who do you use to process credit cards and do you really need them?

[Reenie]

Just curious. I need to change my credit card processing company because they are robbing me blind! I'm asking if you would all share, here or pm who you use. Do we really need a credit card processing company now that paypal accepts credit cards without having a paypal account?
Customers do you have any preferences or would you buy using credit card through paypal even if you didn't have a paypal account?
Thanks for your help!

[nevadaglass]

I currently use power pay - its like 8.00/month flat rate and then like 2% on sales.....

What I like about it is no hidden charges. On months I don't have any sales - I pay the flat 8.00 / month. On my biggest month of sales which was like 1500.00. i think the total bill was like 12.00

I do have to admit tho - starting Jan 20th - I am going full time on glass, getting a new phone so am looking at picking up square up since its a swipe system.

What I hate about Power pay - customer has to wait on me while i dial all the numbers - takes in excess of 5 min especially on the obnoxiously small keyboards of a blackberry Torch.... dial 800 number, type in bank #, type in merch number, type in transaction type, type in card number, type in exp date, type in dollar amount, hit # key to bypass address, type in zip and hit the pound key after every entry while waiting for computer to voice it all back. hit # key again after every entry to verify its right.... blah blah blah - then if i didnt get disconnected on cell, I get a confirmation.

I do like that once confirmed, the money is directly in your account within 2 business days - no slips to turn in. I went to this system because its accessible at trade shows as long as there is cell coverage - didnt know about Square up until just recently from a LE post....even a slow transaction is better than no transaction at all because you cant take a credit card#-o

I do have a paypal verified account as well so I have had customers use paypal and use a card when buying from site but that doesnt work if you are at a show. If you take the card and wait till you get home to verify - its too late if its declined. they already have the goods. I had a pay pal virtual terminal account at 30/mo. but its too expensive and same thing - doesnt work when at a show - have to wait till you have computer access to authorize.

Exception - satellite card in a laptop so you can connect wireless at show but here in Nevada, lots of dead zones needless to say, I closed out virtual terminal.

[Reenie]

Yea....This would be more geared as a seamless website checkout. I don't want to swipe any numbers, this has to be strictly online! Coscto does have merchant services so I'm checking things out .

[paymentsguy]

sorry to just jump in here. i get alerts for this type of thing.

costco is expensive. their rates are extremely high. if i recall correctly they charge like $150 just for setup. :( ouch.

your local bank will be similar, although they don't usually charge a setup fee. rates are high.

if you are wanting to accept credit cards online, you are going to need:
1) a shopping cart
2)a merchant account
3)a payment gateway

3 is where is gets tricky. most shopping carts will use authorize.net, however you can find a merchant account provider that has a payment gateway that integrates directly into a shopping cart.

other options are,
1)paypal: high fees, easy setup
2)Square, GoPayment: high fees, easy setup, no online option
3)various online shopping cart/merchant account combos: not as high fees, more difficult to setup.

as for fees, you'll see "qualified" rates such as 2.04%, 1.79% etc. waste of time to figure those out.

You want interchange plus, preferable around .39%, no setup fee and around $10/month statement fee.

other things to look for are next day funding.

shoot me a pm if you need more help.

[hudson a]

Also check out Braintree - they are used by many online companies like LivingSocial. Unlike PayPal, your customers stay on your site and aren't redirected to a hosted page. Their service is top notch.

[Reenie]

any companies out there that you recommend me contacting?
thanks

sorry to just jump in here. i get alerts for this type of thing.

costco is expensive. their rates are extremely high. if i recall correctly they charge like $150 just for setup. :( ouch.

your local bank will be similar, although they don't usually charge a setup fee. rates are high.

if you are wanting to accept credit cards online, you are going to need:
1) a shopping cart
2)a merchant account
3)a payment gateway

3 is where is gets tricky. most shopping carts will use authorize.net, however you can find a merchant account provider that has a payment gateway that integrates directly into a shopping cart.

other options are,
1)paypal: high fees, easy setup
2)Square, GoPayment: high fees, easy setup, no online option
3)various online shopping cart/merchant account combos: not as high fees, more difficult to setup.

as for fees, you'll see "qualified" rates such as 2.04%, 1.79% etc. waste of time to figure those out.

You want interchange plus, preferable around .39%, no setup fee and around $10/month statement fee.

other things to look for are next day funding.

shoot me a pm if you need more help.

[ginkgoglass]

I use paypal for online sales and Square for people who don't want to input their credit card online. They can call me and I will process it over the phone. Square is better than Propay for example because there are no monthly or yearly fees, and using the square reader is easy for craft shows and individaul sales.

BTW I have an Artspan site and they have their own shopping cart which may be an option too if you want to move your website over there.
Setting it up there is pretty brainless.

[Laura B]

I use PayPal's virtual terminal. It's VERY pricey, but it makes it really easy for people to shop on my website.

[mtnlaurel]

I use intuits go pay . It was a great way go and I've never had any problems so far. Much easier than square up. There were several artists near me using square and they couldn't connect and I could. They send you a free processor, but I bought another as backup just in case- it was 35.00 for the backup. I think the website is go payment.com, but if you google intuit go pay it will come up. The rates were way better than I was paying!! By the way, im not affiliated with the company at all- its just been a great product. Oh- you do need a smart phone to process at shows. Hope this helps

[paymentsguy]

any companies out there that you recommend me contacting?
thanks

sure. pm me.

@Laura B, paypal virtual terminal is $30/month (i believe) and super high fees. easy to setup. another option for virtual terminal is a free terminal, $5/ month statement fee and much lower transaction fees. requires a merchant account and is just a tad more complicated.

As for GoPayment and Square, there are alot of "old school" processors coming out with competing products that will have similar rates and fees as virtual terminals (because that's basically what these apps are) now that PCI compliance is more comfortable with the model.

i cant post links so pm me for info.

[Reenie]

If you can pm with info go ahead. I don't know why it won't let you post links here. I'm heading out and i really don't know what to ask you in the PM besides what I've asked here. Are you associated with a certain company? That's kind of what it sounds like. I think others would love to hear about other companies that are cheaper but I'd rather do it in the open unless there's a good reason not to. I'm only saying this because for one, you're new here and came on the scene when I asked about payment options. No offense but that kind of raises a red flag to me.

[sunray]

I just switched everything to NPC National Processing Company.. I am impressed
with how much less it costs what we were being charged.

[Jody Lee]

Gopayment.. intuit's service is great. Smartphone swiper, app on phone, website.. its a great outfit.

[oxydoc]

I just switched everything to NPC National Processing Company.. I am impressed
with how much less it costs what we were being charged.

National has been calling me. I only use PayPal and checks right now. PayPal is one of the safest I know. National told me that a monthly charge of 10.00, free terminal and cheaper than PayPal rates, would help me greatly. I want to give my customers the option to use their card. National also boasts a 24 hour money transfer to your bank. jack

[MeganE]

Square and smartphone for shows, absolutely. Awful experiences with other cc companies. Propay was okay, but Square is far easier and less expensive for me. Deposits quickly to my bank account. No experience using online services except Paypal.

[dweezil]

We just cancelled National and started using the square. We were getting robbed blind for the months that we did not use it.

We like the square so far.
Dweezil