I would like to begin accepting credit card payments from clients. PayPal is convenient but some people don't have a PayPal account plus they take a fee from any money that goes through there, which really adds up after a while. What do I need to do to begin accepting credit card payments? Approximately how much money will I be paying out so that I can do this? Can I just do it online without having a credit card processing machine? Thanks in advance for any advice!

I am using paypal and www.propay.com myself. I have very few clients that use paypal, but you're client doesn't have to have a paypal account. My 1st choice with my clients is propay.com a friend of mine uses the service and it works for me.

My suggestion is to look at both and may search for a third and compare prices. You are going to have to pay a fee, you jet need to figure how how much you can afford.

Don't get a credit card machine, i had two and the fees are not worth it. So if you can do paypal or propay ($starting yearly fee is $59. I would choose one of those.

Good luck
Julian

Does propay take a percentage per amount of service?

I stopped using PayPal late last year. The fees are just too high. I give clients the option of paying by cheque or using Interac Money Transfer. Interact money transfer is done through the client's online banking and it costs $1.50 per transaction. No one has used it yet, but the option is there. The fee is lower than PayPal and the person making the payment incurs the service charge. I use it myself to transfer money between my business account and my personal account.

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Julia

Thank ya'll for the feedback. That helps a lot. Three out of my four clients right now pay me through PayPal and it is getting really expensive. I also had a problem with PayPal recently where PayPal placed a hold on a large payment to me from a client for over a week because it was a new account. It took several calls from me and the client to PayPal to get it straight. Totally ridiculous!

Erica,

Have you looked into Google Checkout? You can accept credit cards there. That's what I currently use.

I've had the "hold" issue with PayPal before and it is frustrating. However, I think if you change certain settings in your profile you may be able to prevent it in the future. Also, you will have to pay fees regardless of which merchant service you use to process credit cards. PayPal offers merchant services as well which allows you to run credit cards without a machine.

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/we...side&nav=2.0.5

My best advice is to comparison shop on the fees from different companies and read the fine print for contracts and/or terms of service.

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Tania Knowes
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"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible"

I agree with you all about the paypal fees they are getting high but it seems so many people use paypal. But I am going to check into some of these other suggestions. Thanks.

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Tricia
Saving You Time Is My Business

I am a fan of Paypal because it has built up such a great reputation due to the security measures it has in place and the convenience it gives for customers. But as mentioned the fees are expensive and this can deter a lot of cleints. I do not even want to think about taking checks, cause it's just takes too much time and theres too much room for fraud. I will look into Google Checkout, thanks for the suggestion bdust.

I accept credit card payments through PayPal. I think I get one payment every few months through there which is why I use it. It doesn't make sense for me to use a service that will charge me a fee monthly even if I don't use it. I'd rather pay when I use it.

I have client's who use QuickBook's credit card processing (sorry my mind blanked on what it's called) and I really like that if you use QuickBooks.

I also accept checks by fax which makes it very easy to receive payments very quickly. (FYI...you have to have a special program and printer to do this -- but I use it for other stuff too so the cost works for me.) I've thought about looking into other options but the added expense isn't worth it to me. Most of my client's pay by check and I'm fine with that --- no added overhead.

(I'm cheap.)

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Lanel Taylor, CVA ~ Virtual Bookkeeper
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