Credit Cards at Craft Shows

[danielle06]

It was mentioned by RachL that she may have lost a few sales bc she didn't take credit cards. With a few large county fairs and festivals that I am considering, I began to think about this as well. Noone wants to lose a sale esp after all the work that is put into it.

I found this that I am interested in. There is an annual fee and then per transaction fee, no monthly fees so you can keep your account and use when needed. It says it can do internet transactions as well but I'm not sure how exactly - if you can use it with your shopping cart or not. Thought this was a good option for us.
ProPay: Accept Credit Cards - Simple, Safe, & Affordable

I also found this but it may not be the best option although you do get a copy of the Auth. receipt for the customer to sign.
Wireless Credit Card Terminal

Found this one too: a device connects to your phone (only certain models) and not compatible with mine. and it gives you the Auth code on your cell phone screen.
Wireless Payment Processing, AIRCHARGE.COM® : AIRCHARGE

Also, I was wondering if you ladies ever bring your laptop and compact printer to print out receipts for shows - I was thinking about this as I would be able to type in the items, print for customer then save a copy for myself to keep track of inventory afterwards and for filing, etc Also if you 'throw' in a free bow you mark it as free on there and can properly manage taxes, etc with this. Thoughts?

[Amber427]

That is amazing! I would love to do something like this. Maybe when I do the larger shows.

I always write out a receipt- just to keep track of the cash I bring in. Most of my shows require state tax paid- so I need to know how much I sold by the end of the night. I also share a cash box iwht my mil- and it's 100% easier to keep track of things then try and sort things out at the end.

[ruby2]

I take credit cards at shows. I have a Paypal business account, which allows you to take credit card payments at no additional monthly charge (just the normal per transaction fee that Paypal charges for every transaction). You just need a website where you can input the amount sold, then a button that takes you to Paypal. I have a one page website set up for this, it's not a site I give out to customers, it's just one I use for myself. If anyone wants to see this website, let me know.

Here's info from Paypal about this:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/we...rd-pro-compare

So what I do is write down all the customers info and process it later. A slight risk, but I've never had one not go through. Or, if your location has wireless, you could process it immediately. My show this coming weekend has wireless.

[tisha]

we've had a credit card company & a swiping machine for 6 years.

we got hosed on the processing contract, but that ran out last year and the machine we bought still works like new.

some places charge a bundle for electricity so we usually just use the knuckle-buster & hard copy slips then run sales when we get home.

don't panic if a sale doesn't go through.
re-run it thursday evening or friday morning.
that's when most people have another pay cycle.

in 6 years i have had 3 deadbeat cards.
i lost less than 40$.
no bounced checks either! those i always hold for deposit until the folowing friday morning anyways.

remember all your fees though.
i will not take a charge for less than 10$.

good luck!

[RachL]

OH! Such GREAT info! Thanks for looking that stuff up. I'll have to really look through it later!

Where did you get your wireless printer? I'm very interested in that!

[geboraco@sbcglobal.net]

Well, I just signed up for Propay. I just got the basic acct., which is $34.99 for a year, and then per-transaction fees.

I will let you all know what I like/dislike about it once all those online orders start rolling in!

[woodkath]

That looks awesome!! My DH and I looked over the website and it looks like it does have the internet pay thing.