Here are 5 ways to accept credit cards from your sign customers out in the field.
Maybe you are making signs at a flea market or community event. Or perhaps you have a mobile sign making truck. What ever your sign making needs, when doing work out in the field it can be to your advantage to have the ability to process credit card payments on the spot. That is just what these 3 tools for iPhone, Android, Windows Phones and more allow you to do. Getting started is fairly easy: sign up, attach a credit card reader hardware to your device and figure out the fees. There is some cost involved in running a credit processing tool on your Smartphone. First of all, you will need to pay a recurring fee for the merchant account. Each transaction incurs a flat fee and possibly a percentage fee. There is, of course, the initial cost of the hardware, and in some cases a monthly fee. Check out these 3 handy applications:
- Roam Data's Tablet solutions for processing credit cards remotely, these are very versatile and there are many to choose from.
- Intuit's GoPayment This is a simple, sleek interface that streamlines transactions, and saves time. It interacts with Quickbooks, and allows you to create a price list of your inventory and draw on that when processing orders. It does however, lack a few key features, such as the ability to store transactions offline. The cost of the hardware depends on the type of phone you use, ranging from $150 to $180. The monthly fee is $13, 3o cents per transaction, and 1.7 percent for swiped charges.
- Square This tool should be considered the PayPal of the Smartphone credit card transactions. It is the only one that does not require you to have a merchant account; all you have to do is verify your identity and they will send you a free credit card reader. No monthly fees, just a charge of 2.75 percent plus 15 cents for each transaction. Higher fees mean it isn't ideal for bigger businesses, but can work for those with fewer transactions.
Disclaimer: All but Square require you to have a merchant account. Banks are hesitant in regards to credit card transactions, so in most cases you will have to pass a credit check in order for the bank to trust you enough to give you a merchant account.
