wrote:
> Doug Freyburger > wrote:
>
>> I've had a merchant account so I have paid those fees. *For small
>> businesses they are substantial. *If I think it is the small business
>> owner checking me out I ask which has a lower fee. *For large businesses
>> the fees per purchase are smaller but the amounts are substantial. *I
>> never mentioned the fees to my retail customers. *It was a part of doing
>> business and it increased the amount I had to sell before I could turn a
>> profit.
>
> I have a small business on the side, and I only accept credit cards
> (any type), but no debit cards. I pay 35 cents per transaction plus a
> percentage on the full amount, so if I gave cash back, I would be
> charged a fee on that part as well.
>
> I do use a service geared for smaller businesses, so I have no monthly
> minimums. I pay a little more per transaction, but that's fine since I
> may not have many transactions some months, and most services have a
> minimum that I don't meet each month. I pay $60 per year plus the
> transaction fee, and that allows me to accept up to $500 per
> transaction and up to $3,000 per month. If I get to a point where I
> need more than that, I can move up to $120 per year, and my percentage
> fee will go down a bit as well.

My current retail business attempt has not yet turned enough profit to
cover the initial investment and the marketing rates are going up
enough that it could be another year of slow little profit it still
doesn't cover the start up invenstment two years ago.

I have wondered about switching my small side business to selling lower
fee transaction services for small businesses. There are a lot of
services out there and the details of the plans differ vendor to vendor.
I figure I could save other small businesses a percentage and make a few
bucks myself. if I could do this with a very low initial investment the
time to repayment of the initial profit might be short enough to make it
worth doing instead of the current side business.

Doug Freyburger wrote:

> I have wondered about switching my small side business to selling
> lower fee transaction services for small businesses. There are a lot
> of services out there and the details of the plans differ vendor to
> vendor. I figure I could save other small businesses a percentage and
> make a few bucks myself. if I could do this with a very low initial
> investment the time to repayment of the initial profit might be short
> enough to make it worth doing instead of the current side business.

Costco often advertises low fee credit card servicing. I'm sure
you've already looked into it but I thought I'd mention it.

nancy

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 23:48:15 -0700 (PDT), "
> wrote:

> I have a small business on the side, and I only accept credit cards
> (any type), but no debit cards. I pay 35 cents per transaction plus a
> percentage on the full amount, so if I gave cash back, I would be
> charged a fee on that part as well.
>
> I do use a service geared for smaller businesses, so I have no monthly
> minimums. I pay a little more per transaction, but that's fine since I
> may not have many transactions some months, and most services have a
> minimum that I don't meet each month. I pay $60 per year plus the
> transaction fee, and that allows me to accept up to $500 per
> transaction and up to $3,000 per month. If I get to a point where I
> need more than that, I can move up to $120 per year, and my percentage
> fee will go down a bit as well.

I had no idea they were that fair. I heard they charged 3% and up to
10-15% depending on the risk.

--

Never trust a dog to watch your food.

Nancy Young wrote:
> Doug Freyburger wrote:
>
>> I have wondered about switching my small side business to selling
>> lower fee transaction services for small businesses. There are a lot
>> of services out there and the details of the plans differ vendor to
>> vendor. I figure I could save other small businesses a percentage and
>> make a few bucks myself. if I could do this with a very low initial
>> investment the time to repayment of the initial profit might be short
>> enough to make it worth doing instead of the current side business.
>
> Costco often advertises low fee credit card servicing. I'm sure
> you've already looked into it but I thought I'd mention it.

My current side business came with the merchant account bundled. I was
****ed that I couldn't substitute the Costco one. When I looked the
Costco one was a little bit over half the price of the bundled one. One
more reason I have an interest in doing some other side business.

Hmm. This year we switched from Costco Executive members to regular
members. I don't know if a merchant account could be opened using my
membership status today.

I've asked various small business owners and a lot of them have a worse
deal than Costco. When I've looked around I've found a couple of
vendors that are a little cheaper than Costco. Even pointing folks to
the same vendor as Costco should have some profit in it and I'd make
money by doing good.

On Oct 10, 8:05*am, Dave Smith > wrote:
> I picked up to items at the grocery store and went to one of the three
> express checkout lines, and chose this one because there was only one
> person at it, and she was all rung up and in the process of paying. Five
> minutes later I was wondering if I should change lanes or stay there and
> witness the spectacle. I opted to stay because of the entertainment value..
>
> The woman's bill was $11.86, which I remember because I heard it so many
> times as she counted out her change. * Her purse wasn't that big and
> didn't seem to have that many compartments, but it was stuffed with
> crap, and, it seems, there was a lot of change in it.
>
> First she got a Toonie and a Loonie, a few quarters,some nickels, dimes
> and pennies. *She gives up counting it and asks the cashier to do it,
> but she's only up to about four and a half bucks. *So she rummaged
> around and puled out another handful of small coins, and the cashier had
> to start all over. *Then the woman rummaged around and pulled out
> another handful of mixed coins. This went on and on, with this woman
> pulling out 50-60 cents at a time until she finally had enough.
>
> I was tempted to say something but, despite her normal appearance, this
> woman was obviously not quite right. *When the woman finally left I
> congratulated the cashier for keeping her cool and told her that I
> figured that my total would be under $10 and I had $20 bill ready to pay.

This is hilarious because the exact thing happened to me last night,
altho the woman obviously wasn't quite right. She had dumped the
contents of her change purse, and just stood and watched as the
cashier counted out her change. I think there were 3 one dollar bills,
and the rest was change. She apparently didn't have enough money as
she had the cashier subtract a couple of items, and then still didn't
have enough. I was on my way home from work, and anxious to get home,
so I asked the cashier if she could add the remainder to my bill- it
was only $1.97. The cashier said ok, and handed the lady her
groceries, who just took them and walked out. As the cashier was
ringing me up, she thanked me for helping out. I asked her if this was
a normal occurance, and she said yes- she had also done what I had to
keep the line moving...

On 10/19/2010 8:06 AM, Doug Freyburger wrote:
> Nancy Young wrote:
>> Doug Freyburger wrote:
>>
>>> I have wondered about switching my small side business to selling
>>> lower fee transaction services for small businesses. There are a lot
>>> of services out there and the details of the plans differ vendor to
>>> vendor. I figure I could save other small businesses a percentage and
>>> make a few bucks myself. if I could do this with a very low initial
>>> investment the time to repayment of the initial profit might be short
>>> enough to make it worth doing instead of the current side business.
>>
>> Costco often advertises low fee credit card servicing. I'm sure
>> you've already looked into it but I thought I'd mention it.
>
> My current side business came with the merchant account bundled. I was
> ****ed that I couldn't substitute the Costco one. When I looked the
> Costco one was a little bit over half the price of the bundled one. One
> more reason I have an interest in doing some other side business.
>
> Hmm. This year we switched from Costco Executive members to regular
> members. I don't know if a merchant account could be opened using my
> membership status today.
>
> I've asked various small business owners and a lot of them have a worse
> deal than Costco. When I've looked around I've found a couple of
> vendors that are a little cheaper than Costco. Even pointing folks to
> the same vendor as Costco should have some profit in it and I'd make
> money by doing good.

I get bombarded by people offering these services a lot. It seems that
everybody's getting into this business. There's a couple of problems.
Most small business don't do enough transactions to make it worth the
fuss to do a changeover and the margins on this competitive business
must be kind of slim.

From my point of view, they're all offering pretty much the same thing
and my mind goes blank as soon as they start making their pitch. In over
6 years of business, I've changed one time and get good rates. My guess
is that people that have changed their service provider at least once
probably have a pretty good rate and you'd have to offer them something
better than pretty good.

I think your best bet is to find new businesses and those small business
owners you have contacts with to make your pitch. They've already told
you what their rates are, you could then ask them what kind of rates
they'd like to have and then make your pitch.

I see a lot of hole-in-the-wall food places that could probably increase
their sales by taking cards. If you're willing to approach the owners
directly that may be fruitful. If you're mostly going to sit at a desk
and make cold calls, you'd better have something better to say that what
I've been hearing.

On 10/19/2010 8:32 AM, merryb wrote:
> On Oct 10, 8:05 am, Dave > wrote:
>> I picked up to items at the grocery store and went to one of the three
>> express checkout lines, and chose this one because there was only one
>> person at it, and she was all rung up and in the process of paying. Five
>> minutes later I was wondering if I should change lanes or stay there and
>> witness the spectacle. I opted to stay because of the entertainment value.
>>
>> The woman's bill was $11.86, which I remember because I heard it so many
>> times as she counted out her change. Her purse wasn't that big and
>> didn't seem to have that many compartments, but it was stuffed with
>> crap, and, it seems, there was a lot of change in it.
>>
>> First she got a Toonie and a Loonie, a few quarters,some nickels, dimes
>> and pennies. She gives up counting it and asks the cashier to do it,
>> but she's only up to about four and a half bucks. So she rummaged
>> around and puled out another handful of small coins, and the cashier had
>> to start all over. Then the woman rummaged around and pulled out
>> another handful of mixed coins. This went on and on, with this woman
>> pulling out 50-60 cents at a time until she finally had enough.
>>
>> I was tempted to say something but, despite her normal appearance, this
>> woman was obviously not quite right. When the woman finally left I
>> congratulated the cashier for keeping her cool and told her that I
>> figured that my total would be under $10 and I had $20 bill ready to pay.
>
> This is hilarious because the exact thing happened to me last night,
> altho the woman obviously wasn't quite right. She had dumped the
> contents of her change purse, and just stood and watched as the
> cashier counted out her change. I think there were 3 one dollar bills,
> and the rest was change. She apparently didn't have enough money as
> she had the cashier subtract a couple of items, and then still didn't
> have enough. I was on my way home from work, and anxious to get home,
> so I asked the cashier if she could add the remainder to my bill- it
> was only $1.97. The cashier said ok, and handed the lady her
> groceries, who just took them and walked out. As the cashier was
> ringing me up, she thanked me for helping out. I asked her if this was
> a normal occurance, and she said yes- she had also done what I had to
> keep the line moving...

You must be a nice person with a creative mind who understands the
relationship of time, money, and kindness. Interesting. :-)

"dsi1" > wrote in message
...
> On 10/19/2010 8:32 AM, merryb wrote:
>> This is hilarious because the exact thing happened to me last night,
>> altho the woman obviously wasn't quite right. She had dumped the
>> contents of her change purse, and just stood and watched as the
>> cashier counted out her change. I think there were 3 one dollar bills,
>> and the rest was change. She apparently didn't have enough money as
>> she had the cashier subtract a couple of items, and then still didn't
>> have enough. I was on my way home from work, and anxious to get home,
>> so I asked the cashier if she could add the remainder to my bill- it
>> was only $1.97. The cashier said ok, and handed the lady her
>> groceries, who just took them and walked out. As the cashier was
>> ringing me up, she thanked me for helping out. I asked her if this was
>> a normal occurance, and she said yes- she had also done what I had to
>> keep the line moving...
>
> You must be a nice person with a creative mind who understands the
> relationship of time, money, and kindness. Interesting. :-)

Agreed


--
--
https://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

On Oct 19, 12:10*pm, dsi1 > wrote:
> On 10/19/2010 8:32 AM, merryb wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Oct 10, 8:05 am, Dave > *wrote:
> >> I picked up to items at the grocery store and went to one of the three
> >> express checkout lines, and chose this one because there was only one
> >> person at it, and she was all rung up and in the process of paying. Five
> >> minutes later I was wondering if I should change lanes or stay there and
> >> witness the spectacle. I opted to stay because of the entertainment value.
>
> >> The woman's bill was $11.86, which I remember because I heard it so many
> >> times as she counted out her change. * Her purse wasn't that big and
> >> didn't seem to have that many compartments, but it was stuffed with
> >> crap, and, it seems, there was a lot of change in it.
>
> >> First she got a Toonie and a Loonie, a few quarters,some nickels, dimes
> >> and pennies. *She gives up counting it and asks the cashier to do it,
> >> but she's only up to about four and a half bucks. *So she rummaged
> >> around and puled out another handful of small coins, and the cashier had
> >> to start all over. *Then the woman rummaged around and pulled out
> >> another handful of mixed coins. This went on and on, with this woman
> >> pulling out 50-60 cents at a time until she finally had enough.
>
> >> I was tempted to say something but, despite her normal appearance, this
> >> woman was obviously not quite right. *When the woman finally left I
> >> congratulated the cashier for keeping her cool and told her that I
> >> figured that my total would be under $10 and I had $20 bill ready to pay.
>
> > This is hilarious because the exact thing happened to me last night,
> > altho the woman obviously wasn't quite right. She had dumped the
> > contents of her change purse, and just stood and watched as the
> > cashier counted out her change. I think there were 3 one dollar bills,
> > and the rest was change. She apparently didn't have enough money as
> > she had the cashier subtract a couple of items, and then still didn't
> > have enough. I was on my way home from work, and anxious to get home,
> > so I asked the cashier if she could add the remainder to my bill- it
> > was only $1.97. The cashier said ok, and handed the lady her
> > groceries, who just took them and walked out. As the cashier was
> > ringing me up, she thanked me for helping out. I asked her if this was
> > a normal occurance, and she said yes- she had also done what I had to
> > keep the line moving...
>
> You must be a nice person with a creative mind who understands the
> relationship of time, money, and kindness. Interesting. :-)- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Why thank you- that's very nice of you to say!

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:22:02 -0700 (PDT), merryb >
wrote:

> Why thank you- that's very nice of you to say!

There are lots of basic math illiterates in the world. I was at the
hospital today in a sign in and out situation. There was a gigantic
analog clock on the wall and the young man in front of me says to the
desk person, is it 3:30? A: No, it's 4:55 (the last person had
probably signed out at 3:30).

--

Never trust a dog to watch your food.

I see this as in the middle school kids I teach. Thankfully, most are okay, but some can't tell time, especially on the analog clock. I can take it when the kid has major learning issues; but when it's just mom and dad not doing their job, I get dandered up.

I told the kids in my Spanish II (high school)class that I knew about internet translation machines, and that they would surely fail if I learned they used one on an essay(it's obvious whent hey do.) Busted one young lady who called me out and swore she never used the translation engine. Mom came in and I shwoed her what I look for, then showed her her daughter's paper. She had used the French translation engine instead of the Spanish. You can usually count on dishonest people to be dumb, thankfully.

sf wrote:
> On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:22:02 -0700 (PDT), merryb >
> wrote:
>
>> Why thank you- that's very nice of you to say!
>
> There are lots of basic math illiterates in the world. I was at the
> hospital today in a sign in and out situation. There was a gigantic
> analog clock on the wall and the young man in front of me says to the
> desk person, is it 3:30? A: No, it's 4:55 (the last person had
> probably signed out at 3:30).

(laugh) He was probably nervous or something. Hospitals sure make
me nervous.

But if you really want to amuse yourself, get to some function early
and watch people try to find their seats. Row 36, Seat 21. Seems
pretty straightforward to me. Apparently not.

nancy

On Oct 19, 8:36*am, sf > wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 23:48:15 -0700 (PDT), "
>
> > wrote:
> > I have a small business on the side, and I only accept credit cards
> > (any type), but no debit cards. I pay 35 cents per transaction plus a
> > percentage on the full amount, so if I gave cash back, I would be
> > charged a fee on that part as well.
>
> > I do use a service geared for smaller businesses, so I have no monthly
> > minimums. I pay a little more per transaction, but that's fine since I
> > may not have many transactions some months, and most services have a
> > minimum that I don't meet each month. I pay $60 per year plus the
> > transaction fee, and that allows me to accept up to $500 per
> > transaction and up to $3,000 per month. If I get to a point where I
> > need more than that, I can move up to $120 per year, and my percentage
> > fee will go down a bit as well.
>
> I had no idea they were that fair. *I heard they charged 3% and up to
> 10-15% depending on the risk.
>
I use propay, and my level of service is is 35 cents plus 3.25% for
visa, mastercard, and discover. And 3.75% for American Express. I see
that the annual fee has gone up to $80 for this level, but that is
still very good for the service. No monthly minimums, no statement
fees. I can check my account anytime online. I can process cards
online or over the phone. There is an optional card reader, not sure
how much it costs as I don't need it. Looks like the monthly minimum
can be raised based on credit history and or business history. Money
is available 3 days after I process the charge. I can spend it from a
propay mastercard, or I can have it transferred to my bank account for
30 cents (which takes a few business days). Not bad overall. Much
better than the first place that I signed up for. They misrepresented
the fees even though I asked specific questions. I understood that
there was a $25 minimum fee, but it was actually $50 a month. And they
didn't tell me that I would be charged a monthly fee from American
Express as well. I tried to cancel after the first month, and it took
me over 6 months to get the charges stopped from both places. I paid
hundreds and never even used it.

I know another vendor who tried to sign up but was told he had to
deposit $500 for a security deposit. I suspect that is because he had
no business history and wanted to accept larger transactions for
artwork. If he had started with a regular account and spent a year
doing good transactions, it probably would have been approved with no
problem.

I have been very happy with propay, and I would recommend it to any
small business that needs to start taking cards. Before I had it, I
would occasionally get asked if I accept cards. Now, I get a lot of
sales with credit cards.

dsi1 wrote:
>
> I get bombarded by people offering these services a lot. It seems that
> everybody's getting into this business.

Thanks. I'll keep my day job and when it comes to the side business I
will only consider one with less competition not more.

> In over
> 6 years of business, I've changed one time and get good rates.

To me this is key. I was interested in doing it because I was handed an
account and locked into it if I wanted to stay with that marketing
network, so I was motivated to switch vendors. But if a lot of small
merchants have switched once it's much harder to find a vendor cheap
enough to justify switching a second time.

> I think your best bet is to find new businesses and those small business
> owners you have contacts with to make your pitch. They've already told
> you what their rates are, you could then ask them what kind of rates
> they'd like to have and then make your pitch.
>
> I see a lot of hole-in-the-wall food places that could probably increase
> their sales by taking cards. If you're willing to approach the owners
> directly that may be fruitful. If you're mostly going to sit at a desk
> and make cold calls, you'd better have something better to say that what
> I've been hearing.

That was my market research - Asking the owner of every small business I
did business with for most of a year. To actually do it for profit I
would need to drive around locating small businesses in droves. Pass.
A couple of hours of overtime at my day job pays enough that I have to
have fun doing the side business and face to face sales is too stressful
to me.