Credit Card???

I've missed some potential sales recently because I'm not set up for Credit Cards. Is it worth the cost? I've heard that the only large expense is the initial set up, after that the % of each sale is pretty minimal. Is this correct? Was just wondering what everyone thinks about this.
Jon

Jon,

Ask your bank to set you up with a 'Merchant Account'. There are several options regarding credit cards that go up in initial price and go down in percent costs based mostly on expected volume of business.

I have the basic set up where I have the old carbon imprint machine ( ka-chunk! ) instead of an electronic swiper. After I ka-chunk I have to call a number and push phone buttons for a few minutes to get the bucks into my account... if I had the swipey thing it would all be automatic. There are various fees amounting to $7.50 a month plus 1 1/2% of all sales, if I remember right, although it might be 2-3% . The percent goes down as biz volume goes up, so I have the higher percent because, relatively speaking, I'm not pulling in much compared to a store-front. Each month on a couple grand my fees are about $50. My initial cost was $50 or so since I had to buy the Ka-chunk machine etc. (Initial costs on the electronic swipey machine can go up to $500 or so.) Accepting transactions online is a whole 'nuther set up with some software etc. There should be no 'Fees,' to set up.

DONT go through some company that wants to charge you lots of money to get a Merchant Account. They are usually con artists who don't offer any follow up service and charge way too much. Put on your non-shop clothes and go through your bank. Or get a DBA account ( Doing Business As...) with a bank who -will- set you up.

I wouldn't be in biz if I couldn't accept cards.

Unless you are selling knives every day, skip the electronic machine. I have a non-cancellable lease, to the tune of about $30/month on mine, and I have never used it.

The best deal I got (finally, after having been burned a couple of times) was by joining the local retailers association ($70/year). The handle all my credit card transactions, the details of which are the same as Jonathan's.

Worth doing if you are serious about selling your work.

When you are dealing on the net a major credit card like VISA and telephone authorization is invaluable. It has helped my business grow considerably.

As a knife buyer, credit cards are essential, particularly for international purchases. In the past I have had to go to my bank and ask them to get me a cheque drawn on a US bank so I could pay a maker. I won't bother again unless I really, really want a piece of work. Generally, if I can't pay by credit card I won't pay at all.

I have been able to phone some strange foreigner , give my credit card number and get my knife a few days later by airmail.

Other people use PayPal which also seems to work well enough but of course that requires the customer to have a PayPal account too.


Roger

I have one of the electronic Retriver systems. They ain't cheap, mine with cellular setup was about $1,500. But is was a great investment. If you accept credit cards you will vastly increase your sales at shows. The old manual systems do work almost as well, but it is easier to get scammed because the money is not instantly transfered into your account. With the new Debit CC cards you can inprint his card and call to varifiy funds, but nothing will stop him from closing his account and being gone before you can get the transfer complete. Hey, it happened to a couple buddies of mine.

Thanks for the replies,
Guess I'd better get to the bank and get set up. I know of two sells I could have made and who knows how many others that I don't know of. Getting burned with the credit card probably happens but I would think it's a safer bet than checks.
Thanks again,
Jon

Jon take a cuise thru E-Bay and check for the swipers. They generally have quite a few up for auction. I gave Tom several of those burrs to mail to you w/ his stuff next week, hope they work for you.

Jon

You may also want to look into PayPal and Yahoo payDirect. They let you accept credit cards over the net and have the funds transfered to a bank account. You also need to look at BidPay. It is Western Unions online Money Order system.

Using any of these, the buyer can use a bank account or credit card and you don't have to carry the overhead of a commercial credit card account.

jim