Clean It Up

UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: jeff1966 on February 04, 2007, 07:06:12 pm

Title: credit cards
Post by: jeff1966 on February 04, 2007, 07:06:12 pm

Hi, been in the business now for 5 years now.Thinking of taking payments by credit/debit cards, anyone out their already doing it,is worth set up and running cost's.
             Jeff

Title: Re: credit cards
Post by: calmore on February 04, 2007, 08:20:44 pm

One cheaper method is to offer people the optio to pay with credit card on the internet, via paypal.

Title: Re: credit cards
Post by: AquaMagic on February 05, 2007, 08:53:09 am

We have been asked only 3 times if we accept payment by card, and like calmore we offer the paypal option nobody has ever taken me up on the offer but if they did id oversee them process the payment before i left.  Other than that i couldnt justify the fees involved, setup-monthly-mecrhant fee.

Dene

Title: Re: credit cards
Post by: rs_cleancare on February 05, 2007, 09:01:19 am

I also do window cleaning and most of my customers pay online via their bank account by transfering the money to my account.

I would think you would have to be turning over a lot of work to justify the cost of the machine.
On the up side your money is instantly in your account none of that waiting for cheques to clear.

Rob.

Title: Re: credit cards
Post by: Kev Loomes on February 05, 2007, 02:44:42 pm

It is a bit of a pain especially if you lose 3.99% of every sale to the bank for processing each payment. If you do £5,000.00 - £6,000.00 a month and endeavour to get most of them to pay by card, you end up losing hundreds!

The other option is to charge the custy the extra to cover yourself (like most industries), either by telling them the handling fee involved or incorporating it into your quotations. The last I heard, the best deal for processing payments was with the Bank of Ireland who only charge 1.5%  ;D so forget Natwest, Barclays, HSBC etc.

To be honest you could do without it, just by informing them initially that cheque (or cash) is required on the day. The theory behind CC payments is that they would be willing to spend more with you - but we never found that  :-[

Title: Re: credit cards
Post by: Glynn on February 05, 2007, 04:22:06 pm

If you get the right deal off the merchant account services it will save you money. I only pay 22p per transaction on debit cards and its debit cards that most of them pay with.

Title: Re: credit cards
Post by: Shaun_Ashmore on February 05, 2007, 08:29:21 pm

When you go out to survey you could take the payment or a deposit, you'll find

a. no cancellations
b. you can get a high price
c. monthly maintenance programme would be easy to sell.

Shaun