Not accepting credit cards - INSANE?

[AllisonR]

Anyone have a gallery, atelier, business... where you take ID and give people an invoice, and let them out with your art and an invoice that says they should pay within 10 days? I am thinking about doing it this way, as I have been doing it for years with businesses. Never had a problem, business do pay, and usually on time. But people off the street? Is this still valid?

FWIW: I have just opened an Atelier which is open to the public and in a high traffic area. So hoping for more sales, but will not know until I try it for a few months.

Also, I am not in the states, so it costs a decent amount of money to have the CC transaction machine and vendor. I am assuming it is cheap in the USA. So my thought was to do it the old invoice way, and then if it turns out I get a decent amount of sales, to then go for CC payments.

[timelady]

Nope. However, I have helped out at some major shows where they take the customers details and email them a Paypal invoice. Then after paying the customer can come back and collect the artwork at the end of the show. Maybe an alternative? You could even tweak it so that the price includes delivery/shipping so they don't have to come back?

You could also look to see if Paypal offers their merchant account thingie (with a swipe machine I think) in Denmark? Might be a more affordable way to do it than a bank?

[it'sALLart]

Yes, things are very different in the U.S.

If you don't accept credit cards at an actual physical location, you are going to probably kill off about 2/3rds of your sales - if not more (and this also counts for art fairs and other temporary shows).

If you're going to open a gallery, etc, it's not necessarily insane but not very business-minded (at least here in the U.S.) to do it without a merchant MC/Visa account. You're expecting everyone to carry their check book (many don't) or have the kind of cash to buy something above the $250 range (most don't).

I remember how many times I'd see customers decide to buy something and immediately their eyes go to the front door to look for the MC/Visa sign and the next thing out of their mouths is "Do you accept ____ card?"

[Bringer]

Well, it's a shame that the Square (squareup) is not available outside US.
I guess that you can accept credit and debit cards in your Paypal account from people who don't have a Paypal account.
Moreover, there are several services that permit you to accept credit cards on your website besides Paypal; I know that many people don't like to expose their credit card data.

Here's a website with some info
http://www.merchantaccountguide.com/...our-iPhone.php

And in particular:
http://www.merchantaccountguide.com/mobile.php

[Bringer]

Also found this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUFHO...eature=related

second part

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzkUP...feature=relmfu

[jbart]

In my opinion, if you don't take cc during your initial start up, you may regret it later especially since you are in a high traffic area for the public. Also, there are many cc options available now being advertized on the internet that are very suitable for small business. I found one to use at our shows using swipe on my smart phone.

[Greg Long]

Alison, If you have internet in the studio just create a paypal invoice and get them to pay there and then. I wouldn't reccomend letting work out before payment.

[frisbygolf]

If you have a smart phone of tablet get square, it is a free card swiper that will help out a ton.

[sealart]

is paypal pay here in your country yet?
I may be a cynic but don't think it's a good idea to let people leave with your art without paying for it.

[ctanner]

I accept PayPal and Square. I accepted credit cards with a service through my bank and it was just becoming to costly. I love Square.

[yazelm]

Paypal is also working on a card reader for smartphones and tablets. I do not know if it will be available outside of the US though, you might check their site. I could not make without taking credit cards and use square on my phone to do it.

[Azure Wings]

I have Square, though I haven't used it yet. They've set it up to be amazingly simple, though. If you're good with a smart phone, and at texting, it would be a breeze for you. Maybe there's something similar in Europe?

Wishing you good luck with this,
Karen

[RottweilerMom]

I'm another one who is a square lover! I have used it several times and it's easy. It works wherever you have cell service or wifi. The reader is free and the fees are very reasonable. I can't imagine not having square and not accepting credit cards.

[svrart]

Hi Allison,

OT, how about more info about your atelier and possibly some photos. I started a gallery recently, and am curious how yours is set up.

Regards,

[freedda]

Another option besides Square, is GoPayment from Intuit, the people who make Quicken. It is about the same cost as Square and looks like it works about the same. I'm not sure if they provide service outside the US or not.

Last year I did a studio tour and signed up to accept credit cards. This meant I had to rent a card reader, and now I'm paying about $150 a year in just the service fees, even without any sales, and I'm stuck with this for another 2 YEARS!!! I will I knew about the Square or GoPayment last year.