Official Luthiers Forum!

I am looking for a company whom I can take credit cards through. I don't want to use a PC or have a machine to scan cards. I want to just call in and verify a card via telephone. Do any of you have any companies that you are pleased with that you would suggest? Can you quote transaction fees and monthly fees for the services? Thanks in advance...

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

I have set up accounts (for my other businesses) with charge.com before. As I recall the fees were about $40 per month with a small transaction fee, and the normal discount rates on cc's.

Make sure you get your limit set high enough from the get go and make sure they understand that this will be a few high dollar transactions (not lots of low dollar transactions.). I struggled with this -- live and learn I guess.

I think you should consider the PC in addition to the telephone. That gives you some good info on your card holders and can help protect you (if only marginally) from scams.

Brock Poling38601.4448032407

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Tim,

What you need is called a "Merchant Account." Check with your bank, or check with Wells Fargo bank if yours doesn't offer Merchant Accounts. You should be able to get the Merchant Account for somewhere between $0 and $100 (they used to be $300!) You could go to bank websites and compare the per transaction fee, as well as the percentage. You will pay relatively high rates, unless you sell a bunch of stuff.

With the Merchant Account, you'll probably get a machine to physically imprint cards onto the multi-part forms. Even if you don't use the machine, you'll write the buyer's info and the transaction info on those little sheets, write "phone-in" rather than show the card imprint, and send a copy to the buyer.

Hope this helps,

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Also check out Costco. They offer credit card processing services here at a much cheaper rate and probably do the same there.

Brock, how about Paypal? I don't know, the fees may be too high, but I saw a luthier's site where he had the "add to cart" with woods, options, etc. and secure checkout all thru Paypal....seemed a little odd..."buy a 3000 dollar custom guitar thru PAYPAL!!! But it could work I suppose...

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Yes. You could do that. and I have have heard that pay pal will soon be offering merchant services with a payment gateway.

But the "regular" pay pal seems to have pretty high fees.

But you have to offset that against a monthly charge (in charge.com's case about $40) plus the discount rate.

In the end this is a convenience to the customer and should be a cost that is factored into the price of the instrument. IMO.   

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Yes! I'm in total agreement with that...in fact, I'm in the process now of deciding upon a case that I'll include with my guitars...the customer may upgrade from there, but not downgrade...it's amazing how a guy will spend big $$ for the guitar, then cheap out to save $40 on a CASE!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

I just need something portable that I can use at a few shows per year and also from the shop. That's why the phone-in way would work well for me. I can't take a PC and expect to have a phone line or wireless at my disposal and a cell phone just makes the most sense.

The best fees I have found so far are $50.00 set up fee, $7.00 monthly fee and 5% per transaction.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

I accept Credit Cards through my wife's business but Have found that most people prefer to use checks. I have only used Credit Cards 2 or three times. Besides. When a person is placing an order and the building isn't going to start for months and delivery even longer there is pleanty of time for a check to clear.

[QUOTE=Tim McKnight] The best fees I have found so far are $50.00 set up fee, $7.00 monthly fee and 5% per transaction.[/QUOTE]

The 5% is high but maybe that's an acceptable trade off for low monthly fee if you are rarely using their services.

Another company you can try is USA Payment services. Some people are using their cell phone service out here. I haven't used them but plan to check into it (for our real business) this winter when things slow downRoy O38602.0077662037