Although I take credit cards through Quickbooks Online occasionally, most customers don't seem to care. I do build in 3%. If you don't like credit cards, they have an easy bank transfer option built into the invoice you email. All the customer needs is the invoice link and account/routing number. Costs like .50 for the transfer.

You mean the invoice has your routing and account numbers, or they click on your link and enter THEIR routing/account numbers?

They click and enter their info.

We take cc cards on occasion using Square. Mainly on service calls. Sometimes on small projects on deposits as well. Less than twice a month.

^^ I'm about the same. I couldn't care much less about a $200 service call with a $6 square charge on the back end. It's a time-filler, labor job anyhow.

However, my basic Excel quote and Jetbuilt proposals state 3% surcharge for credit cards. If someone was to ask I say I don't want to pay for peoples miles, or pass that cost on over time. Most people say cool, here's the check. (I have yet to have someone get into the minutia of what charging for credit card use means, vs what cards are accepted and all that BS).

All credit card processors charge 2.5-3.5% unless you are doing massive number. Its part of doing business and we happy accept them.

Somewhere in the first five or so years of our being in business, a guy came to one of our monthly meetings and gave a talk called “look before you discount”. In a nutshell he urged us to consider what our overall profit margin was before we gave away a “measly 10%” on a sale.

If the sale happened to be a system consisting of a number of pieces and had 20% profit overall, that measly 10% amounted to 50% of the profit given away. That sounds a lot more serious than a measly 10%.

So simply absorbing 3% of your profit on a system needs to be looked at carefully. Depending on your overhead and all expenses considered, you might be giving away 1/3 of the profit of the system. It may be more sensible to charge for taking credit cards.

Unless you want practice running a non-profit organization. 😀

From the link-"The practice of always charging customers a fee for credit card payments, no matter how the transaction takes place, is called a surcharge. These are currently prohibited in 10 states—Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Convenience fees are a subset of credit card surcharges, and are permitted in all states. However, laws govern when a business can and cannot charge their customers a fee.

Convenience fees, like surcharges, must be clearly displayed at the point of sale. Therefore, if you discover a fee only after the transaction is processed, you can submit a complaint with your credit card network. The network will then follow up with the merchant in question.

Credit card convenience fees can only be charged when a merchant is offering an alternative method of payment, one that's different from how it normally conducts business. This distinction exists because the fee is applied towards the way the transaction is handled, instead of the actual payment method. To clarify: a museum in New York may not impose a convenience fee at the register, if that is how most people buy their tickets. However, if they launch a program which allows individuals to purchase tickets online by inserting their credit card details, a convenience fee may be added. The convenience fee is paid because of the payment by online, and not specifically because the customer used a credit card.

The rules that govern convenience fees do not apply to government and educational institutions. These organizations are allowed to charge convenience fees both in person and online."


[Link: valuepenguin.com]

If I do a lot of labor on a project, it's less of a hit than if I were to sell TVs, BD players, Sonos (through distribution), EERO or other goods that have short margins, but I'm not giving up 3% just because someone wants more miles or other benefits from the card.

Thank you Daniel.

I tell them up front that a Credit Card over $500 is 3% added. Most people don't mind it. They want the points. And like Hasbeen stated, people tend to spend a little more knowing that they don't have to fork out the cash immediately.

that being said, I take PayPal, Square, and occasionally will take a wire transfer. I want to make it convenient as possible for the customer. I want my/their money as quickly as they are willing to part ways with it.

You can't do that here in CT.  What you can do is list that your price is a cash/check discounted price on your invoices and proposals. I haven't had anyone want to pay by CC since I added that to our paperwork.  We used to only accept a CC up to $1000. Now, we just remove the discount and charge "full price" if they want to use CC.

In the higher 1%s with Chase Paymentech.

We use Helcim https://www.helcim.com/