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credit card machine Questions

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misteroman

New member
Will be opening Very soon and just realized I don’t have a CC machine.I know there was a guy on here that worked for or owned a company that did that.Should I buy a new machine off of Ebay.
How do the fees work and things like that?
I have no experience with CC’s at all.
Thanks
Derek
 
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Check with your bank. Ours had cheaper fees than outside companies. Fees can be complicated depending on how much sales you have. We take MC, Visa, & Discover. The American Express fee is too high for us. We use a stationary machine and run the credit card through the shop. It takes awhile to get it set up. Good luck.
 
What are the fees you guys are paying. For going on nine years we have not taken cards. Each time I look, it seems like the fees end up being 6-7% of the average sale when you take the % and the “swipe” fee into acount.

We have considered taking them only for carry out and not for delivery. (We have no sit down) Has anyone tried that?
 
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bodegahwy:
What are the fees you guys are paying. For going on nine years we have not taken cards. Each time I look, it seems like the fees end up being 6-7% of the average sale when you take the % and the “swipe” fee into acount.
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Ouch!! We get steamed when we find 3.05% on those business cards with rewards. You can find aggressive companies out there that will get your average basic cost per transaction closer to 3% than 7%.

Here on the 'Tank (I believe), Scott at RBSLynk is a vendor wanting to be competitive and encourage our business with his company. www.RBSLynk.com email is [email protected] . I do not use his service . . . my current contract is still in force until January. We are going to bail on our current company as soon as we can find better rates from someone, anyone. Our services got bought out by Bank of America, and the service level has not been satisfactory, and the communications/information accessibility has been atrocious with BoA.
 
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Sam’s Club rates are less than 1.5% & $.15/swipe - best I’ve found…we bought a brand new Hypercom terminal for $200 for the new store - wireless solutions are extremely costly, as you must also fund the wireless call - for deliveries that want 2 charge, take the info @ the store when they order & process, then have them just sign the receipt
 
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I am paying 2.23% plus 15 cents per transaction. With all fees added up, visa and mastercard end up costing me about 3.1%. CC sales are aproaching 40% of my sales. You really should consider taking them.
 
Thanks Nick. The % quotes I have had are like what you are quoting, but then there is a per transaction fee on top of that. Something like 15 cents each when the card is present and 25 cents for manual entry (card taken over the phone).

How do you guys handle cards on deliveries?
 
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The fees I mentioned above are for swiped or hand keyed. It’s a bit high for swiped, but 85% of our sales are keyed so that is what mattered for me. When taking order for delivery, we just take # over the phone and have them sign the slip at the door. We don’t waste time taking imprints or verifying card. I average less than 10 chargebacks per year while processing close to 30,000 transactions.
 
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bodegahwy:
Thanks Nick. The % quotes I have had are like what you are quoting, but then there is a per transaction fee on top of that. Something like 15 cents each when the card is present and 25 cents for manual entry (card taken over the phone).

How do you guys handle cards on deliveries?
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We are looking at a congregate fees 3% to 3.25% of sales . . . including all the add-ons and sneaky fees. We do not have a PIN pad, so we are not getting benefit of that discount.

We do not currently take cards except at the counter. We are in negotiations with a vendor now who is trying to entice us to switch companies . . . mid-contract. They seem to think they can save us money even if we have to pay the monthly invoice fee to the other company until January when contract runs.

I suspect sales will increase a bit when we are able (willing to pay the extra cost) to take delivery order credit card payments over the phone.
 
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Here are some personal experiences I have had with credit cards.
There are 3 types of charges-qualified (swiped) mid-qualified (keyed in) and the non-qualified (the corporate card), which we pay for sky miles or bonus cash back).
I pay about 2.8 to 2.95%. This is the total charged me on a monthly basis divided by my total credit card charges. I used to use Sam’s processing, until last November, when I received a notice that they were going to charge me an additional $95. This was for the month of December and was due to the vast additonal charges for that month. The letter stated I may cancel my 3 yr. contract without penalty. I did.
I was once told that there are about 430 different rates. It is a risk factor and the higher the avg ck. , the higher the rate. There are several variables which need to be checked out before signing. Debit cards are a flat .25 per transaction. On a small purchase, the % is outrageous. So I removed the pin pad and only use the terminal.
When we have a delivery, we acquire the card no., run it and deliver it with the food.
I found a processor that does not require a contract. He feels that if he can’t give you the best rate, then you will cancel anyway.
He gives me 1.35% plus .10 per transaction fee. He also charges me a $5 statement fee, not the usual $10. fee.
I have used him for 6 months and have not had any problems.
It is a nightmare trying to find a decent processor. I have gone through 4 in less than 3 years. Best advice is to not get in a rush and do your due diligence. When you have found a great rate, negotiate the transaction fee first-- it has more of an impact on your $ than the %
Just my thoughts-sorry to ramble
 
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Bubba:
I found a processor that does not require a contract. He feels that if he can’t give you the best rate, then you will cancel anyway.
He gives me 1.35% plus .10 per transaction fee. He also charges me a $5 statement fee, not the usual $10. fee.
< < < SNIP > > When you have found a great rate, negotiate the transaction fee first-- it has more of an impact on your $ than the %
Just my thoughts-sorry to ramble
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It’s only rude to ramble when you don’t give the name of your vendor with great rates 😃
 
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Why NOT for delivery?
What will you take for delivery? Just cash and bad checks?
Just kidding - but really, CC is important for deliveries. They don’t bounce, they order larger, they tip better…

The remote swiper I think is a device not quite ready for prime time.
Pricey and delicate (your driver’s gonna drop it…leave it on the roof of the car…etc). I’d recommend getting setup with easy CC software (mine’s built into the POS) that lets you take the # with the order, then the driver gets a signature.
 
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MM:
Why NOT for delivery?
What will you take for delivery? Just cash and bad checks?
Just kidding - but really, CC is important for deliveries. They don’t bounce, they order larger, they tip better…

The remote swiper I think is a device not quite ready for prime time.
Pricey and delicate (your driver’s gonna drop it…leave it on the roof of the car…etc). I’d recommend getting setup with easy CC software (mine’s built into the POS) that lets you take the # with the order, then the driver gets a signature.
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Don’t take it because the cost per transaction is a good bit higher. We take cash and good checks . . . only two checks in three years have gone uncollected . . . very responsible customer base. Everyone knows we only take cards at the counter right now.

No POS in our store due to immensely low volume compared to what others may think is normal. When we get one, and have a good rate for manual entry of cards, we will leap upon phone orders and CC payment. Too little revenue coming through that stream to spend more % points on it. Customers write us checks no problem . . . and tip rather well, mind you.
 
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We just got out CC statement and are paying !.9% with a $15.00 monthy fee. No per transaction fee. This was set up through our local bank (an independent) and I know they must be going through a processing company but I can’t find that information. This is a nice and simple fee structure that’s easy to track in my accounting. I’ll try to find out the processor and let you all know. I changed to a processor that said they could do better but after 1 year it seemed so complicated that I wasn’t saving anything and couldn’t really figure out what I was paying.
 
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misteroman:
Will be opening Very soon and just realized I don’t have a CC machine.I know there was a guy on here that worked for or owned a company that did that.Should I buy a new machine off of Ebay.
How do the fees work and things like that?
I have no experience with CC’s at all.
Thanks
Derek
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Derek,
I can help you with that. Give me a call or email.

Thanks to everyone who gave me “props”!
 
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