Credit card processing question

External Since: Aug 08, 2003 Posts: 1

I'm in the process of starting a small furniture company, and I intend
to sell the majority of my products from my future web site. I'm also
planning on hitting a few craft fairs per year. Most of my products
will sell in the range from $80 - $300, with likely monthly sales
initially less than $1,000 per month.

This will be a part time venture for me, at least for the next few
years, so that is why selling over the web will be important for me.

Some of the products I plan to sell I will stock, and can ship right
away, but I anticipate having several products that will be "built as
ordered", with a 3-5 week wait. Those products will be clearly
identified on the web site.

My unsolved questions remain with credit card processing. My main
concern is keeping my fixed monthly costs low. In order to make this
profitable for me, I do not want to spend more than $25 per month in
fixed fees.

I definately want a merchant account -- no third party processors like
paypal or ccnow, because that would preclude people calling me with
orders, or selling at craft fairs. I'm not very interested in
real-time processing either, due to the fact that I won't be able to
ship some items until several weeks after the order.

Ideally, I'd like to process all my in-person orders using a swipe
machine, and mail/telephone/internet orders off line using a virtual
terminal. I noticed that Intuit Quickbooks offers such a solution,
for $17.95/month plus per transaction fees. This seemed ideal, until
I read part of their FAQ which states: "The QuickBooks Merchant
Account Service is designed to let you enter and process credit card
payments through QuickBooks only when your customers pay by phone,
fax, mail, or in person.", so no internet orders.

I'd like my web site to securely encrypt the shopping cart order
information and send it to me via email, where I can enter the order
at the appropriate time.

Has anyone had experience dealing with a similar situation? I'd love
to hear your comments & suggestions, as well as recommendations for
Credit Card merchant account providers who might be able to accomodate
me.

- Fred

External Since: Jul 22, 2003 Posts: 4

Some of my clients use <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://propay.com/" target="_blank">http://propay.com/</a>
$39 a year, no monthly fees and 3.5% of transaction plus $.35. The 3.5 is a
little high, but calculate what those monthly fees will cost you if your
doing under 1,000 a month.

When you initially set up your account I believe you have a limit of $700 a
month in transactions, but you can increase it as time goes on. You don't
need a swipe machine, you can process your credit cards over the internet.
They also have an option (which has an additional sign up fee) where you can
do it all over the phone using the keypad (if your at the craft show and
don;t have internet access, just a cell phone)

Your best bet for internet web sales is for the order to be saved on the
shopping cart's secure web server, then you get an e-mail that you have an
order, then go to the server to retrieve the order, with the credit card
number.

Good luck, Let me know if you have any questions.

Dave
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.FreeWholesaleCatalog.com" target="_blank">http://www.FreeWholesaleCatalog.com</a>

"Fred D." <tim_b72 DeleteThis @hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:e439356d.0308080646.7234886a@posting.google.com...
> I'm in the process of starting a small furniture company, and I intend
> to sell the majority of my products from my future web site. I'm also
> planning on hitting a few craft fairs per year. Most of my products
> will sell in the range from $80 - $300, with likely monthly sales
> initially less than $1,000 per month.
>
> This will be a part time venture for me, at least for the next few
> years, so that is why selling over the web will be important for me.
>
> Some of the products I plan to sell I will stock, and can ship right
> away, but I anticipate having several products that will be "built as
> ordered", with a 3-5 week wait. Those products will be clearly
> identified on the web site.
>
> My unsolved questions remain with credit card processing. My main
> concern is keeping my fixed monthly costs low. In order to make this
> profitable for me, I do not want to spend more than $25 per month in
> fixed fees.
>
> I definately want a merchant account -- no third party processors like
> paypal or ccnow, because that would preclude people calling me with
> orders, or selling at craft fairs. I'm not very interested in
> real-time processing either, due to the fact that I won't be able to
> ship some items until several weeks after the order.
>
> Ideally, I'd like to process all my in-person orders using a swipe
> machine, and mail/telephone/internet orders off line using a virtual
> terminal. I noticed that Intuit Quickbooks offers such a solution,
> for $17.95/month plus per transaction fees. This seemed ideal, until
> I read part of their FAQ which states: "The QuickBooks Merchant
> Account Service is designed to let you enter and process credit card
> payments through QuickBooks only when your customers pay by phone,
> fax, mail, or in person.", so no internet orders.
>
> I'd like my web site to securely encrypt the shopping cart order
> information and send it to me via email, where I can enter the order
> at the appropriate time.
>
> Has anyone had experience dealing with a similar situation? I'd love
> to hear your comments & suggestions, as well as recommendations for
> Credit Card merchant account providers who might be able to accomodate
> me.
>
> - Fred