I need to get Master card and Visa for doing craft shows etc. but they have always been so expensive I never did it. Now I am thinking that things my be better, so can those of you who have an account somewhere give advice. I have tried my bank but they want too much investment over $500, besides I have no way of using a electronic device out side of the shop. I had one long time ago when you had the hand machine. Any help would be appreciated. Roxan
Have you checked out ProPay? I don't use the service, but I know a few people that do. There's no special equipment needed and only a $35 a year annual fee.
and how it works:
~~ KatieLiz ~~
there is another service out there, too, which I have been considering...
still in the deciding stage, but I think between propay and touchtoneprogram, it seems like ttp is the best so far...
Mary
BTW, I meant to mention the touchtoneprogram, it's $130 signup fee (which I don't have, which is what is keeping me from signing up). It's a one time fee. Other than that, it's 3.9% rate to accept c/c's. Propay is $35/year, and if you wish to do it by phone (instead of waiting to get home from a show to punch it into the web), you would have to pay an additional $24.95/year.
I think I would sign up in a heartbeat for touchtoneprogram...just need to sell some things first (LOL...gotta sell to make money to accept money???)
Mary
Hi, I've used ProPay for over a year - it's been hassle free and a good adjunct to PayPal for us. At shows we handle cards the old fashioned way with a manual imprinter, then process them at night over the web. Also occaissionally take cards over the phone with customers who don't like PayPal, or when it's acting up with them.
You start out with a $1000 per month limit - after a period of time you can increase that, but you have to leave some money on deposit for the increased limit. They don't pay any interest on money in your balance. Transaction fees are reasonable.
Val
I use charge.com with my internet business through linkpoint gateway. They also work with point-of-purchase retailers. It's relatively inexpensive ($25/month, plus $20/month for the gateway), and a relatively low transaction percentage. $0 setup fee. I also use charge.com with phone orders. The only disadvantage is that I can only validate credit card transactions with internet access.
If you sign up for a merchant system, look at the application carefully - the application systems have less-used cards that you may not want to bother with automatically turned on. You have to turn off applying to these cards - or get hit you with a $25 non-refundable fee for "applying" for a merchant account. I learned the hard way with Discover. Sigh!
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