Tranter Banter

For craft vendors or businesses that rely on taking credit card payments outside of a retail setting, it’s always been a challenge on how to accept credit cards.  You may remember or still use the old method of swiping a credit card with a clunky manual credit card swiping system.  Much has changed with the use of smartphones and tablets. 

With the popularity of debit cards, many folks don’t carry much cash.  This means if they are shopping your garage sale or your home party, they may not have enough cash money to purchase some of the things they would like to buy.  It just makes sense for some to consider an easy to use credit card processor.  Fees for these services have been coming down lately so it really should be a consideration for many small businesses. 

A couple of years ago Square appeared on the market.  We couldn’t wait to get one.  It’s simply a little white square that plugs into a smartphone.  Users can swipe a credit card which is instantly read by Square.  Charges are 2.75% of each transaction. The money appears in your linked bank account next day.  There is no charge for the equipment.  For more information, please visit their website www.squareup.com.

Intuit, the makers of Quicken and QuickBooks offer GoPayment.  With GoPayment you can receive a free app and free reader.  It plugs into your mobile Android or IOS device.  Intuit offers two pricing plans.  The first is a fixed rate swipe of 2.7% with no monthly minimum.  The other is a swipe rate of 1.7% with a monthly processing charge of $12.95 per month.   For more information please visit www.gopayment.com

Pay Anywhere is the result of North American Bancard’s research.  The swiped rate is $2.69% with no monthly fees and no cancellation fees.  They offer encrypted processing and the ability to connect with certain printers.   Additionally they offer the ability to offer discounts or tips as well as a mobile point of sale system.  For more information, please visit www.payanywhere.com.