Figuring out how to accept money? Here's my tips:)

Mark Dickinson · February 14, 2011

I want to share a little bit of how to accept money for your busiess. I know everyone has their own ways, and possible we've got the same! If your new to the scene, you will learn that checks will bite you every once in a while. I've listed my ways to accept in order of my liking!

Cash

love my cash!
Check (these are good but you know, no funds, stop payments etc)

Square card payment rates
Card-present (swiped): 2.75% + 15¢
Card-not-present (keyed-in): 3.5% + 15¢

Google Checkout
Processing Fees (Current Month) Fees History
Base Fees (since 02/05/2011) 2.90% + $0.30

PAYPAL:
Purchase payments received (monthly) Fee per transaction
$0.00 USD - $3,000.00 USD 2.9% + $0.30 USD This is the section im in with PP.
$3,000.01 USD - $10,000.00 USD 2.5% + $0.30 USD
$10,000.01 USD - $100,000.00 USD 2.2% + $0.30 USD
> $100,000.00 USD 1.9% + $0.30 USD

Google checkout has been a better friend to the business, paypal seems too annoying for people, having to create an account. Google checkout has a right in your face signup, without having to link bank accounts etc. I actually prefer google checkout over paypal even though the fees are higher. Check them out, do you have any suggestions?

I just got square today, but so far I love it. It seems to be user friendly safe, secure and the slider works well (just need a case for it.)

Checkit out, www.squareup.com

FedererPhoto · February 15, 2011

Does square card have a monthly/yearly membership fee, or is their only 'take' the percent+.15?

FedererPhoto · February 15, 2011

Their FAQ answered my question -- looks like just the processing fee.

Mark Dickinson · February 15, 2011

Square fees
Yep, I listed all the fees here, it's just like google checkout, paypal, except mobile. I literally did my first sale yesterday. You can take a pic, email a receipt, and 20.00 got me 19.30 in payment. So it's really not any different than paypal/google. Square was created by the creator of twitter. Same guy. It's been out for about 1-2 years. They had a bunch of beta testers for a while, and finally I just checked thurs last week and got my order and shipment in within 3 days.

Some people are hesitant on paying through the phone, like this particular person on facebook I was talking to
was like it seemed kinda shady for someone in the mall to say that they were scanning it with their phone.

ColoradoSkier · February 15, 2011

Square is working out awesome for me. I do a fairly low volume through them so far, and 0 problems. My annual baseball event is coming up though, and I am excited to be able to accept CC payments on site through my phone or iPad. Just have to teach the wife how to use it.

Mark Dickinson · February 15, 2011

Hells ya! Nice, I wonder if there are any tricks to it, I tried out my email photo thing, I would love to see if they get the photo. But it sucks that their email is blanked out on the e-receipt it sends to me.

Let me know if you ever get any chargebacks or how that is handled. Im curious to see!:)

Andy · February 15, 2011

Square. <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/bowdown.gif" border="0" alt="" >

GerryDavid · February 16, 2011

Square sounds interesting. I need a way to collect payments from people that dont necessarily have a paypal or google check out account, possibly even over the phone, but I do not have a smart phone, so it will have to work with the computer as well.

Time to do some research

GerryDavid · February 16, 2011

Looks like it has to be on a smart phone, not on the computer. oh well. perhaps google checkout offers a simple interface with out the customer having to log in to pay.

Mark Dickinson · February 16, 2011

They actually don't. It will work on ipod touch, or a smartphone with wifi. So if you find an old iphone, evo, or anyother phone with app store or android market you can get it:)

Google checkout does have a pretty easy interface<> When you get the email invoice, it has everything right there, so it doesn't feel like you're creating an account, and you login with your @yahoo, @aol @whater.whatever.com email address and it 'makes' an account for you without verifying, sending confirmation emails etc.

woellerd · February 16, 2011

Square will also work with an Ipad, and offers more features than the Iphone app does.

ColoradoSkier · February 16, 2011

woellerd wrote: »

Square will also work with an Ipad, and offers more features than the Iphone app does.

x2 - I use it on my iPad, and have a Targus stylus for people to sign the cc slip with. It's a great conversation piece in addition to a massive convenience.

And if you want a designer swipe device, you can order the Vivienne Tam Square reader. I was going to order it, but $13 shipping seemed steep for a $10 item.

GerryDavid · February 16, 2011

Mark Dickinson wrote: »

They actually don't. It will work on ipod touch, or a smartphone with wifi. So if you find an old iphone, evo, or anyother phone with app store or android market you can get it:)

Google checkout does have a pretty easy interface<> When you get the email invoice, it has everything right there, so it doesn't feel like you're creating an account, and you login with your @yahoo, @aol @whater.whatever.com email address and it 'makes' an account for you without verifying, sending confirmation emails etc.

Interesting, I wasnt thinking of invoices.

I did create a google checkout account years ago, but never used it, paypal was more convenient for what I was doing at the time.

Most of my customers pay cash or check for my services, only a small % asks for credit card and then have no problem using a check. But I want to start taking appointment retainers before going to a portrait, ive had a few to many now show up with out doing the retainer first, and the last time they said the check was in the mail, and I dont want to wait a week to make the appointment for the check to come in. Plus I give them the studio address and Im not there every day, sometimes not even during a week due to location work.

So what is a good option for taking cc numbers over the phone, or is google invoice the best option? Can you get someone's numbers over the phone and enter it in google voice yourself?

Mark Dickinson · February 16, 2011

You really shouldn't with google checkout. You can, but you have to create an acount and enter it in, add their home address. now you computer is storing their CC info, if anyone gets it and backdoors your machine, you may be liable for purchases since you don't have the authorization to collect credit cards and store them. With that square app, you can punch in the credit card number, but it charges a little bit more for punched numbers.

I feel the same way about retainers. I seem sometimes that I want to get one for simple meetings. I can't get some to commit or they always have something come up. www.markdickinsonphotography.com/checkout.html has my checkout link for clients. Set those up and its easy to direct them to commonly priced items.

Mark Dickinson · February 20, 2011

I just received my first two transactions in the bank account. It comes in pretty nice, quick and deposits around 2 days after accepting

square is good.

Mark Dickinson · February 24, 2011

Square just reduced fee

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

Manfr3d · February 24, 2011

How exactly can get a payment through squareup when my client is on the other end of the world?

JoiJoi · February 24, 2011

you can type in their CC number, the fee is just higher.

idoteech · February 24, 2011

Yea, Square just dropped the 15 cnt fee on swiped transactions. Cool!

Manfr3d · February 24, 2011

JoiJoi wrote: »

you can type in their CC number, the fee is just higher.

So I always have to manualy interact to make a payment happen?

JoiJoi · February 24, 2011

Manfr3d wrote: »

So I always have to manualy interact to make a payment happen?

well if you mean can you have people pay you over the web, no square can not to that, you need to key in or swipe the card. to accept payments over the web, you need a payment gateway/merchant account,or paypal/google checkout.

GerryDavid · February 25, 2011

They can pay over the phone instead of the web.

Manfr3d · February 25, 2011

Ok thanks for the clarification. For some reason I thought this would be an alternative for paypal or google checkout.

Mark Dickinson · March 5, 2011

Well it technically is an alternative to google, its also an 'in addition to'. When you meet with a client, instead of sending them home saying, Ill email you an invoice, or visit my site for the checkout links. You can actually get it right there and be done with it.

Figuring out how to accept money? Here's my tips:)

Comments