Author Topic: Accepting VISA / Mastercard  (Read 8138 times)

Offline DavidHenshaw

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Accepting VISA / Mastercard
« on: August 31, 2006, 09:14:48 PM »
Is it very common in the business to have a homeowner use a credit card or a debit card to pay for the painters services.

Offline brushworks

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Re: Accepting VISA / Mastercard
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2006, 09:29:18 PM »
When accepting charge cards, you must be sure your pricing structure includes the merchant fees as part of your overhead.

We use some cards that charge us 5%. If we don't price our products accordingly, we'll lose 5% on every sale.

Be careful.

Michael
When asked, "what do you do for a living?" I reply, "I market the world's best windows and doors."

Offline funcolors

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Re: Accepting VISA / Mastercard
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2006, 10:36:18 PM »
You can also look into using Pay Pal.  There is a fee, max is 2.9% + .30 I think, and it is rather convenient.   I find a lot of people already have Pay Pal accounts set up as it is.  You just send them a Pay Pal invoice in addition to whatever paper quote you left, and they can make a deposit or pay in full pretty efficiently.

You don't need a website, just email. And they don't HAVE to have a Pay Pal account. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_email-payments-overview-outside

I've had clients log on and pay before I left the site.  I set pricing so clients get a 3% discount if paying by check or cash so the Pay Pal fee is always built into the quote and I don't have to think too much about it.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2006, 10:43:57 PM by funcolors »
Funcolors because color should be the fun part.

Offline brushworks

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Re: Accepting VISA / Mastercard
« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2006, 06:49:19 AM »
Lori,

Fantastic suggestion!

I've been too busy to think of that.

Thank you! I'm going to put that together this week for some of my COD dealers.  :)

Michael
When asked, "what do you do for a living?" I reply, "I market the world's best windows and doors."

Offline Paint Mode

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Re: Accepting VISA / Mastercard
« Reply #4 on: September 02, 2006, 08:31:34 PM »
  Man, the fees they want for having a normal charge account is crazy unless you're doing lots of charge cards. I've done one through paypal before, but reading the link you posted, it doesn't say anything about the customer not having to have a paypal account, and I'm not sure how true that is.

Offline funcolors

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Re: Accepting VISA / Mastercard
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2006, 11:55:22 PM »
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/req/index-outside

The invoice you send to a client without a Pay Pal account is just like any other ecommerce transaction.  You don't have to set up an account to order from Amazon, for example -- you just have to Register.  Which is different than having an account per se.

And, just like purchasing an item from Amazon, they simply click to pay and enter all of their credit card information, confirm & send, and they get an email receipt of the transaction.  The "click to pay" button will be in the emailed invoice you send them via your Pay Pal account.

So yeah, they do have to register with some information, take less than 10 minutes.  A lot of people do have Pay Pal accounts where they regularly purchase or sell on Ebay for instance and can just pay from there.

Hope that helps.  I explain it as it is just like any other ecommerce transaction they've ever done and that usually helps.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2006, 01:18:36 AM by funcolors »
Funcolors because color should be the fun part.

Offline Flawless Finish

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Re: Accepting VISA / Mastercard
« Reply #6 on: September 03, 2006, 01:34:47 AM »
In this profession, Paypal would be the way to go. Almost everyone has a computer or access to one. There are companies that target small businesses that allow you to process the credit card by calling an automated service and entering the information. They charge quite a bit though and even more if you don't use them so much in a month. I got sent a lot of offers from these companies when I registered my name with the state.

Offline brushworks

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Re: Accepting VISA / Mastercard
« Reply #7 on: September 03, 2006, 08:21:46 AM »
Did my first transaction on PayPal yesterday! :)

We do not accept Discover or AMex. We do now, but through PayPal.

And yes, the page does say, "no paypal account is required". It can all be email based with retail customers.

We simply emailed them our Quickbooks invoice, they clicked "pay online"..and I'm done! The payment is posted to our account in minutes, the customer's windows are ordered.

No delays, no waiting on checks, no bank financing involved....life is beautiful.

My customer is happy!

Our other card companies are going to be taken to task about their fees too. I'm going to ask for a decrease based on the paypal transaction fee. If they move down, good, if not, I'll do all charge transactions via paypal.

Also, you can "send" money! That means my dealer can actually wire his payment to me via paypal. No checks, no mail, no envelopes, no stamps..and best of all..no waiting on my end.  :)

Thank YOU, Lori

Michael
When asked, "what do you do for a living?" I reply, "I market the world's best windows and doors."

Offline funcolors

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Re: Accepting VISA / Mastercard
« Reply #8 on: September 03, 2006, 04:06:20 PM »
8) Cool, Michael!  Glad it worked out.  As you know I have clients all over.  Payment by check is the norm, but PayPal has helped out a couple times.

Other on-line business that I've used and have been really happy with are www.overnightprints.com and www.mycorporation.com.  MyCorporation helped me out with trademark and copyright stuff for my logo and business name.  I recently redesigned business cards and info post cards - got 250 bcards and 500 pcards from Overnight Prints for less than $150.  They are both full color and two sided.  Here's links to the files I submitted.  Being a graphic designer, I threw A LOT at them, as you can see from the links.  I'm pretty happy with what I got back - the final results look way better than these files.  The gloss UV coating ratchets up the high-end look 1000%.
 
Business Card Side One  http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b78/funcolors/BusinessCardGIF-1.gif
Business Card Side Two http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b78/funcolors/BC2.jpg
Info Card Side One http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b78/funcolors/postcardfrontpagetextJPEG.jpg
Info Card Side Two  http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b78/funcolors/PostCardPage2TextJPEG.jpg

Point of my sharing is that there are a lot of very affordable services out there to help very small to small business show how professional and put together they truly are.

P.S. I forgot www.godaddy.com for purchasing your own doman name(s) - I own several.  My web page is more complicated than most -- or really necessary. A simple one page web site is better than none, IMO.  Having a web site gives a small business a cache of importance for little time, effort and money. Even if you don't optimize for the search engine robots, you have a site and can put the address on your business cards.  The Web Page Builder features at Go Daddy, and similar hosting services, are easy to use and super cheap.  Owning your own domain name is extremely important.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2006, 04:17:08 PM by funcolors »
Funcolors because color should be the fun part.

Offline brushworks

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Re: Accepting VISA / Mastercard
« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2006, 07:02:36 PM »
I second that. Owning a website is very important. For my business, we receive very little inquiries online. However, when a prospective dealer or retail customer asks if we have a website, a "yes" instantly validates us as being in business. It's 2006, and a website means as much to some as a brick store front.

Michael

When asked, "what do you do for a living?" I reply, "I market the world's best windows and doors."

Offline Paint Mode

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Re: Accepting VISA / Mastercard
« Reply #10 on: September 06, 2006, 10:02:10 PM »
  Wow, I thought there was more complication for the customer through paypal, but I'm glad to hear that it's not.
 
 
However, when a prospective dealer or retail customer asks if we have a website, a "yes" instantly validates us as being in business.


  Agreed. My favorite line while leaving an estimate is "You can check out our website to see some of our work as well." I usually get a surprised "oh, ok." which I think is a good thing.

 

anything