Taking Credit Cards

[Di Sandland]

I know that sometime ago this issue was discussed on the forum but I can't find hide nor hair of it now.

What do other folk do about taking payment for expensive items? I can neither afford nor justify a merchant account at the moment but as some of my prices are in the £100/£120 area I think its highly unlikely that folk at a fair will be paying in cash!

Keith and I have discussed this bloody issue to the walls and back and still haven't come up with a solution. We have, we think, the following options:

• A 20% deposit secures your item type thing, whereby punters who want a particular piece can pay a deposit on the understanding that the balance is payed within 7 days, at which point the item will be mailed/delivered to them
• Get a 'dongle' - Keith is convinced you can get devices that will allow you internet connection even where there is no wifi. That we we can take paypal.
• Take cheques - but who carries cheque books nowadays?

I know from experience that if a customer can't have what they want 'now' they are unlikely to return. I have lost sales like that in the past (on wood stuff, not jewellery) but I have no reason to suspect that this market is any different.

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated.

[ps_bond]

[*]Get a 'dongle' - Keith is convinced you can get devices that will allow you internet connection even where there is no wifi. That we we can take paypal.

He's correct - there are 3G USB modems (oh alright, dongles) that will allow a laptop to connect to the net. There was a while where 3 were doing a "free" one according to moneysavingexpert; not sure who is doing what right now.

Of course, many modern phones effectively have that built in.

Be aware though - I (and others) might not be terribly keen on keying my Paypal password into someone else's PC...

[Di Sandland]

Be aware though - I (and others) might not be terribly keen on keying my Paypal password into someone else's PC...

Yes, that was my instant reaction too.

As for the word dongle - don't know what got into him. Until he retired he was a computer professional - his standards are obviously slipping into senility along with the rest of the poor old bugger

[Kalorlo]

Yeah, there are things like these laptop dongles that let you access the internet via whichever mobile phone operator you get a plan with. (That was just the first result Google gave me - Orange's website for example has more details in its mobile broadband FAQ). Same as a mobile, it does require you to be somewhere that has coverage.

ETA: Also, I specifically took my chequebook with me to the Harrow fair because there was a 'Don't forget cheques!'-type notice on the flier that reminded people that not all the sellers take cards. Which was handy.

[Di Sandland]

ETA: Also, I specifically took my chequebook with me to the Harrow fair because there was a 'Don't forget cheques!'-type notice on the flier that reminded people that not all the sellers take cards. Which was handy.

thanks for that. The don't forget cheques notice is a good idea. Might suggest that to the organisers.

[pauljoels]

Have you thought of picking up any market trader magazines and seeing what they recommend? They must have the same issues, and I know that certain companies have tried to push credit card services towards them.

Some people prefer paypal others don't like the idea at all. Another variant on Paypal is Google's Checkout (I think that's what it is called) and I think there are now ways you can take payment via a mobile phone - Google it, but I'm not sure how many customers would trust it...

[mizgeorge]

There are a couple of really good ways of taking card payments via a mobile phone (much cheaper than buying a terminal), one from adelante (mobile pos) and the other using an apple iphone app and paypal. However, both require a merchant account, the first with a bank, the other with paypal, and you're then locked into quite significant charges for the rest of eternity. Which is fine if you're processing a lot of payments, but not so good if you just do occasional events. I'm lucky in having been use a friend's system a few times, but wouldn't count on it. It does make a huge difference though.

Some craft guilds have terminals they will lend out to members, and there are some short term hire options, but these tend to be very expensive.

I do take cheques, and also make sure I always know where the nearest cashpoints are!

In an age where we all use electronic funds transfer all the time, it always strikes me as rather daft that it's made so difficult for small/sole traders to do so without it being prohibitively expensive.

[Di Sandland]

Cheers George. Yes, its a pain, isn't it. We always had this problem before when we did investigate merchant accounts and the like, which, as you say, were prohibitively expensive.

There's a real gap in the market here for some enterprising banker!

Will reccy the cashpoints one evening. Ho hum

[pauljoels]

Also I guess it depends on which paypal service you are considering.

I've just had a brief look on their site and I have no idea how this compares to other services, but to me seems pretty good to have some piece of mind that you can take c/c payments (although I guess it depends on whether or not you can build in the %'s to your costs). Their Virtual Terminal option. costs as detailed on their site:

"What does it cost?

There are no up-front costs from us. Just a low monthly fee of £20 and a transaction fee of 1.9%-3.4%* plus 20p

Account Fees
Setup Fees None
Monthly Fees £20
Gateway Fees None
Transaction Fees 1.9-3.4%"

Also, this would enable you to take them over the phone/mail order. The customer essentially never knows that it is Paypal you are using. I remember Virgin trains even up until recently swiping my card on one of those blocks to take a copy of all the details on carbon copy paper - it would effectively just be like that.

[Di Sandland]

Thanks for that Paul - it looks interesting. Taking a good look at it now.