We have several threads going on credit card processing right now:
"The Square"
"How do You know who to trust for a Credit card Machine? and services"
"Credit Card Processing"
So here is another one on Intuit's GoPayment free swiper, free app cc processing program.
I started this to make things easily searchable when we all run outta steam on this, but in a month or 2 someone will ask again and we can refer them back to these.
I've looked The Square and Intuit's program and have personally decided on Intuit cuz a more knowledgable artist then I with an accountant husband recommended this to me. Plus it will work with my iPad.
It's basically the same as the Square. Here's how Dann Jackson described it:
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Consider GoPayment from Intuit. Free card reader, no contract, no cancellation or set up fees and with very reasonable rates. Plus, no one in the small business solutions field has a finer reputation than Intuit Corporation and their call support is manned by real live people 24/7 and they are very helpful and courteous. To learn more go towww.gopayment.com.
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In one of the many threads (I can't keep track at this point.) PCI compliance was asked about...so I wrote Intuit and asked them the question.
This is their response on PCI Compliance....(ie they take care of it....we don't have to worry about it....if I read this right)
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From Intuit Go Payment:
Dear Carla,
Thank you for contacting us. We received your GoPayment inquiry, “I have recently signed-up for GoPayment and am talking about it with fellow artists. One of the questions about it that I can't answer is, how does GoPayment handle the PCI compliance questionnaire and fees that we are now paying for on with our current providers. We have a thread going on an artist forum....as people are debating whether to stay with their current provider, or switch to the Square or GoPayment. I'd like to answer the above question.”
I am happy to assist you with this inquiry. The GoPayment application is secure and it is Payment Card Industry (PCI)-compliant. Sensitive credit card information is never stored on the phone. To protect data in transit, GoPayment adheres to online banking industry protection standards, using an https connection over SSL (Secure Socket Layer) at 128-bit encryption.
If you have additional questions please feel free to reply to this email.
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I like the fact that this program is tied to Intuit & their software QuickBooks should you be using them, a more knowledgable person and her hubby has vetted it for me, GoPyament has 2 choices of monthly plans---1. no monthly fee/higher swipe fees or 2. monthly fee and lower swipe fees. and of course its FREE FREE FREE, like The Square.
So here ya have it another choice that seems quite wonderful and reasonable. I'll report back as I use it at shows thru the summer. Or if anyone else has comments, questions, thoughts on Intuits GoPayment.....this is the thread for em.
hth
Carla
Replies
Thanks for consolidating this topic Carla. I'm re-posting my monthly fee experiences from another thread below:
OK, so here's the update. I just rec'd my most recent statement from GoPayment/Intuit. I'm on the $12.95/mo plan so my swipe discounts range from 1.7 - 3.7% depending on the card. The minimum of 1/7% discount is taken from deposits as you go, or when accounts are funded. The end of month reconciling adds all of the non-qualified and miscellaneous fees. For the month of June my TOTAL fees came to almost exactly 3% of my deposits. So in this case it was an additional 1.3% of deposits made to my account in June. This still leaves me paying at least 25% less than the 4+% fees that I (or anyone I've talked to) were being charged on our more conventional merchant accounts. No transaction fees, no batch fees, no gateway fees, easy swipe transactions. Bottom line is that I am still very satisfied with my decision to switch.
Good afternoon Jay,
I have looked at gopayment thru INtuit also. But they could not answer me a question:
What percentage of monthly sales were 1.7%
What percentage of monthly sales were 3.7 %
What percentage of monthly sales were AM E.?
If your monthly fee was almost 3% what is the differece in service you get with intuit verses square at 2.75%?
also you need 16,000 in gross sales to have plan 2 work for you.
Just so people have an idea intuit charges 2.89% for AM with +.10 per transaction
Hello Bill. There's no way to tell which swipes will be 1.7, 2.7 or 3.7 until you receive the statement at month's end. It's all dependent on the card you swipe. That is why I wanted to run a couple of months worth of transactions to compare GoPayment to Square. This month I will use Square because if everything goes as advertised I will save a little, we'll see. I got both systems in the first place because the Square rate of 2.75% is better than Intuit's on AmEx swipes, plus GoPayment requires some add'l paperwork to take AmEx cards. I do like that the latest GoPayment upgrade on my Android phone allows for an items list whereas the only way to do this w/Square is on an IPad. In Square's favor they will allow an auto sales tax addition to all transactions whereas GoPay limits it to the items list where items are entered as either taxable or non-taxable. I also like the ability on Square to take a photo of the item purchased and it will show up on the customer's emailed receipt in the description area. So there are +'s and -'s to both systems. As to the $1600 for GoPays "plan 2", I guess I'm missing something there? You will save 1%/swipe over "plan 1". The $12.95 charge for plan 2 equals 1% of $1295. Anyway, that's all I know about that.......for now.
Somewhat easy way on the rate of 1.7 or 3.7. Only a pure MC/VISA card which has no 'affinity' program will go through at 1.7%. Any card that indicates it is attached to an awards program (affinity) will go through at the higher rate. I don't think I have seen a non-affinity card in a long time. Personally I don't have one, maybe my ATM/Visa/Debit card would be at the lowest rate but I doubt it.
Bill, as others have pointed out best way is to run for a couple of months and review your statement. Intuit really can't answer the question because each merchant is different.
If you are interested in some good information check out www.feefighters.com. THey have some great articles and I remember seeing a tool that would let you key in various percentages of card types to determine what type of service, including square and intuit, would best suite your needs. Lots of good educational information also. One of their posts has a list of questions you might ask a potential supplier about their 'tiered' rate structure:
In the end there are lots of variables and lots of choices which leads to lots of confusion. I like simple and changed to the Square. Only two rates, swipe the card or non-swipe transaction. And when I did the analysis of my own transactions last year less than 10% were at the lease costly rate. Most were at the middle rate and the square beat that easily.
Gary
www.reflectionsimaging.com
Carla that's what I expected them to say. The comparison is easy to do. Square is 2.75% for ALL cards. Doesn't matter if it is Amex or an affinity card. GoPayment is 2.7% for the perfect charge card which means for me that it will be higher since I don't know the last time I saw a non affinity (like airline miles, capital one) or Amex.
Advantage as you said is the input to Quickbooks.
When you do swipe a card for payment, here's what it usually costs:2.7% of the transaction. If you enter the card data in manually instead of swiping it, the percentage changes to 3.7%.
That's what most of your transactions will probably cost. The exceptions are for transactions the credit card industry calls “non-qualified”: those that don't meet specific requirements of the Visa/MasterCard/Discover network. American Express and corporate cards are examples of those (show me the fine print).Gary
I think one will need to have a few month's track record to check the overall costs per swipe; adding in the monthly fee it one is paying it....or averaging just swipe fees if one is not paying the monthly charge.
It really depends each artist's biz, how much they use it in the "off-months" or if they use it ALOT in the "on months" is the monthly fee still cheaper then the higher swipe fees.
I do hafta say I am confused as to the difference between a lower swipe fee card and a higher swipe fee card. I'm just going to keep track of swipes and % and see how it works out.
All this needs to be considered over time....as it works with my transactions.
I like Intuit has been in this biz for years and has a good rep with artists.
This is all good info.
C