Do you travel some distance on the road to do your art shows? Do you take checks and have to keep them somewhere safe to carry them home to deposit? Do you have a smart phone? If the answer to all three questions is “Yes,” read on.
My wife, Judy, is a woodworker, and we travel around the country selling her freestanding jigsaw puzzles at art and craft shows. For the past two years, we have used our iPhone to take credit card transactions at our shows. Recently, I wondered what banking apps might be available on our iPhone.
We live in Madison, WI, and do our business banking at M&I Bank, a part of the BMO Financial Group. I did a little looking around on the App Store before I searched for “Harris Bank,” which recently bought M&I. I then found an entry for” bmo harris bank n.a.” I selected that and downloaded the free app.
The feature that I find most valuable is this: you can deposit your checks on the road. The app walks you through the process. You use your phone’s camera to take a picture of the front and back of the endorsed check. I have had occasion to do this with one check. The deposit was followed up very quickly by an email confirming the mobile deposit capture. You can use this feature to deposit as many checks as you have, until you signal the end of the transmission.
You are advised to retain the check(s), and securely dispose of them following the actual deposit into your account. Of course if you deposit the check(s) in the normal way when you get back home you will be in big trouble!
Things to keep in mind: 1) look around the App Store (or your smart phone’s equivalent of the App Store) to see if your bank has such an app available, 2) once you find it and download it, be aware you need to remember your login and password for your bank account in order to be able to use the service, and 3) you need some way to keep track of the total amount deposited to keep your records straight. I plan to enter the transactions into a spreadsheet before I do the deposit.
We leave home on 05/24/12, to drive to California where we have shows during the first three weekends. If I encounter anything that needs to be reported, I will do so.
Dave Peterson
Comments
Thanks for your input. I really appreciate it. I went through Chase Bank last year and didn't realize if I didn't charge a certain amount I was hit with a $40 a month fee. I think I will use the square this year and see how it goes. I do fused glass jewelry, so my sales are small.
Carrie
We use the square for credit card sales. As far as I can determine there are no hidden fees. Square takes 2.75% of the amount of the sale, plus $.15 per transaction. The fee is larger (3.75%, I believe) if you enter the transaction manually instead of swiping the card. For the past two years, we used a Verifone unit with our iPhone. With that system, there is a $20+ gateway fee every month above and beyond the percentage they take per transaction. The fees on the Square pale in comparison. BTW, re the deposit limit on checks using the app discussed in this thread for M&I Bank isw $2,500.00 a day per the manager at our local bank. We've never come close to taking that many dollars worth of checks in a day, so I don't expect to be affected by that limitation.
Dave Peterson
Does anyone use the square for credit card sales. I have heard there are hidden fees and I would like to know what they are.
You can deposit your next check in MY account as a test Alison! :)
Thanks Patti, I'm going to give it a try next time I get a check.
Upon initial search, it seems that Wells Fargo has a similar service available for my Android smartphone, but in limited locations. I'll keep checking...thanks for the heads up.
@Alison - no problems with my Chase business account. I've used it to deposit checks for a couple of years now.
Alison, Ihave a business account with Chase, and have used the i-phone app a few times already...
I use the same feature with the USAA Credit Union application. I enter the transaction in Square as a cash transaction. That way all my transactions are in one place and I can email the customer the receipt. I then scan the check and it goes into my account. The money is credited immediately into my account. I think there is a 24 hour hold on anything above $5,000. There is a daily limit of $10,000. However, you can call and have the limit raised for a 24 hour period.
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