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Originally Posted by Crusty
Until late in 2010, merchants were over a barrel if they accepted credit cards.
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This wasn't my experience accepting cards for an online and physical store location in the late 90's/early 2000's. Like anything you had to shop around for the best deals, but there were several options.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crusty
The most troublesome part of this merchant "agreement" was that merchants couldn't promote other forms of payment or discourage use of the card.
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This sounds like you worked for AMEX. They typically have/had their own agreement and the wording stated that you couldn't discriminate against AMEX specifically (EG: Visa/MC would have no additional fees, but AMEX cards would have a 2% surcharge, etc.
Companies have always been able to make the acceptance of credit cards options and offer an across the board CASH/CREDIT price difference. This may not have been true for EVERYONE merchant processor, but it wasn't a universal truth that you had no option for 2-tier pricing just because you accepted credit cards.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crusty
Because the states and federal government finally went after the card issuers, that part of the agreement is now gone. A merchant is free, in principle at least, to add a "credit card fee" to a bill. [Typically, $.35 + 3-5% of the total.] However, most merchants are afraid that such charges would discourage business.
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Those numbers seem high to me, but as I recall it was all very much based on size of your business, average transaction size, average daily collections, etc. I think we were at like 2.5% for card-present transactions and 3.5% for online/card not present, plus a 25 cent fee.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crusty
Of course, don't forget that banks charge a per check fee for deposits. Some also impose a charge for cash deposits. If your cash deposit is over $10k, you need to file federal forms. [If your cash deposit is regularly just under $10k, the feds may seize your bank account and charge you under the "criminal banking" statutes.]
My conclusion is that if you are running a successful cash business with small margins, you need to think long and hard before taking 5% off your gross income.
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Your conclusion is puzzling when you point out above that there is generally no free way to operate your business banking. You're charged for cash deposits, checks, etc. You also run the risk of bad checks (one of which could equate to a weeks worth of credit card fees).