So after researching several iPhone swipe providers, I settled on Intuit Go Payment a couple months ago. Big mistake. I went with them because I thought the rates were decent albeit higher than 1NP because I liked the simplicity of the application and the way it looked. I didn't think the rates were ridiculous and seemingly cheaper than square.
Oh wait, first statement finally came. This should be interesting.
Bam, an average of 3.6 percent over the last month including the monthly fee so I could get a "lower" rate for swipes. Somehow every single visa and discover transaction came in at the non qualifying 3.7% rate. For M/C 45% came in at 1.7, 45% came in at mid and 10% came in at non.
*REMEMBER THAT EVERY SINGLE REWARD CARD COMES IN AT THE NON QUALIFYING RATE 3.7%*
Now, I knew this was the case when I signed up for the account and I also knew that a relatively high percentage of people use reward cards. I was in the process of trying to get them to match rates of my previous provider, but that has proved to be a challenge to say the least. I realize there may have been a mistake in the processing since I can't imagine every one of the 57 visa cards I swiped was a reward card. The point of this post is to warn you all that there's always a catch and GO PAYMENT charges you almost the highest rate every single transaction.
BTW, I swiped every card. Needless to say, I'm currently provider free. The good news is that I won't have to pay an early termination fee, but based on this crap experience, I'm waiting for a $300.00 charge to show up on my account from some loophole. I'll keep you posted.
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Have the square and it seems to be just great. I've only used it at 2 shows and have had no problems at all.
Try it, you'll like it!
UPDATE----
So yes, I admit when I originally posted this, I was pissed. I really don't like being scammed and it seemed like I got suckered. I did talk to several people about the situation at Intuit and they were more than willing to let me cancel the service than try to resolve the problem I had. I felt it related to the reward card issue so I posted about it here and I'm glad this thread evolved more toward educating you all about rewards cards and cc providers than bashing Intuit.
One of the last people I spoke to took a report or a claim or whatever and said they would look into it (ha ha no pun intended). The last person I spoke to like I said was more than happy to let me cancel the account with no effort to resolve the problem. Not hugely unexpected I guess from a larger corporation but it's been my experience that with most companies they try to keep you somehow.
To their credit and my surprise I did get a call back after I cancelled from a nice girl who wouldn't let it go and she ended up determining that "there was some missing information" on the swipes. She also was able to determine which cards should've been charged at a lower rate and was able to credit back over half of my fees that month from the mistake. I have since re-opened my account and they have sent out a new swiper. She also promised to call back and do some troubleshooting to make sure it didn't happen anymore as they couldn't really determine what the problem was.
So, I'm back with Intuit- sort of. I'm probably just going to use their service until I am able to find a provider that can help me to tailor a program that suits my usage and provide excellent service as well as a full-featured application for the phone and iPad. I will give them an opportunity to improve their rate structure for me, but at this point I'm leaning more toward the phone swipe as they've seemed to be the most helpful, with a better program, and willing to work with me.
A quick summary of my homework on providers (just my opinion, not based on any real facts):
Square- Simple, decent app, ok rate that's always the same. Don't have to think much about it.
Go Payment- Simple, decent app, more specific charges for different cards which could be better or worse for you depending on what cards you take more of.
Michigan Retailers- Never get back to you, horrible service. Only crappy iPhone app no iPad. Little higher than average rates. Only threw this one in there as a baseline for comparing these to a bank-stlye provider.
Phone Swipe- Good app, good rates if you ask about different programs, seemingly responsive (at least prior to signing up).
1NP - Great rates, really crappy app for the phone, great service & response. (This is the one I would've gone with if their app was better and yes it does matter to me as much as the rates do.)
The moral of the story is...
Pay Attention!!!!
Good luck, PK
You have found the proverbial needle. Allo the folks offer an enticing really really low rate (said in the tone of Crazy Eddie from the 70's). But there are also Very Very Very few cards that are pure as the driven snow and eligible for the low rate. When you add it all up the Square comes out on top for most of us. UNLESS you have a lot of volume each month and your mix is perfect. There is a good simulation tool over at www.feefighters.com.
Peter your experience is the same as almost everyone I talk with. And you didn't mention if you have any AMEX cards.
Hey Gary,
I basically don't consider amex as a factor in my decision. As you probably know, most people who have them know enough to ask whether you accept them or not. I have just chosen to tell people "I'm sorry, I don't accept amex" and they ALWAYS give me another card. There's a few that nonchalantly try to give me one, but I've gotten good at looking for it now. I've never had someone complain that I don't take amex. It may be a little uncomfortable to tell someone "no" but it's better than paying stupid rates plus a $4.95 monthly fee.
Linda, a lot of cards don't really look like rewards cards if that's how you came up with that 10% but if I know anything about you, I'm sure you've done your homework and looked at your statement. I just know I've always gotten way more than 10% rewards at any given show.
Stay tuned everyone, I have an update too....
Before you arbitrarily add a 2-3% fee for using a credit card check federal and state laws. It is ILLEGAL in Massachusetts to add a "surcharge" to credit card transactions but you can give a "discount" for paying with cash.
martha
Perhaps you read English worse than I write it. Maybe you don't come from a big capitalist nation, Russia, like me. So you don't understand.
I clearly say that if you have large sums of charges then, yes, the small percentage difference is significant. See? That is my third sentence. If someone is really taking in this much money then I would assume (again being from a capitalist country) that they would be adept enough to know that they can pay lower rates.
We have a saying in Russian Больше слушай, меньше говори. Be quick to hear, slow to speak. Perhaps you should heed this advice.
You people really amaze me!@ You are really complaining about a difference of 1-2% or less on a transaction fee? Sure, if you were doing hundreds of thousands of dollars in business then such a difference might be significant. My guess is that you aren't doing anything close to that.
Granted, everybody wants to pay as little as possible for something. However, I wouldn't go around trashing Intuit's service because you get hit with a little bit more in transaction fee based on the type of card you swiped. How much more in actual dollars did that really cost you?
Besides, all merchant accounts can be negotiated to have lower fees if you are pumping enough charges through them. If you have a small business and are only pushing through a low amount of charges per month then the extra money shouldn't be worth arguing about. Otherwise, show them a few months of $10,000 charges and you will get lower fees without even a question. Are you one of those people that will drive 10 miles to buy gas at 3.49/gallon rather than pay 3.51 at the station two blocks away?
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