Accepting Plasic anyone?

[AZ-Tax]

I did a search and found a thread going back to 2006. Is anyone currently accepting credit and/or debit cards and if so what type of fees are are you paying?

[taxmandan]

We accept plastic

The convenience is worth the cost IMO, many people like me use a debit card and seldom carry their checkbook or much cash. I intended to use the COSTCO merchant account thru NOVA services, without a doubt the lowest fees around. I had used NOVA in another business for 8 years and they were great and low cost. However, my local bank said they would match NOVA's fees so I signed with them for 3 years. Typical bankers, liars all. After the first year they tripled the annual contract fee, said it was VISA/MC that did it, not them. They've tried twice to sneak a raise the discount rate onto my bill, both times I raised holy h*** with them until they reduced it back to the contract rate. As soon as the contract is over next spring, I will switch to COSTCO & NOVA immediately.

Also, don't lease a machine from anyone, buy one on Ebay. Ours cost $188 with a one year guarantee, and has been working fine for over 2 years. The other business had one for 8 years and it never failed.

[S T]

I have clients

I have clients that accept mc and visa, and the costs are herendous even through Quickbooks, Costco. Some businesses need to offer to maintain their cash flow and collections.

So I guess it just depends on your own business practice. I only have less than 10 clients a year that would ask to charge on MC or VISA, so tell them I don't offer and of course my prices don't reflect that cost as well.

We use to offer through my husband's business, and it cost us a fortune in comparison to late payment on invoices. We used Costco (NOVA) services. And we owned the machine which was a cost in front on its own, plus upgrades when the credit card service demanded the upgrades.

Also we had a really bad experience, with a couple of clients, and the client filed a dispute and received the chargeback credit, so in essence we were not paid, and fought like H*** to defend our position to no avail. The consumer wins!

Sandy

[erchess]

Google

I have not gotten around to getting set up to take Credit Cards but the outfit that does my website turned me on to using Google. They have to have an email address and obviously a computer but hey I can set them up a hotmail or gmail account and even do the work of paying myself on their behalf with their card on my computer. Google does not have a monthly fee or a minimum amount per month and from each charge they take two percent plus one penny.

[Lion]

Qb

I've used QB this tax season, no machine, just type in the info via QB. Fees are a little higher without the machine, but I have so few customers I'm not at the break-even point. Besides, a common situation for a client to charge is when they want to give me their card info over the telephone and have me mail them their returns. I could use any computer with an internet connection. Because I'm a QB ProAdvisor, I get a break on the fees. It's pricey, but I don't have a lot of clients and only some want to charge. I'm happy with it. It lets me make paying me as convenient as possible for my clients. I even include AmEx, which is the priciest, but I want to be able to say I take all major credit cards. And, I like being able to take the telephone payments; I live out in the boonies, so some want me to mail or to send a nanny or someone to pick up for them. QB has a program where clients could pay on my web site; I might try that too in the future.

[S T]

QB Advisor

Lion, I am also a QB Advisor,

but I had a difficult time in deciding to accept MC, VISA or AMEX

What do you think your costs are, can you give an example, I just found all of the credit card providers really high in their charges, and I would rather wait an extra 30 days for payment.

One of my QB clients uses the credit card feature and I have to say the analysis of the fees % wise to what they collect are extremely high. But it is convenient for the client , and client does have immediate credit to his bank account, and to this particular client, cash flow is everything!

Sandy

[DTS]

Lion

What's the %, for V/MC and for AmEx? Do you have to be an advisor and if not, what is the % difference, if you know?

I did not know that QB did this.

D

[S T]

Qb

Dennis,

I don't think you have to be a QB advisor to acccess this feature, but the charge could be different between a regular QB client and a QB advisor.

We all know that Intuit is charging up for their services, whether you are a QB client or a QB advisor, they just offer the QB advisor a slight discount.

My renewal fee just went up $50 and Intuit is claiming it is only on the payroll side, not on the regular QB Advisor side.

Sandy

[DTS]

Pro Advisor

I have not taken the test or studied for QB P/A test, yet. Just too many irons in the fire right now, but I will check it out.

Thanks!

[S T]

QB Pro Advisor

I don't think you have to take the tests to be a QB Pro Advisor, I believe that is only for the listing in their Data Bank that is published, that you passed the Certification and their Training to gain the exposure for current and future clients for referrals.

If you pay the fee for Pro Advisor, I believe you are a Pro Advisor, you just might not be a "Certified" Pro Advisor. I haven't checked in a while, but I believe that is how it works. . I might be wrong!

Here is the link http://proadvisor.intuit.com/content...m/overview.jsp

Sandy

[Snaggletooth]

Pass the Fees along

I have not felt the economic need to offer VISA/MC/DISCOVER or anything of the sort. I perhaps should review my position on this, given the propensity of younger people to live and die with this plastic.

I would have to pass the fee along, essentially if I'm paying 3%, I would charge $103 for a return otherwise prepared for $100. I've been told this is illegal in retail circles, but I'm noticing some gas stations are doing it.

If indeed it is illegal, I notice that the IRS accepts plastic but adds a 2% "convenience" fee. As usual, government passes laws for its subjects to observe, but not for itself.

[S T]

The fee is

Snags,

The fee charged to the merchant (as in us) is the problem that I have, as I understood that we could not pass on the fees that we as a merchant were charged. I thought it was illegal.

So I do have a question about the "convenience fee" that is being charged in some cases, like the IRS and others that charge the fee.

If I could charge the fee that I have to incur as a merchant and pass on to my clients as a "convenience fee" to offer these services, I would gladly sign up with one of the credit card processing companies and reduce my delayed collections.

In otherwords, the client would have to bear the cost of the convenience which in turn would zero out my fees for the service.

Sandy

[DTS]

Pro Advisor, eh?

If you pay the fee for Pro Advisor, I believe you are a Pro Advisor, you just might not be a "Certified" Pro Advisor.

Just so I'm clear on this...I pay my fee to Intuit, I know about 10-15% of QB's capabilities, but I'm still a Pro Advisor? I have not been telling anyone I am a Pro Advisor until today!

How cool is that!

[Burke]

If you are an NATP member, they have an affiliation with a low-cost provider. ($50 annual fee, charges 1%) Details in their last newsletter.

[taxmandan]

Charging extra for cards isn't illegal

Adding a surcharge to the bill for a client that uses a credit card isn't illegal by law, it's against VISA/MC rules. They threaten to cancel your account if caught adding to the bill for such a service. The way around it is to set your fees to cover the cost and offer a discount for cash/checks. VISA/MC cannot dictate your fees to non-card clients.

With the economy the way it is this year, we saw a significant bump in the number of people paying with their cc. Without the service I am sure we would have lost alot of $$$. About 16% of our clients paid with cc this year.

Congress passed laws to allow payments of taxes with cc but said that the government can't pay the discount fees to the card companies, so the fee is billed to the taxpayer. Yeah, Congress lives by their own rules not the ones they make for the rest of us.

Daniel

Snags,

The fee charged to the merchant (as in us) is the problem that I have, as I understood that we could not pass on the fees that we as a merchant were charged. I thought it was illegal.

So I do have a question about the "convenience fee" that is being charged in some cases, like the IRS and others that charge the fee.

If I could charge the fee that I have to incur as a merchant and pass on to my clients as a "convenience fee" to offer these services, I would gladly sign up with one of the credit card processing companies and reduce my delayed collections.

In otherwords, the client would have to bear the cost of the convenience which in turn would zero out my fees for the service.

Sandy