Yep, we finally joined the 90s and started taking credit cards.
We did the full POS intergration which went smoothly. We use PRISM by Microworks and they worked directly with our CC company Heartland to get us up and running.
No complaints on either count. Today is our third day of CC business and we are at about 30% of sales happening on the cards.
Fees are cost plus 5 cents. Cash is deposited in our account on the second business day after we run the batch.
I don’t have a sense of whether it is helping sales yet, but we sure can see the driver tips now.
Welcome indeed!!
cost plus 5 cents each trans seems pretty cheap. Usually it is fee + % of total. 2 days is normal for visa/mc - amex is the worst they take 3-4 days + alot more expensive.
in your town it should increase quite a bit with tourists etc, not always carrying cash.
Plus with business travelers your drivers should see a little more generous tips, imo.
bodegahwy, please keep us posted to how your cost plus 5 cents works out. I would be interested in what it comes out to as a total percentage of credit card revenue. Also, isn’t the Prism integration easy? I know you never took them on separate machines, but tendering them and tipping them out on Prism is so simple.
Wow, welcome to the 20th(21st?) century! I’m sure it will boost your bottom line! I can’t imagine NOT taking them. Let us know how Heartland works out for you.
We have grown from about 400K to 650K over the last 3 years taking cash and checks. Bad checks have been about $200-$300 per year. Which was a lot cheaper than paying card fees.
When we opened in 1999 nobody really complained about not taking CCs. Over the years, most people that wanted to pay by card were fine paying with cash, but in the last year or so it has become very clear that we were loosing business.
We have been using PRISM since we opened. I have never had any complaints with the service. The CC installation was no exception.
Heartland’s deal is that they pass through whatever the originating bank’s fees are and add 5 cents, that is it. There is a $20 minimum fee per month based on that 5 cents which comes to about 14 transactions per day. Considering that we have only been taking them for three days and are already taking that many, I don’t expect it to be an issue.
People who pay for their food with a credit card spend 30 percent more on average than people who pay with cash, according to a Visa study of 100,000 restaurant transactions. Thirty percent more money, translates into more food.
I just switched to CardPayment Solutions myself. Ask for Allan Bernstein. I cant wait to see our next statement and see the difference. PM me if you want his cell number, I don’t want to be accused of being a spammer!
What is considered good? I just took my last statement and fiqured out that I am paying 3.8% of the total credit card amount in fees and service charges. So for every $1000 in credit card sales it is costing me $38.00, is this a good rate?
Rob T, the rates for mid qual and non qual you are asking about come from the issuing banks NOT from the processor and the processor passes them along plus whatever they add. The varying underlying rates on the transactions you are talking about are the same for all processors until they add on to them. In other words, a non qual transaction on a card from citi will be charged to the processor at the same rate regardless of who the processor is. With Heartland, the addition is 5 cents on all transactions, qual, mid qual and non qual. Further, no batch fees, no processsing fees, no statement fees.
The terms of the agreement and fees are spelled out on the website where I can log in any time and look at them as well as at all transactions at any time.
Just a note about tips and credit card companies. The IRS uses your credit card reciepts to determine if your employees are under reporting tips. So beware, during our recent IRS audit that was one of the things they looked at. The ‘ol’ we don’t know if our drivers (servers) make tips no longer flies. We can’t possibly police the amount of tips they are making, won’t fly either. So watch it.
There are publications which help keep us protected.
publication 1872, 1244, 4070A and 4070.
I now give all our employees a copy of Tips on Tips (Publication 1872) and have them sign they recieved and understand it. I compiled another sheet which is a combination of the other publications and they have to fill it out daily. (It logs credit cards and cash tips) They fill it out and have to sign that is the amount they receive. I also have on there they understand it is the law and our policy to report 100% of their tips.
We have always kept good records but after being audited my goal it to be even more diligent on record keeping. We received a “no change” determination but it was scary all the same.
Just wanted to throw that out there in case anyone slacks in these areas.