Processing Credit Card Payments at a Swap Meet
Tens of thousands of people spend their days selling every imaginable product at their local swap meet. Furniture, sunglasses, old LPs, posters and other items are relentlessly hawked to passersby every day. If you operate your business at a swap meet, you’ve likely realized that the days of accepting cash as the only method of payment are over. Today, if you want to motivate people to buy your wares, you’ll need to process credit card payments. Your competitors are doing so. And at the swap, every merchant is your competitor for customers’ limited time and money. Below, we’ll explain how you can process your customers’ credit cards by using your cell phone or laptop.
Using Your Cell Phone
When you apply for your merchant account, you’ll have the option to purchase a credit card terminal. It’s a leased piece of equipment and often requires that you sign 2-year commitment. While the monthly charges may seem negligible, they can become expensive. If you’re only renting a booth at the swap meet during the weekends, you may not be selling enough to make having the card terminal worthwhile.
Many merchant accounts are designed for business owners who would rather forgo the expense of the terminal and call in their customers’ credit card purchases. Instead of swiping your buyer’s card, you can call your merchant bank’s automated system to verify your customer’s funds and process the transaction.
Many people who rent booths at a swap meet make a note of the buyer’s credit card number along with details about the transaction. Then, when they arrive at home, they process the payment. The danger in doing this is that the funds may not be available. And by that time, it’s impossible to recoup the loss. It’s much safer to process the purchase in front of the customer.
Using Your Laptop
If you find that using a cell phone to process payments is uncomfortable and inconvenient, you can use a laptop. As long as you’re able to connect online, you can login to your merchant account and enter your customer’s credit card number and other relevant details (the card’s security code, expiration date, etc.). As soon as you submit the details online, your merchant account will either validate the transaction or decline it (along with a reason why it was declined). Most wireless carriers offer plans that include internet access for your laptop. As long as you’re able to power your laptop, you’ll be able to accept your customers’ credit cards.
Offering The Option
The people who visit swap meets expect merchants to accept credit cards for purchases. In many cases, buyers won’t even carry cash with them. So, if they want to buy an item that you’re selling and you’re unable to process their credit card, you may lose their business. What’s worse, if you’re selling a common item and other merchants accept credit cards, the added convenience will sway many customers away from your booth.
For all but the smallest of swap meet vendors, having the ability to process credit card transactions is essential, especially if you’re selling expensive items. Fortunately, it’s easy to qualify for a merchant account and you can do so without the expense of leasing a credit card terminal. You can use your cell phone to verify and process order or simply use your laptop to process them online in front of the customer. You’ll find that allowing your customers to purchase items with their credit card will help your business grow.
Watch the video related to credit card payment
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July 5th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
About your credit, if you've had this card a decent amount of time and have shown the unblemished history you report, you should calll their customer service and throw yourself at the mercy of the person who answers. Tell them honestly what happened, and ask them to look at your payment history and see that it is completely out of character for you. Ask that they accept another payment, and tell them you are cancelling the original check. If you can pay them immediately by debit or other means, do so. They really might take the blot off your credit rating if you do it once and never again. It worked for me. Don't forget to cancel that check at the bank. I feel for you, I have been there, but my credit card company was surprisingly nice about it. Good luck!
July 5th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
When you make the purchase you debit the appropriate expense or asset account for $1,000 and credit current liabilities. As you make payments, you debit current liabilities for the principal portion of the payment, debit interest expense for the interest portion, and credit cash for the amount of the payment.
If this is all Greek to you, consider a consultation with a CPA or EA who specializes in small business accounting and taxation to get set up on a bookkeeping system.
July 5th, 2009 at 11:28 am
this app looks cool and easy to use, i think i’ll get it when the g2 drops
July 6th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
How Payment Processing Works
Before being able to accept credit card transactions and other forms of online payments, a merchant will need to set up a merchant account with a bank. A merchant account is the industry term for a business banking relationship whereby you and a bank have arranged to accept credit card payments (usually, a local bank can suffice for this kind of relationship). Setting up a merchant account usually involves the bank understanding your business and working with a third-party processor to arrange a mechanism for accepting payments. For more information on setting up merchant accounts, we recommend you take a look through the http://www.card-gallery.com to get you started in the right direction.
July 7th, 2009 at 11:11 am
As long as it is not 30-days or more late they will not report it as late.
July 7th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
There are many things to consider in making that decision.
Do you have a shopping cart?
How fast do you want the funds into your acount?
Would you process the card over the internet or by phone?
You can get a complete package for the shopping cart and credit card processing. However, you need to consider a few things.
First. If you want the credit card sales to be automatically put into your bank account within 48hrs, PayPal is a bad option. It can take a few days for the transaction to hit your account and you must manually transfer the funds. A traditional merchant account will get the funds there quicker.
Second. PRICE. Make sure you are on the right pricing program. Will you be selling to businesses or individuals? You need to make sure and clarify the difference with the processor you choose.
Third. If you are taking your orders via the phone with just a informative website, all you need is a Virtual Terminal. Do not get a machine!
You can get more information here:
http://www.omnitranz.com
Good Luck!
July 7th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Call the credit card company and let them know that you realize you've missed two payments, but you're sending one in now. They'll be happy you called (if not, hang up on her) and even more happy that you now have to pay the added late fees and finance charges.
July 8th, 2009 at 2:06 am
You have a couple of options.
Many Internet providers offer a checkout system for free or at minimal cost for the sites that they host. Mine does, although I don't use it because I don't sell anything.
If you are selling as an eBay shop, or even if you don't, then you can use PayPal for checking out and PayPal automatically accepts credit cards including Amex.
You can use a proprietary shopping basket checkout system through Yahoo or otherwise. Here's a specimen:
http://www.make-a-store.com/site/category/Yahoo_Software_Web_Service_Shopping_Cart_Software
I found it by Googling <Yahoo shopping basket>. There are a number of firms doing the same thing.
You can probably do it cheaper, maybe for free, with Yahoo! directly. Here't the link for that:
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/index.php
I don't think you ought to deal with credit card companies directly. You could easily get scammed by fraudsters using stolen or fake cards. The professionals take some or all of the risk off your hands, and they can check online for bad cards, and check addresses and CVV numbers and expiration dates.
Be careful: I would be cautious about shipping anything abroad except to Canada. And don't give refunds — especially for overpayments — until your bank tells you the money is cleared "without recourse", meaning no chargeback is possible.
Google <nigeria 419> and learn a bit about Internet scams, how even certified and cashiers checks, US postal money orders and Wal-Mart money orders are faked. Especially from overseas.
July 8th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Those other responses didn't directly answer the question.
First, it is correct that paying more than the minimum *won't* affect your score. What you are trying to accomplish is to keep from being characterized by the CC companies as a struggling payer. The strategy is to pay the min plus a little while paying down other cards.
My experience is that paying an extra percent above the min will keep the CC software from identifying you as a "minimum only" payer. To be safe since some companies are bumping the min from 2.5% to 3%, I suggest you pay 4%.
July 8th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
No, not unless it becomes a habit and they can see a pattern in late payments. Your late charge fee wiped out your payment. I had a 10.00 min payment due one time and was late. I got charged 25.00 late fee.