I need advice and information on taking Credit Card Payments

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Permalink Reply by Mark R Platt on January 2, 2009 at 9:39am

Will,

Derek Bogard has a company in Carmel called Immediate Payment Solutions. I know enough to be dangerous on what they do as Derek is apart of IBN leadership so I have heard him speak a few times about his business. It does center around credit card payment solutions and I am sure more. Their website is http://www.immediatepaymentsolutions.com.

I hope this helps. The only thing I know would be pay pal.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Phelps on January 2, 2009 at 9:46am

You may want to check with Quickbooks. We use that as our accounting software and we accept credit card payments throught it as well. I don't know about automatic billing...they could tell you though.

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Permalink Reply by Anita LeBeau Griggs on January 3, 2009 at 12:37am

I agree with Greg. Innovative Merchant Services is the Quickbooks credit card processing service. They provide pretty much everything you need (including hardware, at least for Point of Sale) and are pretty reasonable with their fees. They process almost all cards, including debit and Discover, and do it through one process. They do not process AmEx -- they do their own, but Innovative will set up AmEx for you. I don't know if/how they do auto billing, though. It would be worth checking out, though (you can find them through the Quickbooks website).

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Permalink Reply by Lynn Zettler on January 2, 2009 at 9:52am

I just recently did this as well. It is not straightforward, so get ready to dig a little deeper no matter what you do. I use a service through Authorize.net. I needed it for online payments as well as manual. It's 19.95/mo and I believe there is an additional charge for making the charges automatic. This was the best deal I could find. I'd be really interested if you find something better.

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Permalink Reply by Cindy Hartman on January 2, 2009 at 10:21am

Will,

Brian Manning is with Allied Bancard and a member of Smaller Indiana. http://smallerindiana.com/profile/BrianManning

He's a great guy - very honest and will either help you or guide you in the right direction.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Burchfield on January 2, 2009 at 10:23am

Are you talking about taking credit card payments ONLINE? If so, be ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY certain that it is 100% secure. Security is way more important than whatever ranks 2nd. All it takes is one security breach to ruin your reputation and your business.

As Mark pointed out earlier in this discussion, PayPal is a good option for online payments, but there are still many people who are reluctant to use it for whatever reason. I've got 4 or 5 Web sites that use PayPal to process credit card payments online. Works fine. In fact, I used it back in 2002 to raise $200,000 for a professional musician who needed a liver transplant. Never had a single security incident even though we had thousands of donors from all over the world.

If you don't want to use PayPal, I think there are plenty of technology gurus on SI who will be able to help with other alternatives and solutions such as PHP/mySQL, ASP, etc., if they see this discussion.

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Permalink Reply by Will Hardison on January 2, 2009 at 10:33am

Hey Bob,

Thanks for the info. I should have been more clear, I do not intend to take payments online. But, if I was going to, I agree with you, Paypal is the way to go.

Will

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Permalink Reply by Brian Groce on January 2, 2009 at 10:37am

If online, PayPal is my recommendation as well. We've been using it for years without any issues. If it turns out that you're bringing in a lot of money via credit card payments on a consistent monthly basis you'll probably want to look at other options to save yourself some money in service fees. And there are a ton of options out there for that. Whatever you choose, I'd make sure they have a good reputation and that they offer some sort of programming API that can be used with web based applications just in case that need ever arises (PayPal has a great API).

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Permalink Reply by Nicki Laycoax on January 2, 2009 at 10:59am

Check into Authorize.net. If you decide to go with them, I've attached the application with instructions. Page 5 talks about the automatic billing.

Mallory, who is our representative at Authorize, is really helpful. I'm sure that she could answer any questions that you may have regardless of whether you use them or not!

Attachments:

• Authorize.Net Application 11766.pdf, 596 KB

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Permalink Reply by Jodi Stone on January 2, 2009 at 11:13am

I've been using Paypal myself for the last couple of months and it has seemed to work for me.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Stanger on January 2, 2009 at 11:14am

Do your homework!
Compare several companies.
Will you need a credit card reader? They may charge you lease payments on one, or you may have to purchase one (from them, they'll tell you). See if you can get one on Ebay or elsewhere cheaper.

Compare fee structures.
Some companies charge a monthly fee, a per-transaction fee, AND a percentage of the transaction!

As for auto-debiting credit cards for a monthly subscription...I have no experience with setting THAT up, but there is a company called ACP who is a clearing house for those types of transactions (yes, the same ACP that appears on YOUR bank statement every month). Perhaps they can assist you.

Hope this helps!

Rick

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Permalink Reply by Chris Horn on January 2, 2009 at 11:23am

good info Rick. Its also important to learn both their credit card fees as well as debit card fees. typically its a percentange of the sale for credit but a per swipe fee for debit. Since it looks like most of your transactions are going to be non-swipe (since you wont have the card physically in hand) make sure you know about any additional charges which might come with this.

As Cindy said, you should talk to Brian Manning with Allied Bancard. But you should talk to a few people as well and find out who can give you the best rates as no company can be the best for everyone. Good luck!

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