This past weekend was the Detroit Jazz Festival in downtown Detroit. It’s kind of a big deal around here, and there were tons of people there when it first opened on Friday. They closed down all of Woodward for this festival and there’s tons of music and food and everything that you could ever expect at a Jazz festival.
I spend all of Friday staring longingly out the window from my cubicle on the 14th floor at the green and yellow lemonade vendor calling my name. We had a carnival at work, so I had my fill of hand spun cotton candy, and when six o’clock rolled around, I bolted from my desk to the elevator, which promptly stopped at EVERY floor, and walked over to the lemonade stand with two friends from work.
Where they then told us they did not take credit cards.
Neither did the elephant ear stand. Now, I understand if, five year ago, you would have had to have an internet connection or phone line (which, by the way, I can almost bet was included in the huge cables running to each of the vendors since the Chicken Shack next door took cards) but there are so many ways to get a connection, or collect payments without it, that it doesn’t make sense NOT to accept credit cards.
1. Square
One of the most popular options I’ve seen is the Square reader. It seems like everybody has a Square… even my Pure Romance party consultant, Allison, whipped out a Square at her party so she could accept credit cards on the spot.
Square costs 2.75% for each transaction, which, on a $5 lemonade is 14 cents.
2. Paypal Here
Paypal has a relatively new card scanner for iphone and Android that is very similar to Square, but with the familiar Paypal logo.
Paypal Here costs 2.7% of each transaction, which would equate to around that same 14 cents, but save a penny on two.
Naturally, Intuit has a reader on the market with very similar specs to the other two. Familiar logo, similar design, but they offer two different types charges.
You can either pay $12.95 a month, then 1.75% per transaction, or that familiar 2.75% that everybody else is doing. That really depends on the volume of your business. 1.75% adds up to 9 cents per $5 lemonade.
I doubt it would be a very big deal to your customers if you passed the cost of the credit transactio on to them. Or if you split it with them. Lord knows I would have had NO problem paying an extra 14 cents for my lemonade on Friday.
But let’s say your customer DID have a problem with eating the 2.75% cost. You would then have two options – either refuse the business, or take the cost yourself. When we were told that they didn’t accept credit cards, the lemonade stand turned away THREE paying customers, and probably countless others of our coworkers who don’t carry cash because we work in the financial industry.
Would you pay an extra 14 cents for the ability to use your credit card on tasty, tasty fresh squeezed lemonade? Have any thoughts for other was that businesses can accept credit cards?
