Do You Accept Credit Cards???

H.E.D · 08-25-09, 03:12

How many of you mobile detailers accept credit cards? is it worth it? whats the advantages? any input would be appreciated.

Jakerooni · 08-25-09, 03:44

Most stand alones will accept them. I did when I had my building. The advantage is you can easily accept a payment 99% of all people seem to have these days. The downside is there's always a price attached to the convience. You get a monthly charge, You get a swipe charge, and sometimes a percentage charge. Some companies give you the machine other's work it into your monthly payment others charge you up front. There's also usually a set up charge. Which can be a few hundred bucks. If you can't waives these it takes quite a while to break even on the investement. The question is how many of your customers are asking if you take plastic? I would say until at least half of them do on a regular basis it's not worth it. The only time I've ever really seen it be an advantage is in a high volume shop. Then you can at least justify the monthly charges with the volume.

brwill2005 · 08-25-09, 04:08

Nope. Never really had a need. Most of my customers do not even ask about it.

dlocks · 08-25-09, 05:24

If they have a credit card they most likely have a check. And if they can't write a check (or pay cash) chances are they can't afford the detailing at the moment. That's the way I look at it. Kinda a customer protection thing i guess.

- Derick

WAS · 08-25-09, 05:51

My bigger issue would not be acepting Interac.

I just did an accounting report for the last month, and 70% of my customers pay via Interac, 25% pay via Visa / Mastercard, and the other 5% pay by cash (yes, the numbers are rounded off).

I know even from myself, I pay EVERYTHING with Interac, I carry $0 in cash.

yanks_178 · 08-25-09, 06:32

I accept cards and use it each day. It works really well for me. I live at the Lake so we do mobile cleanings each week. My customers fill out a form with their CC number and we charge it each month. Many customers like the fact that I take credit cards.

It costs me $5/month and usually .25 per transaction plus 1-1.5% of the price. It cost me $99 to get it setup and I got a free terminal.

mshu7 · 08-25-09, 06:33

I never accepted credit cards when I was mobile, and I still don't now that I have my own shop. I've had a few people ask if I take plastic, but when I tell them I only take cash or check, it's never been a problem.

H.E.D · 08-25-09, 10:19

Thanks for all the input guys. I currently do not take CC, but had people asked me. Not enough yet to make a investment, but that might change if people keep on asking.

WAS · 08-25-09, 11:29

Question for you American detailers, do you guys get a lot of Interac (direct debit) payments / requests ?

Jakerooni · 08-26-09, 06:51

Our "debit" cards have the visa/mastercard logo and work exactly the same so there's no difference in running a CC or a Debit card outside of the option to put in a 4 didget pin number at time of sale. But they are basically all the exact same card functionality wise.

Auto Concierge · 08-26-09, 07:08

I did in the nineties, and it was a pain in the ***!!!!!!!!!!! if you do do not take AMEX as their accounting will leave you reeling, and when you get that "guy" who is looking to pull shenanigans they will back charge the detail at the drop of a hat and AMEX will ALWAYS side with the customer ALWAYS.

Just tell people up front how you take payment as it is not like your a tow company out in the boonies or something this is an appointment basis arrangement.

WAS · 08-26-09, 06:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jakerooni

Our "debit" cards have the visa/mastercard logo and work exactly the same so there's no difference in running a CC or a Debit card outside of the option to put in a 4 didget pin number at time of sale. But they are basically all the exact same card functionality wise.

Interesting. Our "debit" cards just have the Interac logo and of course the issuing banks logos. I remember seeing a study a few years ago noting Canadians as the highest pecentage of users in the world who pay using their Interac card. I wouldn't nescessarily care about accepting Visa / Mastercard, but not accepting Interac would be a problem here, and since Interac and Visa / Mastercard can all be done through the same POS machine, you can't really accept one without accepting the other.