[Food] Card Payments - some still charging

[Balders]

As a small business owner selling high ticket priced, low margin business, my profit margins are highly influenced by how people pay. Bank Transfer is free, debit cards attract a certain fee to process, double that for credit cards and I don't take Amex as the processing fee doubles again (not great considering our main sponsor!) People think that cards that give points and or cashback are paid for by their card issuer, but most of it is picked up by the retailer in inflated processing fees. A large payment by Amex could impact my profit margin by 30-40%.

I'm all for transparency, but I would price differently if I knew the majority of my business was by bank transfer and probably pack it in if the majority of business would be paid for on Amex. At the end of the day, the cost of points/cashback has to be picked up somewhere along the chain......

 

[Anger]

I didn't know that they aren't allowed to charge the extra.
Sutton United's snack bar charged me the extra 50p a few months back.
I think they probably lost about £30k that week as the attendance was pretty low, so I'm happy to donate to the cause.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

As a small business owner selling high ticket priced, low margin business, my profit margins are highly influenced by how people pay. Bank Transfer is free, debit cards attract a certain fee to process, double that for credit cards and I don't take Amex as the processing fee doubles again (not great considering our main sponsor!) People think that cards that give points and or cashback are paid for by their card issuer, but most of it is picked up by the retailer in inflated processing fees. A large payment by Amex could impact my profit margin by 30-40%.

I'm all for transparency, but I would price differently if I knew the majority of my business was by bank transfer and probably pack it in if the majority of business would be paid for on Amex. At the end of the day, the cost of points/cashback has to be picked up somewhere along the chain......

That might be because you're using the wrong card processor. I did a massive project for a DCA who took cards over the phone and we hooked them into a payment management company that charged no more than 15p per transaction regardless of amount of payment ( Amex excluded who really are a bunch of thieves ). There are plenty of payment services around that charge per transaction rather than a percentage.

 

[Balders]

That might be because you're using the wrong card processor. I did a massive project for a DCA who took cards over the phone and we hooked them into a payment management company that charged no more than 15p per transaction regardless of amount of payment ( Amex excluded who really are a bunch of thieves ). There are plenty of payment services around that charge per transaction rather than a percentage.

Unfortunately I have a Franchise so card payments are handled centrally and knowing our industry and rates others get, our buying group gets as good as can be got in our Industry.