Get Client Payments by Credit Card
Author of this post: Tara MacKay | About Blog Authors »
“I’ve been so busy, I haven’t had a chance to write the check…”
“I was out of town and nowhere near my checkbook…”
Whether the excuses are legit or not, delayed client payments affect your bottom line. So why not offer credit card payment to your clients so you can get your money faster? It’s easier than you think.
One way, which you may have offered to your design clients before, is to send a PayPal invoice. Depending on your client’s comfort level with PayPal, this option is perfectly fine. The client simply clicks the link in the invoice email, pays via PayPal, and the money goes into your PayPal account.
But if your client isn’t comfortable using PayPal, or if you’d like a more professional-looking credit card option, a great solution is to set up a mini shopping cart on your Web site. When it’s payment time, create a Web page (not linked anywhere on your site, of course – just email the URL to the client) detailing the services you provided and containing a “Pay Now” button that links to your cart with the price of the services. It will act just like a “Buy Now” button on your favorite online shop. I like the free cart service from Mal’s, which is easy to set up and use, but many others are available, like Virtual Cart.
You’ll need more than the cart to enable credit card payments – the next step is to link the shopping cart to a merchant account or payment processor, which you’ll have to sign up for. This can be as basic as PayPal or 2checkout.com, or even a full-featured credit card service like Authorize.net. Once you’re signed up, most shopping carts make it easy to hook up with your merchant account, and then clients can start paying you.
It’s surprisingly simple to set all this up, but if you’re feeling low-tech, try a “virtual terminal” credit card service. Available at sites like ProPay and a monthly fee-based service through PayPal, a virtual terminal is a way you can take the client’s credit card info over the phone or fax (never never take credit card numbers by email!) and enter it in on the virtual terminal Web site. Once you enter in the card info and it’s accepted, the transaction is done.
All credit card processing services charge fees. You’ll likely pay a monthly service fee, a small flat fee on each transaction, and a small percentage of each transaction. Research the fees carefully and be sure that they make sense for the volume of business that you do. Also, if you deal with any extremely high cost projects, be sure that choose a service that lets you process large transactions.
For most designers with a regular flow of clients, offering credit card payment is a smart move, as it speeds up the payment process.
No more “the check’s in the mail…”
June 22nd, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Thanks for mentioning ProPay. I actually work for ProPay and they are truly the hidden gem of small business merchant accounts. ProPay is the only merchant account in the industry that allows you to sign up and start processing immediately. Most take several days to several weeks to sign up. There are no monthly fees, fixed processing rates (most merchant accounts charge different rates depending on the variables of the transaction), and no monthly miniumums. If you don’t processing in a given month you don’t pay anything. Our entry level account is only $34.95 a YEAR (that’s about $3 a month). I’ve posted a couple of links below to additional information.
Short flash presentation on how ProPay works
ProPay Audio testimonials
This is a recorded presentation in which we address specifically why small service businesses should accept credit cards
This is a recent interview with Small Busienss Trends Radio about ProPay
I hope these links help.
June 22nd, 2007 at 4:09 pm
I forgot to mention that using ProPay you can process via a virtual terminal (online), using any touch-tone telephone (including cell phones), or via email invoice. PayPal does offer a similar virtual terminal but it costs $20 a month regardless of whether you process or not.
I should also clarify that ProPay’s processing fees are fixed so it’s easy to track how much you’re really paying.
June 22nd, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Hmm.I`m using paypal to accept credit card payments but it seems that gg check out is not as good as it has so many problems with the lack of chargeback function.
December 28th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
That was a great article. It comes down to convenience with the customers payment methods.
January 13th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
VCC aren’t the best pick and many are fake and if you use them to store your money you will lose everything.
February 29th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Great post. Really enjoyed it.
March 12th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I recently have had some credit problems. I liked my credit cards waaay too much. I think the best thing you can do to recover is to allow yourself enough time to straighten everything all out. Nothing happens overnight, especially fixing a credit score.
March 12th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
That was a great article. We are a new business looking to find the fastest way to get paid and easiest for our clients. Thanks.
March 14th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I have been involved in the payment processing industry for over 4 years now in Canada, working closely with small business owners and I found that there can be a lot of miss leading information on the internet for people, particularly for Canadians.
I do think PayPal is a great starting point for someone who is testing a site out or only processing a few transactions a month, but anyone building a serious business will require ‘true merchant accounts’ for their business. 2Checkout is also good, but their rates are vary high if you plan on having a substantial business volume. The higher your business volume the more important capturing a low discount rate will matter.
Regardless, accepting credit cards is a good thing and will help just about any business make more sales - so if you are not currently accepting some type of credit card processing then paypal might a good place to get your feet wet, since their is no contracts, etc.
If anyone is looking for quality information on how to set-up Canadian Merchant Accounts and payment processing services click here.
Thanks Tara for the blog post and getting the conversation moving forward on this topic!
March 18th, 2008 at 2:51 am
I like the free cart service from Mal’s, which is easy to set up and use, but many others are available, like Virtual Cart.
- That is the best advice I have seen so far. thanks
March 31st, 2008 at 2:42 pm
personally I would pick 2checkout.com instead of paypal. Using paypal can danger your money since anyone can raise a dispute, which make your paypal account frozen by the vendor.