Advice on Credit Card Processing Services

[JaPac]

I need some advice ASAP on choosing a credit card service to use for my practice. I am getting several calls asking if I offer that option and feel it may be costing me new business that I don't offer it.

Any information options, fees, etc. would be GREATLY appreciated! ABMP recommends one, but was wondering what other MTs experience in this area has been. Thanks so much!

Angela

 

[SecurityTeam]

For ASAP... you can do a search for credit AND card here in the business forums.

We have a number of threads regarding these. I got 122 matches of posts regarding CC's.

Here's a pretty long one: http://www.massageplanet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1306&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=credit+card

I personally use CC services through our bank.
Here's an old post of mine I found about the bank in a bit more detail:

I opened and leased my machine back in 1996. Payed it off after a number of years, and now I own it. *hehe*

I didn't know at that time of these other things you can use to get started "over the phone" minus the machine, but if I were to go back, I think I'd look into that as a possibility.

I can say my CC machine has held up since '96 without any problems and I originally used USB - Universal Savings Bank as my Merchant. (Not sure why, must have been a referral to them from a friend, as it is usually the only way I do things.)

I have since switched to an actual bank as my merchant and have been quite pleased.

I was against CC's in the beginning, but to be real honest, about 85% of our practice is CC. People use their CC's to pay, before they want to write a check, or so it seems. So, I'd say think about it heavily. You may loose a dollar here and there, but it sure makes the clients happy. And happy clients keep referring!!

 

[Melilya]

I go thru MerchantWarehouse.com I bought a refurbished CC machine (was cheap in price, but good quality)Its only 10.95 a month, 1.69% +.25c trasnaction fee. Was lower than what my bank offered. I, too, lost business back when I didnt accept CC. In 2004, i sold MAYBE 200. in GC, in 2005, i sold @ least 2000. I do alot of out of state phone orders, too, for people who have family in my area. I just mail them the GC< and mail the caller their receipt. Its money well spent, getting set up for CC. Dont go with anyone who wants to rent you a machine. It will end up costing you 500-600 bucks, ACK!

 

[RATCHET]

PayPal

It's easy. No monthly fees.

 

[ecogrl23]

I go through Merchant Wherehouse too. Very satified. It was easy to set up, and easy for one of my renters to get her own merchant account written into the operation so that I don't have to write her anymore checks. They didn't have a refurbished machine available when I signed on, but I did call at the end of the month & they gave me a great deal on my monthly charge, just to help them with their monthly quota! I pay 6.95 monthly plus same rates as above. The 1.69% is a bit misleading though. That is the best rate - not all cards will qualify for that rate though. If your client uses cards that gain them air miles, etc, it will be at mid or non-qualifying rates. It's all good though. An excellent, easy service and if you get setup for online gift certificate sales, its wonderful. I do alot of out of state purchases for local family & friends too. Two of my best business-building actions in 2005 were optimizing my website and getting instant gift certificate capabilities (through http://www.spaboom.com). Since Thanksgiving, we sold over $11K in online gift certificates! That was about a 300% increase over last year's tallies! We are small. Only have a receptionist in the studios from 9 AM- noon each day. We would have missed out on soooo much if I hadn't done those things.

Jill/sagetherapist

 

[Twilight Fan]

thanks for all your help!

Thanks everyone for getting back to me so quickly. I did read the old thread.. sorry, I am new to this forum stuff and forgot about the 'search' thing.. my bad...

I think I am going to go with CellCharge for now unless there is anyone out there who can give me good reason not to. They don't seem to want to lock you into a long contract and their fees seem pretty reasonable.

Thanks again for all your help!

A

 

[Ann-G]

just to let you know, most companies don't "lock" you into any contract. you can cancel whenever you want to. the only sort of contract you may find yourself in would be if you were to lease the equipment....which you really should NEVER do. a $200 piece of equipment could end up costing you $600-$1,000. it's crazy but some people actually do it.

i don't know anything about cellcharge but i think there's plenty of others who have used it and like it. i just find it so much easier to slide a card through and hand it directly back to my client.

 

[Clarence]

Since you are most interested in Cell Charge, I thought I'd put up the posts from the forums, so you can read about it a bit easier. I tried to put them in order of oldest to newest posts. However, keep in mind they are from different threads, so the read may not flow too nice.

This weekend I read about the CellCharge of California company. You use a regular land line or cell phone to call in credit card charges and there is no equipment to use or buy. Below is a list of benefits that they sent me today. I was wondering if anyone has used this company and what they think of it? They have a web site too....www.cellchargeca.com It almost sounds too good to be true. Any thoughts?

"We are a unique, pay-as-you-use service that only charges our merchants 3.95% of a transaction when they use us and absolutely nothing if they don't."

With the CellCharge advaneforum.xxxe there are:

No Statement Fees

No Transaction Fees

No Cancellation Fees

No Membership Fees

No Annual Renewal Fees

No Monthly Minimums to Meet

No Expensive Equipment to Buy or Lease.

Attention new merchants, starting April 1st. there will be a $9.95 monthly access fee for all new accounts signed up after April 1st.

I have been using cell charge for a year and they have sent me an notice they will be chargeing most accounts old and new the $9.95 a month . still a good service but be aware of the charge!

gwin

This next one is not a Cell Charge one... but something to get you excited. )

It's been a few months, so I thought I'd follow up.

Having the ability to take credit cards has helped quite a bit. I know for a fact that I sold more gift certificate packages at Christmas and Valentine's Day than I would have otherwise. Sure, there are fees involved with taking cards, but I'd rather have 98% of a sale than 0% of a sale. From that perspective, it's totally worth it.

There has also been a benefit that I didn't anticipate. I don't understand why, but having the credit card reader sitting there in my office and having the credit card logo on my brochures has made the public's perception of me and my business more professional. Even if the client intends to pay by cash or check, the reaction "Wow! I didn't realize you took credit cards. I'll have to keep that in mind." has been positive.

I use cellcharge thru chargeamerica.com....$99 start up , no machine. 3.95% per transaction and $10 a month fee. I have had no problems and can take credit cards on out calls using my cellphone. the money is in my account in about 2 days.

good luck

gwin

I was confused by the in my face marketing of all the credit card merchant companies. I work next door to a chiropractor and he told me of the nightmare he had gone through with another company (they regularly forgot to deposit his charges into his checking acct). He said he called a fellow DC and asked what company he used. NPC (800) 592-1591. Neither DC has reported any problems with NPC. http://www.npc.net - they have the most professional (ie: stable) looking website of any of the merchant account companies I looked at.

I looked into cellcharge and phone verification but those didn't seem very professional. What if you went into your favorite dept store and the checkout clerk had to call in your info. Seems kinda cheesey, no offense intended to those who use it.

I just signed up with them and here's their deal:

*I have my own machine that a friend lent me, no printer, I will use the old-skool imprinter which I bought from NPC for $25. A printer for my model would be $200, maybe I can find a cheaper one down the road.<

*I can accept Visa/MC at 1.73% with a $0.25 per-transaction fee, Visa Debit (no PIN required) at 1.33% same trans fee and Discover at 1.8% $0.15 trans fee. If I ever choose to do a non-swiped charge (such as during an occasional outcall), the rate is higher, 3.?%, but I won't be doing much of that.

* $9.95 to receive my monthly statement online (or $11.95 for a paper one)

*$18.00 monthly minimum

I spoke with Sharon Snedeker at NPC, she was very helpful and seemed like she has delt with LMT's before.

Costco also has a pretty good deal something like $4.95/mo + 1.61% + $0.21 trans fee.

-Jason

I am new to this message board and have a question about accepting credit cards. I have been in private practice for almost 2 years now working out of an office and currently only accepting cash or check. For the convenience for my clients, I have been considering the option of accepting credit cards. I have been doing everything possible to keep costs down. I use only a cell phone to book appointments, which means I would need to get a landline for my office plus the cost of the terminal and monthly charges. I've read about Cell Charge and that you can use your cell phone to verify the credit card. I was wondering if anyone is currently using this system and if so, how do you rate them? I also found that merchant warehouse does not charge monthly minimums and their rates relatively reasonable. I don't know which system would be better for me at this point. I don't know how people would react if I had to call in with their credit card info. especially new clients. I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks

www.cellchargemerchant.com

http://www.abmp.com
(follow links to member benefits and credit card processing)

These are the best deals available to massage therapists.

coco71,

I use CellCharge - have for the past year and it works just fine. They don't have any minimums, reasonable rates and I have always gotten through to their automated system on the first try, never a busy signal or a wait. The great thing about it is you don't have the extra expense of a land line or having to have internet access, you also don't have the expense of the machines and such, and you also don't have to worry about batching your tickets at the end of the day and processing them - they do it for you. So you call, punch the numbers of their card and such (takes about a minute or so) and give your client a receipt and you are done - just wait for it to show up in your account. And you also can take it with you anywhere you can use your cell phone. have never had anyone complain about it.

I thought about using the internet for cc charges, but I do health fairs and business expos and sell gift certificates and this makes it easy for me to accept credit cards away from the office.

Hope this helps,
healingtouch

Thanks for the info, healingtouch....

I have been accepting cash/local checks only as well, like Coco... I have been wanting to look into accepting credit cards also, but the added expense of having to install and pay for a land line was not an attractive prospect.

A friend of mine was just starting out with massage therapy and dove right into a terminal and a land line.... it was a huge expense for something she used very infrequently, and there were months at a time where she was unable to pay her phone bill, so thus unable to accept credit cards, but still had to pay the terminal rental fees, which ran her $80+ per month.

Using the cell phone is perfect for me.... I do outcalls occasionally, and it would be great to have an account to accept MC/VISA.

Can you accept ALL the credit cards (MC/VISA, AMEX, and DISCOVER) for $6.99 per month, or is there an additional charge to accept AMEX and DISCOVER? I was wondering about this, as it doesn't say on the website.

I am not sure if it is extra because I have never wanted to accept them. I do know that you can sign up to do electronic checks to. Give them a call, they are very helpful.

healingtouch

i'm also looking into the credit card thing. i haven't decided which program best suits my business (i'm mobile).

i'm quite interested in the 'swipe' equipment that connects to your cell-phone. it's featured in a new nextel commercial. it shows a construction site and workers swiping their company id cards. i've contacted nextel and haven't gotten too much info on it from them: probably because the equipment is new and also because of the spint/nextel merge. my cell service is with sprint and,fortunately or not, i'm probably going to get sucked into their equipment war when the merge happens.

i think those swipe things on your cell phone are pretty expensive. i could be mistaken. if you call on your cell you don't need equipment.

If you are interested in the cell phone swipe machine - do a search on creditel, this is the company that nextel is associated with. I did a search and got all kinds of info. It is called PowerSwipe.

healingtouch

coco71,

The great thing about it is you don't have the extra expense of a land line or having to have internet access, you also don't have the expense of the machines and such, and you also don't have to worry about batching your tickets at the end of the day and processing them - they do it for you.

What do you give the client for a receipt and what do you keep for your records? Second, can you accept debit cards.

More and more people are using Visa/debit cards as payment and does anyone here have a company that also accepts these cards?

You can accept debit cards just like credit cards - they are usually VISA or MC and work the same. I use a knukkle buster reciept machine - you could also print them out one from your computer if you have a computer. It would be great to have a scanner/reader that prints out a reciept - but I am not using mine enough to justify the expense of all that.

Another touch-tone processing company that is similar to Cell Charge is Touch-Pay through Merchantseek. Fees are 3.95%, $39 setup, $5/month. No minimums and no other fees.

I also use Merchant Warehouse and am very happy with them. I pay $7.95 per month, no minimum, 1.69% and .25 per transaction. The deposit goes right to my account the next business day. I bought a refurbished Omni 3200 through them for $159.00. I called at the end of the month and she gave me the extra 50.00 off for end of month sales. It would have been 199.00. Their technical support is fantastic too. I had a little paper jam issue! :

Hey Everyone"
Judy here! I didn't read all the posts so I don't know if this was mentioned. I use a system (call in charges on the phone) I have had my own office for 5 years. I chose this particular company now I think they are called Card Services International (they used to be called telecharge) They charge a $10. monthly fee and a perceneforum.xxxe (very small) of the fee you are charging. No equipment needed. I have used them for 5 years and never had a problem.

Yours in Health,
Judy

I did, eventually, sign up with Merchant Warehouse.
My experience was not all together pleasant. The sales person I was working with neglected to mention that he had signed me up to accept Discovery cards and that I would be billed $25.00 for that privilege. I told him that I was going to accept Visa/M/C only. He mentioned a refund but I later found out that I had to call Discovery direct for the refund. I did not go online until March but was billed the monthly fee of 7.95 + .21 for a test for the month of Feb. The sales rep and I had agreed that I would not be billed for Feb. My machine was programmed incorrectly and for the first 20minutes I got the run around from customer service and tech support regarding the reprogramming of the machine.
All is well now except for the refund of Feb service charge and the Discovery refund. We will see :-/

Should have gone with Cell Charge, none of those fees. Sorry you had a rough time.

As soon as I started accepting plastic, my sales went up. As for hiding money, I take my business seriously and taking credit cards is a way to present a more legitamate and professional front to my massage business. I use Cell Charge. My partner is a member of ABMP and got an even better deal. I can use it for my outcalls too by processing via my cell phone. The website is: http://www.cellchargemerchant.com. I studied up on these companies for two months before I chose CellCharge, and it was by far and away the best deal. No contract, equipment, or monthly minimum. Check them out.

Hey folks,

If you want to take credit cards, look at cellcharge (http://www.cellcharge.com). It has a higher transaction fee but it's only $10/mo, doesn't require a machine (you use your cell phone) and there's no minimum that you have to have each month. It looks like a good deal to me and I plan on getting enrolled this month!

Cheers!
-v

There is also Propay.com, I found that on another thread, and I am considering switching from Cellcharge to Propay. Propay only has a yearly rate, and a lower %, plus you can process it over the computer, which is a nice bonus.http://www.propay.com

Last, here is a whole thread just on CellCharge.


Hope this helps.

 

[Aziz Shobash]

Oh my! After reading this post, part of me feels like I'm missing out because I don't take credit cards. But, it is only occasionally that someone even asks me about credit cards. I don't think anyone has ever not booked with me because I don't take them.

Hmmm......I think I will have to pay more attention.

 

[Susanne R]

Credit cards

WOW, thanks for the information... I did see some of those posts in the link another member posted here. Seems that CellCharge is right up there with the good ones... except for the person who said they thought it was cheesy... I did look into ProPay also. Still trying to decide though I am leaning toward CellCharge. Being an ABMP member it seems we are getting a better monthly deal.... will have to do an on paper comparison though before I sign on the dotted line..

Thanks again for EVERYONE'S help! This is such a GREAT group!!!

Angela
The Body Mechanic Massage Therapy
972-998-5336

 

[Freddy P]

For Gessika: I use Merchant Warehouse and have been very satisfied. It's a convenience that costs me about $12/month total right now, but more and more of my clients are paying by credit card, so I'm glad that I spent time shopping around.

I bought my machine, $245. Steep for such a low volume, but worth it.

For SpaBoom, I need to find out what the fee is for internet charges, otherwise I will likely just use my merchant paypal account. It didn't cost anything to set up. They do get a pretty hefty 3.99% on transactions, but I figure it's worth it for the occasional spaboom sale. My regular clients would rather have the fancy GCs I use, so they would not likely buy online unless it is the last minute, in which case I would have probably lost the sale, so it's a small price to pay.


9/23 Update: I have since switched processors. As my volume increased, I found I could get better rates elsewhere. As well, I found that once I was already a customer, the customer service went in the toilet. YMMV.

 

[Joe Angus]

Back when I joined, Cellcharge waived the $99 setup fee. So it costs me ten bucks a month for the service. All I need to process a transaction is my phone, which I have with me anyway. I don't want to mess with equipment or storing and securing receipts because the majority of my clients don't use cards.

However, for those who want to pay with a card, it's nice to have this option. To cover the merchant fees as well as the monthly fee I add a $3 fee to every debit/credit transaction. If the volume of charge clients were higher this probably would not be necessary. I'll admit I was actually surprised that nobody objected to this fee and the comments were actually positive. I guess folks do understand that convenience comes with a price.

I believe Cellcharge can do the whole equipment/terminal thing if that's what you prefer, but that was something I wanted to specifically avoid. Every therapist's practice is different. I needed a means that was fairly inexpensive, reliable, simple, and portable. Cellcharge has delivered.

 

[gothie_rex]

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to add my two cents! I use Paypal, it works for my website and for people wanting to pay me at the thime of service! Really cheap and very easy! Check it out!

 

[Sudhakar B]

I couldn't use PayPal unless I had clients pay before or after a session (as in after they got home, online) because I don't have internet access at my studio.

BreatheBodywork: If you can process cards via phone with your merchant acct. I don't think you have to pay any additonal fees for using spaboom (except the % they take out. 5% seems steep but I understand paying for the convenience).

 

[??????????????]

Thanks. gang. for such wonderful info on credit cards.

I am planning to sign up with Cellcharge through ABMP -- do we get any kind of discount as ABMP members? That wasn't clear to me.

Am I correct that the initial cost is now $99.00 (for the imprinter, receipts etc), then $9.99 a month and a 3.85% charge for each transaction? And that's it?

Thus far (looking through old threads) I have found nothing but kudos for using Cellcharge to conduct CC business. If anyone else out there has any negative opinions, would you kindly let me know? I plan to sign up for it in the next couple of days.

Thanks! I have found more valuable info on this chatline in less than a week than I did on another for 18 months. What a wonderful, wonderful group of caring and professional therapists! t048

Sherry

 

[DAVIS lax #36]

Am I correct that the initial cost is now $99.00 (for the imprinter, receipts etc), then $9.99 a month and a 3.85% charge for each transaction? And that's it?

that's it? that seems like a lot to me. i don't pay that much through my credit card company and i don't have to use my cell phone to make a transaction. just my 2 cents but that seems like a lot.