Trying to decide if i should look into accepting credit cards. Will it be worth my time, and I’m assuming money/ fees to check into this since its my first year doing this?
Definitely. Its 2018. I use square. Its just an app you download on your phone. Pretty straight forward and easy to set up. Plus some people don’t want to drop hundred or thousands at a time and would rather pay it off in increments. You could always charge a 3% fee to cover your costs. I used to do that until I realized that people weren’t really into it. The idea is to give people options and make dealing with you as easy and convenient as possible. Most processing fees are around 2-2.5% +around $.30 per transaction. If you ran $100,000 in credit cards for the year it’s less than 3 grand. Small potatoes when you’re doing numbers like that.
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1000% yes. If you use Joist or Quickbooks or another estimate/invoice app you can send an invoice and they pay via the internet. The fees are minimal. If you’re worried about it add an extra $5-10 to what you were going to bid anyway.
Ill be adding cards with use of Joist this year… any issues encountered going through them?
Never
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I’m setting up joist as well. @squidskc do you invoice customers or have a way to receive payment up front?
Always take payment after the job is done unless it’s a huge residential job. Invoice through joist. I prefer credit cards even with the fee because it takes one more thing off my plate.
I don’t really like cash because I physically have to go to the bank with it. I deposit everything even cash. Showing the maximum revenue/profit possible is super important because I intend to sell my company.
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Yes…but cc ad 5%.
All my jobs pay after it is completed.
If you dont like the outcome its free…seriously, never had an issue.
But then again i dont bid for jobs, nor i do quotes over the phone.
Some pay me in parts.
If you are shopping around for prices you are not my goal customer.
I been using paypal for years. Easy
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@Racer Does PayPal charge you or the customer or both? I know I always get charged extra if I use my cc through them.
I had a customer yesterday asked if I use zelle she said she really likes it since it offered through her bank she feels safe about her information so I thought i would look into that as well
How do u get the money from pay pal? That was always confused me… but im a simpleton at times.
You can almost look at paypal like it’s a bank. You basically open up an account and it’s pretty much just like a checking or savings account. When someone makes a payment to you through paypal that payment shows up in your paypal account. You can either leave the money there or transfer it to your regular checking account or whatever checking account you have linked to your paypal account. They also offer a paypal debit card that can be used anywhere and you can even make cash withdrawals from the atm. You can still use the paypal debit even if your paypal balance has a zero balance. The payment will then be deducted from whatever checking account you have linked to your paypal account. When I say regular checking account I mean your checking account from, Chase Bank, Bank of America, or whatever bank you use in your hometown. I have used paypal for years. I’ve sold a few things on ebay over the years and that’s how I would get paid. It would go into my paypal account and I’d transfer it to our checking account.
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I use Square. Super simple, people trust it. Ability to accept cards has caused plenty of customers to add driveway and fence cleaning. I even do work now, take partial payment, and setup to auto charge balance for upsells in a month. Oh and you can swipe or type card number. Send detailed invoices for them to pay over email.
I think with Paypal the customer have to sign up for a paypal account in order to make a payment. I know it used to be like that but Racer would know if they changed that policy. Paypal has been around for quite awhile. I’m sure most people out there already have a paypal account. I’ve had mine since 1999.
I recently saw on the news that eBay is dropping paypal and going with some other place for processing payments. I wonder if paypal will stay afloat after losing eBay. That’s going to be a lot of payments they’re losing.
I’ll have to check into some of the other ones mentioned. I bet partial payment could be a big selling point to some. I would just worry about somehow getting stiffed. I guess as long as you don’t choose the customers that are looking for a $99 wash it should be okay. I’m sure the auto charge really helps.
PayPal is NOT a bank and is the furthest thing from it. They are not bound by regulations that “banks” have to abide by. And PayPal is an eBay company, and they are one and the same.
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You are correc that Paypal is not the same as a bank. I should have worded that differently. I was just trying to give a broad explanation of how it works. I used “bank” merely meaning a place to store funds and how you can use those funds. Paypal does offer fraud protection although I’m sure it’s no where near as safe as a bank. My wife once had a fraudulent charge on her Paypal debit for over $600 which got deducted from our checking account. Instead of contacting our bank first I contacted paypal. The $600 was credited back to the account in less than 6 hours while they investigated and everything was taken care of. We didn’t even have to get our bank involved. If using a PayPal debit card it should have the same protection as any other pre paid debit card.
Thanks for pointing it out Mark. It’s good to make people aware of it.
Ebay and Paypal are not the same any longer. They split up 2 to 3 years ago and are independent companies.
PayPal takes ownership of your checking account and can do anything it decides to do with your funds at any time at any whim. Running a business, I was not okay with that. If you are comfortable with relinquishing that much control of your operating funds, then I would say it okay. If not, I would suggest a long hard look at the agreement.
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You don’t have to relinquish all of your operating funds to Paypal if you link it to a secondary checking account. I’ve used a secondary account from the get go. Then again, we do the same thing with the bank debit card we use for online shopping. I’ve been using Paypal for more than 18 years and have never had a problem. I agree with you Mark that you can never be too careful and its good you point all of this out. Like I mentioned, I was giving a brief explanation on the basics of Paypal to someone who had no idea how it works. Like anything, you do have to read the fine print and research before signing up as you should with anything. I’d worry more about the IRS making a mistake and draining your account before Paypal even if your books were perfect and you’re doing everything right. 
Who do you like using for credit card payments? Seems like there are a lot to choose from nowadays.
I see you have a secondary account. Makes my point precisely.
I use a more traditional merchant processing account. Sure iphone based financial apps are available, and the wave of the future, but I am old school.
