SportsShooter.com - Recommendations on credit card processing

	San Diego \| CA \| USA \| Posted: 12:39 AM on 11.03.10
	->> Greg, if you contact me in private my wife is a rep for a web based service and she can hook you up with decent rates.

Nick Doan, Photographer, Assistant

Scottsdale | AZ | USA | Posted: 1:18 AM on 11.03.10

->> Greg,

Paypal's Virtual Terminal is $30 per month. And, you can turn it off on your off months, which makes it perfect for me. I only use it in Oct/Nov and March/April. THe rest of the year I have it turned off.

Authorize.net is also very good, my wife loved using it when she had her own business. But, check out what the contract pricing will be for you, and determine which will cost you more in the long run. The fees are pretty much the same from what I understand.

Brad Camp, Photographer

	Bainbridge Island \| wa \| USA \| Posted: 1:27 AM on 11.03.10
	->> square is go for me. Plus works everywhere my phone does!

Nick Doan, Photographer, Assistant

Scottsdale | AZ | USA | Posted: 1:37 AM on 11.03.10

->> Wow,

There are definitely two things that are glaring about SQUARE to me. The first being that you must swipe the card, so you cannot take payments over the phone or over a website. and the second is that they hold your money for up to 30 days? Can that be right?

From the FAQ,

How much money will Square deposit?
As a new Square user, we will immediately deposit your first $1,001 of sales per week to your bank account, which means you have access to the money by tomorrow. Any remaining amount will be transferred to your bank account within 30 days of the transaction.

If you would like access to a higher deposit amount, please contact Support. They will ask you for some additional information about your business and then get the ball rolling.

James Broome, Photographer

	Tampa \| FL \| US \| Posted: 10:19 AM on 11.03.10
	->> When I started using Square, my limit was $1,000 a week as well. After my first day of using it ($1,700 in sales), my limit was increased to $3,000. I receive my deposits in full about 3 days after the swipes. Also, my wife had to manually key in two cards that first day, so I know they don't have to be swiped. Of course, non-swiped entries carry a slightly higher fee.

Matthew Sauk, Photographer

	Sandy \| UT \| United States \| Posted: 10:34 AM on 11.03.10
	->> Nice, is there something like that for android?

Steve Violette, Photographer

	Gulf Breeze \| FL \| USA \| Posted: 10:49 AM on 11.03.10
	->> Square has an ap for the Droids

Matthew Sauk, Photographer

	Sandy \| UT \| United States \| Posted: 11:01 AM on 11.03.10
	->> ahh did not see that! Thanks Steve

Russ Erbe, Photographer

Lubbock | TX | US | Posted: 11:22 AM on 11.03.10

->> I recently got signed up with the company Nick Morris's wife works at. I haven't gotten to use it yet, but it is web based and very reasonable rates and you don't have to carry a swip machine around with you. Simply setup an invoice send it to them and have the client login to your site, click the link to pay and it takes them to your invoice where they can pay by CC or Echeck. I urge you to check it out.

Michael Pina, Photographer

	SF Bay Area \| ca \| usa \| Posted: 12:18 PM on 11.03.10
	->> +1 for Square.

John Cheng, Photographer

New Milford | CT | USA | Posted: 1:01 PM on 11.03.10

->> >>...you must swipe the card, so you cannot take payments over the phone or over a website. and the second is that they hold your money for up to 30 days...

You can still key in the credit card numbers, but you will need to plug in the reader first. After it's plugged-in once you won't need the reader anymore to key in CC #, at least that's how it works on my iPhone4. As with any merchant processors, keyed-in transactions pays a little higher rate than swipe.

My limit was increased to $4k per week after I backed up my request with financial statements. They are really easy to work with.

I plan to get an iPad this gymnastics season for Square, and run it side by side with my existing CC terminal and see how it measures up.

Geoffrey Bolte, Photographer, Assistant

Spencer/Worcester | MA | USA | Posted: 1:15 PM on 11.03.10

->> +1 for square. Its nice when you only take in a few charges a year, and can expand if needed. No monthly charge, although the percentage is a little higher but not much. Also I received deposits within 1-2 days.

Very happy at the moment and they sent me a new reader for my iPhone4 that works perfectly as the first unit had to be fixed up a little as it was grounding out on the headphone jack.

Colin Lenton, Photographer

	Philadelphia \| PA \| United States \| Posted: 2:02 PM on 11.03.10
	->> Thanks for the SquareUP info - looks great.

Jeff Stinson, Photographer

	Carlisle \| PA \| USA \| Posted: 6:05 PM on 11.03.10
	->> Another + for squareup. I love it.

Matthew Sauk, Photographer

Sandy | UT | United States | Posted: 7:00 PM on 11.14.10

->> I signed up (it's free, why not!) and received my credit card swipe that plugs into my android device.

I tested it and man this has to be the coolest thing around. Super simple, super quick.

Now of course with it being free there are some fee's involved. 2.75% plus .15 cents per transaction. I did a test swipe of a $1.25 and there was .18 cents worth of fees taken out.

If you can live with the somewhat high price (not really, but there is something) once a month deposit (unless you reach a min which I believe is around a grand a month) this is a great service.

Final positive for this service which I think helps justify the up front fee's when you swipe or enter a CC number, ZERO month fee's like other services. Most companies charge around 20 dollars per month plus a % of the charge (usually around 1.75 to over 2%).

In the end I like the service because of no contract, no monthly fee to worry about and finally ease of use.

Phil Hawkins, Photographer

Fresno | ca | usa | Posted: 12:15 PM on 11.15.10

->> I don't know why you would not use PayPal for this use; I use PayPal for my workshop payments and it's beautiful. NO hassle. Yes, there are fees, but in my opinion you get what you pay for. I would not react positively to someone who swipes my card on a freakin' iPhone. Cool though it may be, I'm not sure it instills confidence in your customer that their info is secure. Just use basic business PayPal and be done with it. I've used them for 3 years in my workshops and never had a problem, no money holds, no surprises, no hassle whatsoever.

Brad Barr, Photographer

Port St. Lucie | FL | USA | Posted: 8:04 PM on 11.15.10

->> Because Paypal charges you way too much...both in fees and percentages. Its totally not competitive.

You get better service from other providers. And actually it does instill confidence cause you appear to be really up on tech stuff.

Paypal chargeback policies border on tyranical. Yes I use them. But only for Amex folks anymore.

Its simply not competitive.

My wedding forum has a preferred rate if anyone is interested. Just go to http://floridaweddingforum.com (you can see what its about from the title. All members qualify for our rate, which is among the best in the USA. I use it on my iphone all the time, and also on my pc for another business we have.

Eric Canha, Photographer

Brockton | MA | United States | Posted: 9:09 PM on 11.15.10

->> Phil +1

I've been using them for all online sales and as of 2 years ago for on-site sales too. I can transfer 100% of funds to my BoA account and have them there in 3 days. I can also keep them in the PP account and use my PP debit card to pay for business related services or merchandise.

In the 6 years that I've had the account I've faced 2 attempted chargebacks. In both cases PP release the funds hold within 48 of my replying to the notice. In both cases I prevailed. I agree that for eBay users the PP policies are insane but for non-eBay sales its no more or less safe than any other merchant service provider.

IF you run sufficient volumes of sales through your account PP will drop the rates. As an added benefit if you are selling tangibles and enter your customer's shipping info at the time of the capture you can ship the merchandise through the PP shipping tool and get discounted rates on USPS or UPS. The UPS shipping does require that you apply and get approved.

The shipping module with address verification (if you use it or need it) can save you anywhere from $15 to $80 a month on a separate PB or Stamps.com account. And that's without adding up the savings on the free DC and commercial shipper rates.

Just my 2 cents.

Phil Hawkins, Photographer

Fresno | ca | usa | Posted: 11:05 PM on 11.15.10

->> It's really hard to quantify a lack of hassle, consistency in execution, convenience for my customer, and world-wide access. But for my money and for the business I run, PayPal is more than worth it. There's no telling what money I would be leaving on the table if I had to struggle with the very basic function of giving my customers a way to pay painlessly. Maybe for someone else's business there's a better way, but for mine it's perfect. The fees they charge is the toll I am willing to pay to grease that process so I NEVER have to worry about it.

Michael Ciu, Photographer, Assistant

	Lorain \| OH \| USA \| Posted: 9:08 AM on 11.16.10
	->> We use MTG (Midwest Transaction Group) that we signed up to thru PPA. $5.00/mo regular fee no matter how many transactions, plus 2.25% or 2.5% of each sale depending on the type of card. We accept V/M/D. No terminal. We call in all of our charges. It has been really nice and has added to our sales by allowing clients to pay with a credit card.

James Broome, Photographer

Tampa | FL | US | Posted: 9:26 AM on 11.16.10

->> I was expecting more than a couple of customers to balk at the Square system on my iPhone. I've read plenty of comments similar to Phil's (both here and on a few tech sites I frequent) that suggested that too many people would balk at the practice. Instead, every single comment was positive. "That's the coolest thing I've ever seen" or "What's that? How do I get one for my business". Not a single negative comment.

Phil Hawkins, Photographer

	Fresno \| ca \| usa \| Posted: 12:58 PM on 11.16.10
	->> James, interesting observation; I would have thought the opposite. What kind of sales environment was it in? Was it on-site sports event print sales? Average transaction? Fill us in where this was being received positively.

Andrew Fielding, Photographer

	Denver \| CO \| USA \| Posted: 5:01 PM on 11.16.10
	->> Square is great, you can also get it with an iPad or iPod Touch which makes it great in case you don't have a phone that supports it.

Matthew Sauk, Photographer

Sandy | UT | United States | Posted: 12:00 PM on 11.17.10

->> I think I need to clarify my previous post. Here is a Q&A on their website about payments:

How much money will Square deposit?
As a new Square user, we will immediately deposit your first $1,001 of sales per week to your bank account, which means you have access to the money by tomorrow. Any remaining amount will be transferred to your bank account within 30 days of the transaction.

If you would like access to a higher deposit amount, please contact Support. They will ask you for some additional information about your business and then get the ball rolling.

Randy Abrams, Photographer

	Bath \| NY \| US \| Posted: 1:28 PM on 11.17.10
	->> Question for Square users that I couldn't find on their website. Can you enter transactions without the person's card (and thusly not their signature)? For instance a customer includes their credit card number on an order form that gets mailed to you.

Darren Whitley, Photographer

	Northwest Missouri \| MO \| USA \| Posted: 3:11 PM on 11.17.10
	->> I have had customers refuse to use PayPal. It created enough trouble that I quit using it as my sole CC processing option.

John Cheng, Photographer

	New Milford \| CT \| USA \| Posted: 3:33 PM on 11.17.10
	->> Randy, Pls see my 2nd post above. it answers your question.

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