Pros and Cons of Accepting Credit Card Payments
If you own a business, you typically want to see your business grow. One of the simplest ways to do this is to expand your payment options, especially in the realm of credit cards. Some small businesses choose to collect money the old fashioned way: cash or check. This may, however, alienate many customers, seeing as in today’s market, many people do not carry cash in their wallets anymore. If you want your business to grow, you have to ask yourself if implementing credit card processing services is right for you. Should you stick to the old ways of payments in cash and check only? Or is it time to step it up, and invest in credit card processing?
There are pros and cons to everything. In this article, we will discuss whether or not it’s the right time for you to accept credit card payments in your business.
The Cons of Credit Card Payments:
Processing Fees. When a customer pays in cash, the seller does not have to worry about extra fees. When accepting credit card payments, the seller will need to pay a processing fee. There are different costs, and you will need to look into this and make sure you are not just assuming high processing costs. Signing up with a third-party like PayPal will sometimes prove to be more costly for each credit card transaction, so a separate merchant account facilitated through your credit card processing company will probably be best. For example, the fees associated with Florida merchant services may differ from Atlanta credit card processing.
Accounting Issues: With different types of payments, you will need to monitor the different types of accounts as well. At first it may be a little overwhelming, but once you learn how to manage the accounts, this will be easily processed.
The Pros of Credit Card Payments:
Safe. Safety issues should be a concern for your business. Most customers prefer to shop with credit cards, rather than cash. If a person does not have cash on them, you may lose a sale. Having cash only on the premises can also cause the risk of losses to spike.
Flexibility. When accepting credit card payments, you are offering your customers more than one way to purchase their items. If the person wants to purchase with cash or check they can, but you are giving them a bigger opportunity to have the option to pay with credit card.
Convenience. Those who do not have cash on them do not have to worry about going to an ATM to pull cash out, or not getting the item they want because they only have a credit card with them. If you have an online store, you can give your customers the option of also ordering their items online with the credit card.
When deciding whether to add a credit card processing system to your business make sure to look into all the pros and cons, because you do not want to assume something is bad without getting all the details.
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