account or credit card. (Worried about security? You'll create a four-digit PIN to enter every time you request a transaction.) You may pay a small fee for the service, as well as a fee to your service provider for sending or receiving data.

Obopay.com creates an account that you can fund using a linked bank account or credit card, or by mailing a check. You'll pay 10 cents to send money via phone, and nothing to receive it. The software works with all service providers and phones.
PayPal Mobile works with your existing PayPal account to send and receive money. You can use your PayPal balance, or send cash from your bank account or a credit card. Text messaging features can only be used with select carriers, but anyone can call 1-800-4PAYPAL to place a request. You can also send money to someone's email address. All transactions are free.
Textpayme.com creates a separate account that you fund using a linked bank account or credit card. Right now, sending and receiving money is free, though fees may later be imposed. For 50 cents, you can opt to receive the money in the form of a mailed check, rather than claiming it online. The service works with all service providers and phones.
 
77401 , This is sweet. Mahalo for the added links. I really like the Obopay link. This will come in very handy for setting up a way to cover greens fee's without the awareness of my siginficant other, who discourages my golfing addiction. ;)
 
goldstar said:
However, he ended up with a customer that used his CC to charge over $20K for rough-in plumbing work. $400.00 is a hefty hit to take.
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is it better to take a $20k hit beacuse the customer used another contractor that took cc's?

if you decide to take cc's you need to add your anticipated fees into your overhead. or if you only want cc's as a lost resort, add the fee's to the bill. if you do a decent amount of residential service work, you quickly get tired of dealing with bounced checks. the cc fees are typically less than 1 bounced $1000 check that you will never collect.
 
We take them and it has really proven to work well. We also offer financing thru Wells Fargo. This doen't cost a cent to have and people who have bad credit know within 10 minutes whether they are accepted or not. I have found that the financing is the key to large purchases. That way if they don't pay, let the finance company go after them. It has tremendously boosted our business and set us apart from all the other electricians!
 
Here is the way i see it, accepting credit cards, can give you more business, we have many customers that use credit cards for their larger purchases, the jobs you want, if you are concerned about the service charges, and fees, then i may be you have bigger problems, could it be your profit margins are too low?
 
My credit card machine is mobile. I can take it with me and hook into the customers phone line and do the transaction from there. Then I just batch out at the end of the day at the office.
 
highkvoltage said:
My credit card machine is mobile. I can take it with me and hook into the customers phone line and do the transaction from there. Then I just batch out at the end of the day at the office.
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I found a girl on Craigslist that came over and hooked up to my phone line to charge my credit card the same way.
 
highkvoltage said:
My credit card machine is mobile. I can take it with me and hook into the customers phone line and do the transaction from there. Then I just batch out at the end of the day at the office.
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And the customer lets you remove the phone, from the wall? did any of these customers use your services again?
 
satcom said:
And the customer lets you remove the phone, from the wall? did any of these customers use your services again?
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Over here in the 90's and 00's we have multiple phones in our houses, not just the one on the kitchen wall anymore.
 
The house I just moved into only had the one telephone hookup in the kitchen. Only the previous owner had taken the phone jack with him, so we just had some wires coming out of a hole in the wall.

And he took the hose for the central vac unit. And half of the TV cable outlets go nowhere. And I can't figure out which circuit breaker works my bedroom. (Half of the panel was mislabeled). And sometimes when I turn my reading lamp off, the room lights turn on.

Renting sucks.

To contribute to the thread, Pay-Pal takes 1.9%-2.9% of the transaction from the party that receives the cash. I.E. the contractor. And every little bit helps. 2% of one job is ok, but 2% of a lot of jobs is not as cool.

:mrgreen:
 
Over here in the land of successful contracting, we build the cost of deductions to the total into the job. Our lovely state gets 4% of all gross transactions in the form of an excise tax. We big city electrical contractors also take that cost into account and build it back into the price of the job.
 
CarRamrod said:
. 2% of one job is ok, but 2% of a lot of jobs is not as cool.

:mrgreen:
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what difference does is really make? it's based on your revenue. The more 2% they take from transactions, means the more revenue you are making. Like macmike said, figure it into your overhead and reap a little bonus when people don't use credit cards. Do you think a customer will care if your bill is $100 vs $102?
 
We started taking them a few months ago, the cost is small, we do the transaction over a cell phone! To me it's worth the cost because we're having more people ask if we'll take a card.
 
understand something, the transaction fee is not an expense, it's a Cost of Goods Sold (like material) it's taken out of the equation pre-tax and should be added in to your rate.
 
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