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credit card minimums

T

The_Fat_Boy

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do any of you guys have a minimum on c/c orders i have people coming in and eating the buffet and charging $6.49 i am losing 36cents on each one of these should i chg a fee on this or what

thanks
 
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Check your merchant agreement. Mine will not allow a charge like you are talking about.
 
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True, your agreement won’t allow you to charge a fee for using the card.

It does not, however, prevent you from giving a discount for cash - hint…hint…
 
I have same problems, with my 4 months old pizzaria… customer will charge 4.50 on credit card… I am planning to talk to my franchise co and than make a sign in front of register for minimum on credit card is $ 10.00. Try this …[/b]
 
Anonymous:
True, your agreement won’t allow you to charge a fee for using the card.

It does not, however, prevent you from giving a discount for cash - hint…hint…
Click to expand...
Bad way to alienate your card users.
Find a better service with lower prices.
 
Anonymous:
Anonymous:
True, your agreement won’t allow you to charge a fee for using the card.

It does not, however, prevent you from giving a discount for cash - hint…hint…
Click to expand...
Bad way to alienate your card users.
Find a better service with lower prices.
Click to expand...
I agree 100% While you may not be MAKING that $.36, You are making the $2(for example) and your competitors are not.
Derek
 
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When we started, we asked our customers to use their cards for purchases over $30. It was not a mandate, but a request. They were all very understanding for a few months while we worked out the pricing and volume of sales on cards. It turned out that we were definitely getting the poke in the eye if we do $10 orders, but we had to stick it out.

We ended up putting a small packaging charge on takeouts to cover the added expense for that part of the business without adding it to the delivery people. User fee for used service. Delivery fee only charged to delivery customers. Our customer base was sooooo glad to see the card machine appear that they wold have paid an extra dollar per order to be able to use cards.

It’s these d@mned special offer/premium cards that are beasts on the budget. Percentage on ‘cashback’ cards goes up so that we can fund their promotion for them. Ain’t it a kick?
 
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We put $10 min. sign on counter and it gets completely disregarded. Now, if cust. wants to charge a slice I’ll say something, but $6,7,8, and i let it slide. It sucks but not much you can do. i just switched merchants this month to save a few dollars
 
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just to make sure you don’t make the same mistake I did…I added the option to run debit cards with a pin pad, which only has a flat $.25 fee per transaction, but the pin pad lease was about $25 a month. I later found very few customers who wanted to use the pinpad, and I wasn’t saving any money. Finally switched to another local processor with lower rates, and ditched the pinpad system.

Also, watch out for the visa corporate cards…much much higher rates. your $.36 is probably $.50. good luck.
 
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we also have a $10 min… we get people all the time charging a drink or a slice of people… so now when they come we have signd saying there is a $10 min in credit and debit card purchases… and if people try to convience u to use it with an order less than the min, tell them that the machine won’t let you swipe transactions less than the min…
 
Finally we have something in Australia cheaper than you guys.

My card fees are 0.8% on Credit Cards and 1.1% on Debit Cards, with an monthly access fee of $9.00.

This is using a system form a different bank to which I use with the funds transferred to my bank account free of charge.

Interesting in Australia we are allowed to recoup the service fee on Credit Card transactions and some retailers add 3% to the bill to cover their fees. Many have fees up around the 3.8% to 5% depending on what type of business and the monthly transactions.

They have to by law dispaly a sign saying that xzy% will be added to credit card transactions to cover fees. I think this is worked into the software and automatically does it on the EFTPOS terminal.
Some customers even ask if we charge a fee - we don’t.

I shopped around and found a broker who specialises in EFTPOS and got a good deal. My own bank quoted 2.9% on Credit Cards and 3.8% on Debit Cards.

Now I use another bank for my transactions with the funds automatically going ito my account for free.

To me, I find that the extra business having an EFTPOS terminal and facilities far outweighs the minimal cost in running it. We average about 15% of our business on EFTPOS so it is good for us and also it means less cash on board in the event of a hold up/robbery.

Dave
 
No min.
I just want to sell the slice.
They’ll try a slice for lunch today, and I’ll make no money. Then they’ll be a twice-a-month delivery for the office or family from then on.
 
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RaymiR:
and if people try to convience u to use it with an order less than the min, tell them that the machine won’t let you swipe transactions less than the min…
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We do the same, as well as saying we can’t do cash outs as our system is not set up for it.
 
We charge a 50 cent fee for credit cards. Do 80-100+ per day. Even though it’s against the user agreement, almost no one seems to care. Taco Bell here charges a dollar to use your card. We charge 50 cents for checks as well.
 
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We refuse to outright lie to our customers. We won’t do that. The 36 cents isn’t that important to us. We tell them the situation and ask for their cooperation with our decisions and needs. We truly are not set up to provide cash back with our machine so that isn’t an issue.

I do know that other communities and marketplaces are more cutthroat and less sympathetic to businesses trying to succeed. I really do know we have an unusual situation in our town right now. I do urge businesses to operate and communicate with integrity, though. Lies can can around and take a big bite out of your butt eventually.
 
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RaymiR:
we also have a $10 min… we get people all the time charging a drink or a slice of people… so now when they come we have signd saying there is a $10 min in credit and debit card purchases… and if people try to convience u to use it with an order less than the min, tell them that the machine won’t let you swipe transactions less than the min…
Click to expand...
Glad I am not your customer – I will speed-dial all my credit card issuer’s and report you. AMEX / VISA / MC / Discover.

Why – as long as merchants put up with the HIGH charges – CC’s will continue – and you signed an agreement. You don’t want to pay the merchant charges then don’t take CCs.
 
It would have been a whole lot easier to have forseen the dilema and priced the buffet at $6.69 to average out those who use cards and those who don’t (and you still can).

Life is short…keep it simple! 😃
 
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you need to realize people unferstand why you put minimums, they know it cost money and when you charge $1.25 you pretty much break even… we haven’t lost customers becuase of it… when is close to 10 you let it slide… . in general I think the best thing to do is put an ATM in the store and eliminate CC in general…
 
Paul, did you program your POS to automatically apply .50 to charged orders? Did anyone complain? Please let me know.I love it because yes accepting credit cards makes me more money BUT, the profit margin on those orders is lower, and in last 18 months I’ve had about $1,000 in reversed chrges and chargeback processing fees. i t was partly my fault because on keyed in orders over the phione, we weren’t getting 3-digit # from back of card so I got burnt, even with signed slip.
 
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We have a button on our POS for credit card fee and one for check fee. We let the customer know when we quote their total"your total with sales tax and the 50 cent credit card fee will be $x.xx. Credit card charges cost me almost $1500 per month, not counting any charge backs. The fifty cents per transaction allows me to recoup most of this. If I ever get harassed too much by my processor, I’ll start printing on the menu that prices reflect cash discount.
 
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