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Scaling back
I just canceled my credit card processing merchant account for Little Pagans and Mother's Hearth. I originally got a merchant account in the height of supporting the businesses, because I was losing a lot of business through the PayPal interface. People would place an order but not get as far as actually paying because they became frustrated with the checkout process.
But that was 5 years ago. Right now, I'm not doing the volume to justify the monthly fees and premium cart account costs. I'm also not doing very many live shows, during which the credit card processing's pretty necessary for larger purchases. So I'm going to go forward only with options that don't have any associated base costs, just costs associated with each sale, like PayPal or Google Checkout.
I'm still actively running both businesses and maintaining inventory, so feel free to keep purchasing stuff and sending your friends. Hell, feel free to send me so much business that I regret canceling the card processing.
This is kind of sad for me, the scaling back. Whenever things you've put a lot of energy into shrink instead of growing, it's sad. But this kind of gives me permission to put this further back on the mental shelf, for the moment.
But that was 5 years ago. Right now, I'm not doing the volume to justify the monthly fees and premium cart account costs. I'm also not doing very many live shows, during which the credit card processing's pretty necessary for larger purchases. So I'm going to go forward only with options that don't have any associated base costs, just costs associated with each sale, like PayPal or Google Checkout.
I'm still actively running both businesses and maintaining inventory, so feel free to keep purchasing stuff and sending your friends. Hell, feel free to send me so much business that I regret canceling the card processing.
This is kind of sad for me, the scaling back. Whenever things you've put a lot of energy into shrink instead of growing, it's sad. But this kind of gives me permission to put this further back on the mental shelf, for the moment.
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also, have you tried propay? it's like $40ish a year (with craftster discount like $30 i think)
you take the info, and enter it in over the phone or their site, their gateway is horrible and expensive, but if you enter the info maunualy, it's a decent thing to have..
you could also try local credit unions if you still want some type of card processing. my local bank (one of them) offers a gateway for $150/lifetime+per transaction fees (better rates than paypal!)
you should put out some baby clothes with gears and such, we've got a few in the steamteam who have or are having kids right now, and there's a very lack of steamy kid-wear ;)
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the cc #, csc, full name, and a min of the zip, but it's better to have the full billing address
i use those little slide slips (you put the card on the little machine, slide the card, it imprints) and have the customer fill out all their info, and make sure they sign it
i've never had a problem, well, no, one guy who gave me his info over the phone (as he claimed pp didn't work for him), i entered it in as he went, and it said the cc# & cscs didn't match, so i told him he'd have to send a mo
propay also has a little usb device that can scan the cards in, you plug it in your computer while connected to the net, and it uploads the info for you.
it's like, $100 (one time) and $4 a month to use it, but there's no minimum months to have the service, use it only when you need it type thing
best way when i was out at shows, if there was cellphone reception. i'd take the info, and enter it in over the phone while the customer was there (i had a sheet i made up so i could enter it over the phone even if i couldn't hear well) and make sure it would go through ok before handing stuff over (made a mistake first time out, didn't get all the info, wasn't able to put the transaction through, lost $30 on it)
i think the two downfalls it has are 1-fees, it has the same fee structure (or so) as paypal did just before the redid it recently, so you're looking at 3-4% in fees, and 2- it takes 2-4 days to process, they say like, 3, but i've had some take 4 (they don't count holidays or weekends)
if you go through the regular link (propay.com) the fees are higher than through an affiliate link like craftster (https://epay.propay.com/affiliate/?refid=CRFTSTR)
i'm actualy changing to the service with one of my local banks, they're cheaper by far fee wise, and i can get a gateway (so much easier for non-paypal net processing!)
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