Retailers Ready To Force Consumers To Pay ‘Swipe Fee’ For Using Plastic

[ThinkRight]

Every time you use your credit card, the store pays up to 3 percent of your total purchase to the credit card company. It’s called a “swipe fee” and now some fed-up retailers are getting ready to pass this cost on to you, in the form of a surcharge.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/07...consumers-to-pay-swipe-fee-for-using-plastic/
It has been a long time coming .
Gas stations and truck stops have been doing it for years .
It will cause a lot of headaches for some .

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

If you read alot of the CC rules and regulations, the credit card companies have the right to drop you as a merchant service member if you charge a fee to credit card holders and not cash or check users. So what alot of our friends in business are doing is charging a fee to all their customers no matter payment type and giving a discount to those who don't use cards.

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

Does not blame them..to tell the truth, was about to get a credit /debit machine and pay fees with it till I really started adding up costs VS real sales during low income times. YIKES

Canceled just in time cash or check here

 

[rjssigns]

Got a Square for the shop. 2.75% swipe, 3.75% key. That's it. No monthly fees, hidden fees, no BS. It works for our small shop when we need it.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Other than they hold your money for 30days if you go over a certain dollar amount

From Square Website:
16b. Payout Schedule - Card-Not-Present Sales.
If you accrue more than $2,002 in card-not-present sales during any trailing seven day period, Square will defer depositing the amount in excess of $2,002 for 30 days. Card-not-present sales are transactions where the payment card is not swiped using the Square Card Reader. If you think your account is likely to exceed $2,002 in card-not-present sales per week, contact Square support to inquire about accelerating your payout schedule. Upon receiving this request, or once you exceed $2,002 in weekly card-not-present sales, Square will conduct a review of your Square Account to determine if you qualify for acceleration. Square will consider a variety of factors in making its decision, including but not limited to a proprietary set of rules, chargeback rates, transaction behavior, and other supplemental data about your business.

 

[Locals Find!]

I stick with paypal. You email someone the invoice they pay it with their card or paypal account. No having to protect card numbers, no having to find a phone that will work with square. Just plain simple.

If you really really need to swipe paypal now offers their own swipe and it doesn't have the restrictions that square does and the rates are better.

 

[Desert_Signs]

Other than they hold your money for 30days if you go over a certain dollar amount

From Square Website:
16b. Payout Schedule - Card-Not-Present Sales.
If you accrue more than $2,002 in card-not-present sales during any trailing seven day period, Square will defer depositing the amount in excess of $2,002 for 30 days. Card-not-present sales are transactions where the payment card is not swiped using the Square Card Reader. If you think your account is likely to exceed $2,002 in card-not-present sales per week, contact Square support to inquire about accelerating your payout schedule. Upon receiving this request, or once you exceed $2,002 in weekly card-not-present sales, Square will conduct a review of your Square Account to determine if you qualify for acceleration. Square will consider a variety of factors in making its decision, including but not limited to a proprietary set of rules, chargeback rates, transaction behavior, and other supplemental data about your business.

For most merchants, other than online sellers, card not present transactions are a red flag. This is why they hold the $. If you call them and provide information on your business model, and meet certain requirements, this won't happen to you.

A friend of mine uses Square exclusively for card not present transactions, and he typically has his deposits in 48 hours.

 

[Davidford7]

If you read alot of the CC rules and regulations, the credit card companies have the right to drop you as a merchant service member if you charge a fee to credit card holders and not cash or check users. So what alot of our friends in business are doing is charging a fee to all their customers no matter payment type and giving a discount to those who don't use cards.

Under the new rules/regulations just past by Uncle Sam the merchant may charge a surcharge.

 

[ProWraps]

who do you think pays for all those airmiles?

YOU, the card TAKER. not the card giver.

we charge a 3.5% surcharge for using a card.

I COULD CARE LESS what my merchant services company thinks. they havent dropped me yet, nor anyone else i know that does it.

the common misconception is that its "illegal".. i hear it all the time. um no its not. its nothing more than a stupid rule from your merchant services company.

i aint payin' for your airmiles and/or rewards. especially when my average ticket is $2-3k or more.

in the end, i think i take a card once every 3-4 months. we are a B2B company exclusively so everything is company check anyways.

we use intuit payment gateway. no monthly fees. only a swipe fee if we use it and we can use it from any internet browswer.

 

[john1]

square here and its amazing

to lift limit you just email and ask. no biggie

 

[edgette]

I use Paypal and the swiper from them for card present purchases. The monthly fee is fair and the rate they take is fair compared to my previous provider.

 

[binki]

we pay 1.64% for swiped cards, more for keyed in. No other fees. Money posts next day and at the bank the following day. about 1/3 of our customers us a cc or dc. we have 2 customers that use paypal. the rest are cash (mostly) and check.

 

[lexsigns]

I just cancelled my merchant services- The fees for Biz cards was insane!- I got charged 200 for 1600 in sales. A 32 charge because 1 card I took was a biz card. so for about 1 charge a month I would rather wait and get the cash!

I was thinking about getting square but then need to get a new phone etc etc etc... I may just stick to cash and checks for a while plus paypal. Anyone know tif there are fees for taking biz cards? That was something my old merchant service didnt actually tell you about.

 

[Locals Find!]

I just cancelled my merchant services- The fees for Biz cards was insane!- I got charged 200 for 1600 in sales. A 32 charge because 1 card I took was a biz card. so for about 1 charge a month I would rather wait and get the cash!

I was thinking about getting square but then need to get a new phone etc etc etc... I may just stick to cash and checks for a while plus paypal. Anyone know tif there are fees for taking biz cards? That was something my old merchant service didnt actually tell you about.

With paypal all cards are treated equal. Not sure about square.

 

[SignProPlus-Chip]

If you charge a fee, make sure it's legal in your area first. I know when I lived in NY it was not legal to pass on any operating costs directly to a consumer. This is why all the gas stations changed over to "same price cash or credit" in the late 80's.

Also IIRC just about every major credit card does NOT allow this, it violates their TOS and they can suspend your merchant acct. Same goes for Paypal too.

Some merchants get it in their head that it's a convenience fee and the consumer should pay it. So let me put it this way, is it more convenient for you to accept money, or spend it?

I gladly pay the swipe fee, I chose to take credit cards so I can accept more forms or payment, this is a convenience for me as a business to try an make more money.

Besides, the answer is really simple, just build a percentage increase into the cost of product...easy peasy.

Try and remember it's fees like this that customers view as you trying to nickel and dime them to death.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Under the new rules/regulations just past by Uncle Sam the merchant may charge a surcharge.

That is not entirely true, you still can't charge a surcharge and the only way you can charge a convenience fee is if its a non standard payment form for your company. Our Merchant rules clearly state for us that if CC payments are equal to or greater than 15% of you sales it is considered a standard form of payment.

 

[SignProPlus-Chip]

That is not entirely true, you still can't charge a surcharge and the only way you can charge a convenience fee is if its a non standard payment form for your company. Our Merchant rules clearly state for us that if CC payments are equal to or greater than 15% of you sales it is considered a standard form of payment.

This.

 

[anotherdog]

just run a discount for cash.
Not illegal anywhere.

The whole idea of Credit Cards has run it's course. There in no physical need for a third party to guarantee payment. You are starting to see online transactions systems like smartphone payments that are bank to bank and don't need the worldwide tax imposed by credit cards.

Right now I pay the protection racket, but how much longer?

 

[Locals Find!]

For those of you who say add a mark up or convenience fee etc.. doesn't that still get processed through the credit card company and would still be subject to the overall percentage??

You really can't recoup your money on the percentage by adding more to the bill because your percentage goes up, due to the principal charge going up.

Just accept it as part of doing business. Its just an expense like having electricity or running water or internet in your shop. Stop worrying about a few dollars a transaction. Its really not that much if you score an extra job because you accept credit cards your still way ahead of the percentage you paid out in profit if you did your pricing right.

Just make sure you got the best deal possible for your business and move on.

 

[anotherdog]

Just accept it as part of doing business. Its just an expense like having electricity or running water or internet in your shop. Stop worrying about a few dollars a transaction. Its really not that much if you score an extra job because you accept credit cards your still way ahead of the percentage you paid out in profit if you did your pricing right.

Just make sure you got the best deal possible for your business and move on.

Just ignore the compulsory tax by private monopolies, before long you can ignore the boot on your neck. After all nothing bad can come of letting something like this carry on....?

remember, banks are doing this to look after your best interests.