Head Spinning

[Vape]

Hi All :D

New to forum and also new to starting a new business.

My husband and I are opening a store and my head is totally spinning; I have looked all over the internet at how to accept credit cards and have no clue which way to go. Can anyone please offer me some advice?

I have looked at the Square Card Reader, Intuit, and Pay Anywhere. I've also been trying to find the best way to keep track of inventory, sales, etc. Sam's Club has an electronic cash register which is suppose to help with such, but does anyone know if any of the cards will work with an actual cash register?
Just wondering if it'd just be easier to go through my bank and get a credit card machine, although there are lots of fees attached.

Any help would be awesome.

TYIA

Melissa

[tallen]

Have you talked to your bank about whatever Merchant Services they can offer you?

[Vape]

Not yet, but I did some research at what banks charge for a credit card swipe then I see the flat % per swipe with no additional charges with the other card readers. But then I look at the pros and cons of those card readers... :confused: ...truly, that's where the "head spinning" comes in LOL.

[Vape]

Ok anyone ever hear of Leader Merchante Services? Are they reliable?

[Vape]

UUUGGHHHHH Nevermind, all I had to do was google their review and turns out they are a scam......head continues to spin

[tallen]

The other aspect to consider is the volume and type of credit card business you expect to do. Will you be taking orders online, over the phone, or only selling in-person? Do you think you will be doing $10K per month, month in and month out, or just a fraction of that, or a lot more than that? Will it be a lot of small dollar value transactions, or a smaller number of large dollar value transactions?

You can also use a hybrid approach; for example we use PayPal for online transactions, but swipe the card with a Square for in-person transactions.

[icetzou]

We currently use a POS system that comes with merchant processing, which makes everything easier. Also they guaranteed to match any competitors rates whenever, which they did one time I brought a quote from a competing processing company. It's the best way to go since the reports are detailed and together, so you don't have to add your credit card income to your cash income separately.

[KristineS]

We use Paypal - they have a card reader so you can swipe cards and you can also take online orders.

As for a POS system, this is the one (http://keyhut.com/pos.htm) we use. It's open source and DOS based. We've used it for a couple of years now and it's worked very well for us and you can't beat the price. ;)

[BIZDEV]

Costco and probably Sam's club offer this service for reasonable costs. Do not use a bank. They over charge as you have discovered. When I owned a retail store I used Costco's merchant services. You need to be very careful about the swipe machines. I had to sign a 5 yr contract and pay a monthly lease rate. The rate was reasonable, however I shut the store prior to the 5 yrs and I was responsible for continuing to pay the monthly fee. I opted to pay a one time pay off but it was steep.

If you are not a brick and mortar business then you can use PayPal and/or a card reader. Those have reasonable fees also.

[isleworth]

Paypal is better until you hit a certain threshold, then use a card processor direct. PP are far less of a headache when it comes to snagging accounts than they were a few years back too.

[Osprey]

it is a very competitive market...don't accept the contract as written - change the back out clauses....but make sure you follow all the rules.

[Vape]

So I actually ended up going through my bank for a credit card terminal. No contract i.e. if I belly up I'm not obligated to pay any fees. Also I purchased the terminal and I am not leasing. I was quite surprised to see the fees attached are not as high as I had seen online (going through a merchant company).

So if anyone's head is spinning (as mine was) trying to figure out which way to go (brick & mortar co.) go to your bank and see what they offer.

I just want to thank everyone on here for your suggestions. ;)

:confused: So now my next "head spinning" issue - I bought $100 Casio T-280 cash register and it's horrible! I've been, once again, searching online for POS software to turn my laptop into a cash register, but this software is way to expensive for me right now......so once again any suggestions would be great.

[Osprey]

there are a few "used equipment" businesses that sell that stuff. Also, check Craigslist - I found 2 of my workstations there.

[Linval]

What I did for one of business was to purchase a computer and a kiosk touch screen monitor. Then get an inventory software with the features I want. Also cash draw and receipt printer. Works out much cheaper this way. But experience needed.

[Fulcrum]

Depending on what your requirements are, how about using a pen, some paper, your head and a lock box?

[Green Payment Solutions]

Generally the bank does not really offer the best rate. Let me kind of show you how to calculate effective rate. Example if you do $1,000 of credit card business and the total fees taken from your merchant statement is $43. Your effective rate is 4.3%. That is not good. What I do is 43 divided by 1,000 which is .043. .043 is 4.3%
I hope that your effective rate is around 2.5% that is generally a good deal. Good luck

[RiskyBusiness]

Generally the bank does not really offer the best rate. Let me kind of show you how to calculate effective rate. Example if you do $1,000 of credit card business and the total fees taken from your merchant statement is $43. Your effective rate is 4.3%. That is not good. What I do is 43 divided by 1,000 which is .043. .043 is 4.3%
I hope that your effective rate is around 2.5% that is generally a good deal. Good luck

Although you're typically not supposed to endorse a competitor, Green payment is correct on both aspects. You always want to figure out what your true cost of processing is, all fee's included, using the formula described above. Commercial banks typically have higher fee's then a Merchant service company. Commercial banks are great for home loans, auto loans, CD's etc.. but not so much for merchant accounts. Like my father always told me, "Do one thing, and do it VERY well".

[gregcooper420]

Square and other card readers give the customer and merchant convenience and they also use advanced technology, like data collection which you can use in your marketing plan. Using the bank you have the large security system that large firms use.