How do you guys currently accept payments for cakes?
Has anyone used "Square" or "Paypal" card readers to accept payments?
I have square and paypal payments and use both. I love the square reader, it's very convenient. I took a payment through it yesterday using my phone.
AWe accepted cash and checks only. If I still had a business I would accept credit cards with Square and charge the additional fees to the customer (it is now legal to do this). I try to stay as far away from PayPal as possible.
he user name "GetCakePro" should be a tip... :D SPAM
The other post the OP has written was about designing some kind of cake software, so I assume that the question about payments is part of that overall process. I wouldn't call it spam until it starts to have lots of links to sell said software.
A
Original message sent by vgcea
Last I heard, charging the customer the fees was illegal but there were some changes in the works.
There was a settlement earlier in the year allowing surcharges. It looks like there are still several states that ban the surcharges though. http://usa.visa.com/personal/using_visa/checkout_fees/
It's easy enough to get around this by just increasing your prices across the board to cover credit card fees, and offering customers a cash discount. Or just pocketing the extra profit from cash customers.
A
Original message sent by Carrie789
Jason, What kind of problems have you had with PayPal?
I haven't had any problems myself (since I limit my use of PayPal and be sure to keep a zero balance with no links to bank accounts) but I've heard several stories where PayPal customers have had their entire accounts frozen due to a single customer dispute. Since PayPal is not a real bank they don't have to follow the same rules banks do.
Accepting PayPal also gives customers two options for disputing a payment: they can dispute directly with PayPal, and if that doesn't work they can dispute with their credit card company.
I mean it's pricey compared to what I pay with my merchant services company. My prices already do reflect the charges, because after quoting a $500 price for a cake, I'm not going to say, oh and by the way, that will be $14 extra for running your card. (that's based on 2.75% -- not sure what the square charges these days).
A
Original message sent by howsweet
I mean it's pricey compared to what I pay with my merchant services company. My prices already do reflect the charges, because after quoting a $500 price for a cake, I'm not going to say, oh and by the way, that will be $14 extra for running your card. (that's based on 2.75% -- not sure what the square charges these days).
Square also charges 2.75% for swipe and online transactions. Manually entered transactions are 3.5% + 15c due to higher fraud potential.
Square also charges 2.75% for swipe and online transactions. Manually entered transactions are 3.5% + 15c due to higher fraud potential.
https://squareup.com/pricing
Sorry, I wasn't clear -- when I said 2.75% I was referring to the square. I pay about 1.5 %. In my business, I never swipe a card -- all my transactions are manually entered, so the square is quite a bit more than what I pay.
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Sorry, I wasn't clear -- when I said 2.75% I was referring to the square. I pay about 1.5 %. In my business, I never swipe a card -- all my transactions are manually entered, so the square is quite a bit more than what I pay.
Wow, how do you only pay 1.5%? We have a very high volume account with NPC for our restaurant, and even though 1.5% might be our interchange fee, the actual cost is more like 2% to 4% depending on the card type, and whether you swiped or manually entered the number.
Unlike Jason, I do like Paypal, and use the Paypal here dongle on both my phone and my iPad. I think it works great, and for 2.7%, I didn't have to buy a POS system or pay any monthly fees.
Liz
AYes, the actual cost is closer to 2 % after fees. I figure it out from time to time, but I'm not good at remembering exactly what it comes out to. When I have time I'll figure it up and post back. And I don't accept am/ex or discover and if someone uses an international card, I warn them there might be an extra fee.
Wow, how do you only pay 1.5%? We have a very high volume account with NPC for our restaurant, and even though 1.5% might be our interchange fee, the actual cost is more like 2% to 4% depending on the card type, and whether you swiped or manually entered the number.
Unlike Jason, I do like Paypal, and use the Paypal here dongle on both my phone and my iPad. I think it works great, and for 2.7%, I didn't have to buy a POS system or pay any monthly fees.
Liz
Ok, I sincerely apologize to everyone for posting the wrong information! I remembered it was lower, but I can't remember numbers I don't look at more than once year (I know many do). Anyway, it comes out to about to 2.8 %, but I run everything online for the convenience of my customers and also so everything is paid in advance. I never see a card, so that's still less than the square which would be 3.5% (plus the per transaction charge).
That savings may not seem like much, but I positively despise giving any entity a percentage of my gross and do what I can to keep them from getting any more than I have to give them. That's partly why I wasn't familiar with the numbers - I try not to think about it when I'm not needing to because it gets me really annoyed. It makes me wonder why on earth I'm in the cake business and not in merchant services.
And I refuse to do business with American Express and Discover.
A
Original message sent by howsweet
Ok, I sincerely apologize to everyone for posting the wrong information! I remembered it was lower, but I can't remember numbers I don't look at more than once year (I know many do). Anyway, it comes out to about to 2.8 %, but I run everything online for the convenience of my customers and also so everything is paid in advance. I never see a card, so that's still less than the square which would be 3.5% (plus the per transaction charge).
Square is still 2.75% for online sales, the higher rate only kicks in if you manually enter the credit card number. It's the same rate for Amex and Discover as well.
Quote:
Ok, I sincerely apologize to everyone for posting the wrong information! I remembered it was lower, but I can't remember numbers I don't look at more than once year (I know many do). Anyway, it comes out to about to 2.8 %, but I run everything online for the convenience of my customers and also so everything is paid in advance. I never see a card, so that's still less than the square which would be 3.5% (plus the per transaction charge).
That savings may not seem like much, but I positively despise giving any entity a percentage of my gross and do what I can to keep them from getting any more than I have to give them. That's partly why I wasn't familiar with the numbers - I try not to think about it when I'm not needing to because it gets me really annoyed. It makes me wonder why on earth I'm in the cake business and not in merchant services.
And I refuse to do business with American Express and Discover.
That's ok, I just wanted in on that sweet deal you wrangled! I would like to get a lower rate, but I currently don't have the mental energy to deal with either negotiating with the bank, or finding a different service provider. It was hard enough when we opened our restaurant to wade through all the choices out there.
Liz
Thanks, and it sounds like you know why I hate even thinking about it. When I chose my company I shopped it to death - had lots of time for that sort of thing at the time. Now pretty much every year I make a few inquiries and they are always higher.
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Square is still 2.75% for online sales, the higher rate only kicks in if you manually enter the credit card number. It's the same rate for Amex and Discover as well.
That's what I just said I do. I said: but I run everything online for the convenience of my customers and also so everything is paid in advance. I never see a card, so that's still less than the square which would be 3.5% (plus the per transaction charge). I will also say it in your words. I manually enter the credit card number 
If you'd like to know why I think it's important that I do it this way, I'd be happy to explain it.
That's a good point about the same rates for the other cards, but I really don't want to support any credit card company getting that much money and for my own personal reasons, I wouldn't do business with Discover if you paid me.
A
Original message sent by howsweet
That's what I just said I do. I said: [B]but I run everything online for the convenience of my customers and also so everything is paid in advance. [COLOR=FF0000]I never see a card,[/COLOR] so that's still less than the square which would be 3.5% (plus the per transaction charge).[/B] I will also say it in your words. [B]I manually enter the credit card number [/B] :D If you'd like to know why I think it's important that I do it this way, I'd be happy to explain it.
Got it, when you said you run everything online I thought you were talking about an e-commerce transaction through an online shopping cart (which would be 2.75% without having to see the card in person).
I just square and I absolutely love it! We do have a retail shop so the Square Register is wonderful. It allows us to put all of our products in and makes it easy to see what is selling. I also really like the reports you can run.
I have never had a problem with money not depositing. There was even a time where the credit card processing easy taking a significant amount of time (it was actually windy at the time so I just figured it was my internet connection). It ended up being an error on Square's end so they waived all of the transaction fees during that time.
I use swipe and mine costs less than 2.4%, I think that's because I got in when they first launched. According to tehir site they are 2.69, which is still less than square. I use to use square, but had issues with them and not getting my money for days. I do use paypal as well, but most people pay with cheques.
A
Original message sent by jason_kraft
There was a settlement earlier in the year allowing surcharges. It looks like there are still several states that ban the surcharges though. http://usa.visa.com/personal/using_visa/checkout_fees/
It's easy enough to get around this by just increasing your prices across the board to cover credit card fees, and offering customers a cash discount. Or just pocketing the extra profit from cash customers.
Thanks Jason.
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