Hey Jocco, Wayne here. I was the one that posted the other week about accepting credit cards. I am a mechanic by trade and work on everything from heavy equipment to lawnmowers to trailers, and everything in between. The reason I asked about cards was that over the years many large companies had started getting corprate cards to pay for small jobs (usually undeer $5000)because it decreased the amount of paperwork involved to one statement vs numerous work orders. As such we had often been asked if we accepted cards but we never did so we had additional paperwork to do also to bill for the job, take the check to the bank, etc. That was the way Dad liked it though so that is what we did.
With the economy the way it is I"m doing more and more on my own, outside "dad"s company" for other smaller companies so I was looking for a way to help out the "little man" that might need to pay for a large job over time while at the same time getting me my money right away. Like another post suggested I figured being able to take cards would also allow me to verify that the credit was available for the customer to spend for me to do the job so I didn"t get stuck eating labor and parts for a job when it was done.
As far as the deal on the rates being different from what I see it"s usually around 1.5 to 2% due to the greater liability they assume with the extension of credit due to more fraud involved with keyed cards vs swiped cards. If you anticipate alot of keyed stuff due to being in various locaqtions they do offer mobile/wireless machines, for purchase or lease, that work via the cell carriers. They are designed to work with all major carriers so you shoudln"t experience many dead zones unless you live in deapest darkest part of BFE. A friend of mine had one for his body shop business because he worked for numerous dealerships so needed to be able to get paid in numerous locations. He loved it.
As far as looking for someone to process the cards for you, what I did was run up on a site one night called Proposal Portal and clicked on the link for credit card info. I wound up with about 8 or 10 companies responding, offering deals, and basically just wanting my business. Just like the rest of us these guys are hurting for business just like everyone else and are cutting some great deals right now on their services.
I wound up going with Merchant Services Inc. Based on what I saw they offered about the best rates, percentage wise, of any of the others on a per transaction basis. Too they had a deal going through Thanksgiving where EVERYTHING was free. By that I mean no contract, free equipment, free set up, no monthly minimum, etc etc. I started to sign up and then realized that there was a minimum on the paperwork and then didn"t. I didn"t get a chance to call back and talk to the girl until Monday, after the deal was over. I was mainly just wanting to ask some questions for future knowledge. When I told her why I hadn"t applied before Thanksgiving she realized she had screwed up when she sent me the application. She then proceeded to talk to her supervisor and got me the totally free deal even though it was a week after the cutoff date.
I"ll include a link here to both MSI and the Proposal Portal for you. If you click on the link on PP expect to get alot of emails right off the bat and you can go through them from there. Many of them right now are competing and offering a price match deal so you csan still get set up fairely cheap. I know MSI has another deal going til Christmas only instead of free, now certain monthly fees and minimums arerequired but they are still less than their normal rates. If you call them the girl I talked to was named Danielle Sylvia at ext 200.
Good luck.
merchant services
proposal portal