Re: Credit Card Services

Hi, Dave.

Glad you're answer provided itself.  I just wanted to add a comment about
credit card merchant accounts.

My very strong advice to anyone considering credit cards via their web site
is "talk to the bank who has your existing accounts first."

You would probably be amazed at how many alternatives you have at your own
financial institution.   One of our clients was gung ho to get credit card
purchasing up and running on their site and was ready to shell out whatever
was being asked of the "accept credit cards NOW!" people who constantly
bombard email boxes.  Since another of their business already accepted
credit cards in their physical place of business, their bank was more than
happy to simply set up another account for the new business, with the bulk
of fees waived.

Another business -- much as you describe, a not-for-profit on a
hand-to-mouth budget -- set up a credit card merchant account with one of
their existing banks and simply treated the credit card purchases the same
as mail order purchases, depositing them as they would any other receipts.
This works better is you're either a) staying on top of your receipts and
getting them deposited, or b) not collecting very many credit card
transactions in the grand scheme of things.

Depending on where your client lives, they might find a bank that provides
ecommerce merchant accounts that do the full point-of-sale verification.
That, of course, costs a bit more (a lot more, in some cases) and they'd
have to do a cost/benefit analysis to decide whether it's helping them or
just costing them more than it's bringing in.

In short, it isn't always necessary to cough up the hundreds of dollars in
setup fees, the monthly maintenance fees and the per-transaction fee that a
lot of these "Accept Credit Cards NOW" places charge.  Nor is it necessary
to rely on the "free but not really free, because what really is?" services
that can make your organization look less professional than they prefer.

Besides... there's just something sweet about having a name and a face of
someone to yell at if and when something should go wrong.... someone besides
*you*, that is ;-)  No one ever has anything to lose by first talking with
their existing bank.

---------------------
Karin Ransdell - kransdell(at)squishedmosquito.com
Escapade Development Team
Squished Mosquito, Inc.
http://www.squishedmosquito.com - http://www.escapade.org






-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Price <smiley(at)sja.net>
To: hwg-techniques <hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org>
Date: Friday, June 16, 2000 12:17 PM
Subject: Credit Card Services


>I am working on a site for a Non-Profit Childrens Cancer Organization. I
>have been asked about the possibility of using and accepting donations
>online using credit cards. The problem is the budget is low, this I am
doing
>at no cost, and I was wondering if anyone had any sources of "Free" credit
>card transaction services.
>
>Any response would be helpful.
>
>Thanks

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