Howdy folks

Just curious to learn if any of the members on here accept credit card payments or have thought about it and dumped the idea.

I'm looking into it at the moment with the vague theory that the easier and simpler you make the payment process for the client, the more likely they are to book...i.e. if you can ofer the credit card payment solution from your website, they may just think, oo I can bok it now and it's out of the way.

Thought and opinions?

Darren

I dont...it costs money to set up.. and continues to cost YOU! If a punter cant arrange to pay cash on the night or a cheque ten days in advance then I would consider not taking their booking in the first place! Remember we set the terms of payment - not the customer - and if they cant or wont conform to how we want paying - no dj! I know it may make life simpler for the customer to get a disco on credit, but we want the dosh in our pockets asap dont we!

There are some ways that you can accept payment by Credit Card without paying a large annual fee such as PAYPAL they do however charge you a 3.5% commisson on transactions.

Another useful payment processor is NOCHEX they currently only accept Switch / Debit Cards but they have recently scrapped their NOCHEX Members only transaction policy - meaning that now anybody can pay you online - and not just other NOCHEX members who have Nochex accounts. Commission on Nochex Payment is 99p per transaction.

Getting a proper direct merchant account with a company like Barclays is a nightmare and very costly. There is a lot of red tape, credit checks etc and the level of turnover that the average DJ creates very little interest for the large providers - in other words we'll probably be turned down.

I do have the facility (via CSL) to process Card Payments for Booking customers but it is very very rare that they use a card to pay. The majority prefer to pay cash on the night or send a cheque a few weeks before.

3.5%.... that immediately puts your fees up! I think it is fine if you are an agency sending out about 50 discos a week... but not for the one man band!

I started a topic on this months ago, and decided against it, and I have more than one business that could use the system. People don't like putting thier credit card details over the 'net, and to get a bank to help you is very nearly impossible and very expensive, wait a couple of days for a cheque AND you get the full amount, not less 3% to the bank