Credit Cards
 

Anyone have any experience taking credit cards? Up to this point I've only taken checks/cash and haven't had any issues with someone paying. I wondering if it could help bring in more brides if they could charge it to a card.

I signed up for Square on my phone, so I can swipe a card and the money goes into my account (minus fees). Anyone have any experience in this area?

Daniel

Re: Credit Cards
 

Hi Daniel

I have used PayPal for brides and have had a couple of deals where they wanted it on their cards and I had no issues and no problems at all. Not sure if the fees are more or less than your system but it's free to register and clients can used a variety of cards with the system too. They also have simple code to create a payment link from your website which works well! They are owned by eBay so they seem pretty good and I have had no issues in the nearly 10 years I have been with them

Chris

Re: Credit Cards
 

I use PayPal too. It's easy to set up a business account. Once you do that, you can also use it to create and email invoices. There are also some rudimentary tools for keeping things organized.

Re: Credit Cards
 

I'll look in to paypal! Thanks.

Re: Credit Cards
 

I once worked for a company that shot a ton of weddings and didn't take credit cards. They have a lot of bad paper and orders sitting on the shelf which would have been much less if they took cards. Make it easy for people to do business with you. I think any solution that lets you take credit cards without incurring monthly usage fees is awesome. If you have a customer who is financially constrained (e.g. not cheap, they just work a minimum wage job) you can set up periodic payments on PayPal. Also look into Buy It Now or similar options.

Re: Credit Cards
 

I have been using a Paypal business account for the past 5 years with no problems. The new invoice program with payment link is great.

Re: Credit Cards
 

Yes, you should be taking credit cards. With the advent of Square and GoPayment, you can easily swipe their physical cards in person, or use PayPal to send invoices and receive payments online without the monthly fees of a traditional merchant account.

In general, people will pay more timely when they can just put it on a card.

Re: Credit Cards
 

Square, Paypal and the others that are available allow you to TAKE MONEY when the customer is ready to give it to you. That's the #1 rule in business, DO NOT make it difficult for the customer to GIVE YOU MONEY!. With each added level is difficulty the customer experiences in paying you, you will experience a drop in total sales.

If you go shopping for the big ticket items you will often hear the salesman mention "buying it today". The reason you hear that, it has been proven, if the customer leaves without making the purchase, chances are he won't ever make it from them.

As far as the fees, it's varies but typically in the 3-ish% range. The thing with fees, consider it just part of your cost of doing business. 97% of a deal paid on CC is far more than 100% of a deal you didn't get because you didn't take them but the next guy did!

Re: Credit Cards
 

I think that sums it up right there! Thanks

Re: Credit Cards
 

Also, keep in mind that the bride will generally spend more if you remind them to put it on their card in order to get more travel miles or points.