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Accepting Credit Cards

Accepting Credit Cards (post #166471)

workthewood on Thu, 04/14/2011 - 14:33

Business

Quite a few years ago there were a few posts on woodworkers accepting credit cards from cusomers, however times have changed so can anyone give me an update on the easiest and least expensive method? I plan on doing two or three art shows a year (for the first time) and I would hate to turn a customer away because I don't accept credit cards. Obviously, I won't have many of these type transactions but I would like to prepare for them. Any suggestions?

Payment (post #166471, reply #1 of 4)

by Westchester in reply to workthewood [original] on Fri, 04/15/2011 - 05:26

If you have an e-mail address and a pay pal account - your customer can make a payment to your account

Talk to your bank and I think (post #166471, reply #2 of 4)

by hammerelbow1 in reply to workthewood [original] on Mon, 04/18/2011 - 06:48

Talk to your bank and I think I saw a phone that you can swipe cards on.

a few notes (post #166471, reply #3 of 4)

by VAM in reply to workthewood [original] on Mon, 04/18/2011 - 10:37

I used to accept credit cards. You can talk to your regular bank about what they offer. There are also card processing companies - ask local merchants who they recommend.

You want to pay as little as possible for the processing. We used to average about 1.9%. The higher the average ticket size for an entire month, the lower the percentage we paid. So we did not like to do charges for a low priced item, because it could lower the monthly average, and cause us to incur a higher percentage fee for every ticket that month. Also remember you are paying the fee on the entire ticket - inclduing sales taxes and shipping, if any.

You need to accept MasterCard and Visa. We did not accept American Express because they wanted us to pay more than 5% for their processing. In ten years we lost only two sales by not accepting Amex. Out of more than 20,000 sales.

You have two choices at the show. You can run the card through a sliding holder to get an imprint and have the customer sign it. Then phone in the information when you get home. This is riskier than the second choice which is to have the card verified while you are at the show. You probably need some way to do this through your cell phone - but we never did this.

If you are selling items for future delivery, just taking an imprint and having it signed should be fine. If you are selling items for people to take away I'd recommend some kind of on-site verification.