Topic: Credit Cards Accepting- Recommendation Needed trust/ tranparancy (Read 9841 times)

kevs · « **on:** May 01, 2016, 01:50:24 pm »

I was with BA/ First Data, but had to leave as they were increasing my percentage, which went up to 5% without me noticing over the years..
Their statements were hard to read (First Data), and in short they were very devious.

I went to Citbank, and my new rep is real nice. I do like Payezee, instead of the terminal ($15), but they still use the obtuse and very hard to read statements of First Data. I'm supposed to be at about 2% but it seems that it might be creeping already to 3%. The statements are the killer: they are almost like encoded and impossible to understand what's going on.

Does FirstData have a hold on the credit card industry? What have others experienced? Thanks.

chapel · « **Reply #1 on:** May 05, 2016, 10:14:01 pm »

I was with Wells Fargo and BofA. So many hidden charges and fees. I recently switched to Square. 2.75%, no monthly fees, no connection fees, no statement fees, no bank charges.
Greg

kevs · « **Reply #2 on:** May 05, 2016, 11:27:11 pm »

Thanks Greg, great response. First who knows what I've been through.

I'm actually liking Payezz, the online portal. It is $15 month, my rates are only 2%. There are some nickel and dime fees, but the problem is First Data, their statements are opaque. They are brutally long and long winded, but the worst part is everything on them references the previous month, so you really have no idea what's going on — nothing is linear and clear cut. Basically they are unintelligible. Amazing that industry. No know exactly what they are doing, and count on 10s of millions of American not to complain about it. And the masses probably don't.

Most my orders are over the phone. Square you can do all that? Key in on the phone? I hate using the phone keypad but I want to hear all my options. Who do you call for customer service there? Have you used payezee or an online portal. Does anyone good, (non First Data) do statements?

AlterEgo · « **Reply #3 on:** May 06, 2016, 12:29:54 am »

Quote from: kevs on May 05, 2016, 11:27:11 pm

Most my orders are over the phone. Square you can do all that? Key in on the phone?

https://squareup.com/pricing = 3.5% + 15¢ per manually entered transaction

kevs · « **Reply #4 on:** May 06, 2016, 04:19:59 pm »

Thanks Alter, interesting. 3.5% is actually rather high for key in. Payezee is just 2% for key in but it's $15 month service charge and a bunch tiny unknowables.

chapel · « **Reply #5 on:** May 06, 2016, 09:04:11 pm »

I've never used payezee and all my sales are point of purchase with the square so it's 2.75%. I don't like nickel and dime fees as they add up pretty fast.
Greg

leeonmaui · « **Reply #6 on:** May 17, 2016, 05:19:47 am »

Aloha,

Square is an awesome way to go. they have a card reader, at 2.5 even amex at 2.5 key in is a bit more.
simple straight forward no gateway fees or monthly fees, no contract.
If you do enough business with them they will give you access to square capital, where they will advance you X amount of money, and pay back over a unlimited amount of time at a fixed percentage of your sales.

kevs · « **Reply #7 on:** May 17, 2016, 11:32:38 am »

Actually Square rates are very high for phone calls, and they don't have web platform.

Don Libby · « **Reply #8 on:** May 20, 2016, 09:39:36 am »

We've been using the Square now for several years and have had little to no problem. I can either take the charge directly on the phone or ipad.

Don

kevs · « **Reply #9 on:** May 20, 2016, 11:47:08 am »

the Square is a big 3.5% on the phone and has no web app.

Paul2660 · « **Reply #10 on:** May 20, 2016, 08:13:07 pm »

Another vote for Square. If your volume is 50 or more transactions a day, maybe not a good solution. But for me, it's been great. Reports are excellent, and the payments are fast and never wrong. Even better is their support when you run into an issue with a payment.

Paul C

kevs · « **Reply #11 on:** May 21, 2016, 12:02:15 am »

Thanks, Paul, no it's just a handful a month. So you do get reports? I kind of dig the web portal now with payezee, and that have that too? So they seem transparent and non shady like most of the banks? But phone orders are 3.5% which is at the top end of the card spectrum correct?

jmweb · « **Reply #12 on:** May 24, 2016, 01:57:38 am »

Quote from: kevs on May 01, 2016, 01:50:24 pm

I was with BA/ First Data, but had to leave as they were increasing my percentage, which went up to 5% without me noticing over the years..
Their statements were hard to read (First Data), and in short they were very devious.

I went to Citbank, and my new rep is real nice. I do like Payezee, instead of the terminal ($15), but they still use the obtuse and very hard to read statements of First Data. I'm supposed to be at about 2% but it seems that it might be creeping already to 3%. The statements are the killer: they are almost like encoded and impossible to understand what's going on.

Does FirstData have a hold on the credit card industry? What have others experienced? Thanks.

Go with Square....2.5% for transactions where card is present and a bit higher for cards where it is not.

Their reporting is amazing.

kevs · « **Reply #13 on:** May 24, 2016, 03:53:24 pm »

Thanks J, well seems everyone loves Square, I will note that, but their phone call rate is very high at 3.5%

Joe Towner · « **Reply #14 on:** July 15, 2016, 10:36:52 pm »

Since I'm having fun with merchant processing I figured I'd toss in some tidbits on this. The cheap card present rate is helped by the fact that things like chip+pin transactions help limit fraud. With no card present, the rate you pay is increased to cover the banks fraud charges. Volume changes everything, as does average transaction size. If most of what you are doing over the phone can be done online, there can be some savings utilizing something like PayPal. The PayPal key in rate is the same 3.5%

Remember that all those points/miles/cashback cards everyone loves, it's paid for with these fees. The processor also has to kick back to Visa/Mastercard/AmEx to support all those credit card ads and sponsorships.

prairiewing · « **Reply #15 on:** July 17, 2016, 07:59:59 am »

Another vote for Square. I've used numerous systems over 30 years and this has been the best for me. Fast, accurate payment, accepts all 4 major cards at the same rate. The other systems all promised a low rate but it only worked for very few cards, others were all higher, never could figure out when they were charging for what.
Square also has an invoicing system that looks interesting but I haven't tried it yet. If I found a better even more reliable system I'd switch in a heartbeat but I haven't found one. Their percentage is just a cost of doing business, like any other cost.

kevs · « **Reply #16 on:** July 17, 2016, 12:01:26 pm »

Pat, I'm the OP of this thread, I forgot to post at beginning, I do phone orders mostly and Square for that is actually a high rate.

prairiewing · « **Reply #17 on:** July 17, 2016, 12:53:03 pm »

Quote from: kevs on July 17, 2016, 12:01:26 pm

Pat, I'm the OP of this thread, I forgot to post at beginning, I do phone orders mostly and Square for that is actually a high rate.

Duly noted. I don't know what you're paying but when I keyed in transactions, especially Amex which many of my customers preferred to use, my rates were higher than Square, even though the rates they quoted when signing me up were always lower.

As mentioned, Square's new invoice system looks promising but I haven't tried it or even dug too deeply into it yet.

kevs · « **Reply #18 on:** July 17, 2016, 05:29:41 pm »

I'm at 1.99% for phone orders, and I think sqaure is 3.5?

prairiewing · « **Reply #19 on:** July 18, 2016, 11:03:15 am »

That's a great rate. Sounds like you're in great shape.

Author Topic: Credit Cards Accepting- Recommendation Needed trust/ tranparancy (Read 9841 times)