Credit Cards

[superman]

I am looking into different companies to accept credit cards. Does anyone use a service that lets them just do it for the tax season? Everyone that I have found wants a monthly fee and it has to be all year.

Thanks in advance,
Superman

[erchess]

Three thoughts

There are older threads on this topic and you might search them.

You will probably get some people with up to the minute experiences.

I do not take credit cards but I have researched doing so. There is usually a monthly fee and if you use an electronic machine the amount of the payment taken by the company is less than if you use a sliding machine and paper which in turn is cheaper than if you telephone the payment in. The lowest fees I am aware of are with Google Checkout which has no monthly and a competitive percentage out of each but you have to send the client an email and the client can only pay by responding to the email but with a little creativity it ought to be possible to do this all in your office with your computer and you doing all the manipulations even if you have to resort to giving the client a free email account at hotmail or whatever. I know many merchants take Pay Pal but I have also heard that there are issues with getting your hands on the money unless you buy something and pay for it with Pay Pal.

[Lion]

Qb

I use QB merchant services (think it changes its name in November). It's not the cheapest but is competitive for my needs, and I get discounts being in the ProAdvisor program. I just need an internet connection. And, it dumps the information, both the deposit and the fees, directly into my QB file. I can take payments at my desktop computer from a client who's present or over the telephone. I can even connect via my iPhone, if on the road. I could put a link on my web site if I chose, for clients to pay online or use an email option as has been mentioned. They might have a seasonal option, since they're Intuit and market ProSeries and Lacerte tax software. Ask your tax prep software company what they recommend for seasonal use.

[taxmandan]

Negotiate

Alll of the terms of the merchant account are negotiable! We've been accepting cc for 5 years now and negotiated no monthly fee, and the lowest terms we could find. Check several merchant companies, COSTCO uses an excellent company and use that information to negotiate terms that you can live with. Initially they will try to get every fee they can, including high rental costs for a machine but the market is very competitive so you can insist on good terms.