posted on August 19, 2002 04:16:11 PM new
I realize that many eBay sellers were or are brick & mortar store owners. My question is 'what does it cost to accept credit card payments and what is the minimum purchase a buyer can make with a credit card?' Is there a minimum set by the credit card company or the seller?
TIA
posted on August 19, 2002 04:52:06 PM new
I dont know of any limit set buy the credit card company other then the max limit.
it is silly to use a credit card for small amounts of money but I have used credit cards in the past for very small amounts some under a dollar in an emergency.
posted on August 19, 2002 05:24:39 PM new
some stores have $10.00 minimum,
but that's the owners choice.
if I dont have cash in hand I'll even put my $1.60 starbucks on my card
if the store has a minimum and I dont have any cash with me, I have no choice but to leave, but most stores dont do that,
in my area (florida) maybe 2-3 .
posted on August 19, 2002 05:36:51 PM new
What does it cost the store to accept the credit card payment? Is there a monthly fee and transaction fee or what?
If an online charge no listing fee and a small FVF and an auction seller's monthly bill was only 30 cents or something similar what would it cost the auction site to conduct the credit card transaction?
posted on August 19, 2002 05:55:10 PM new
The best thing you can do, depending upon your "size" and the amount of items that you sell, both on and off Ebay, is Microsoft B-central, they offer an E-commerce manager, that in conjunction with Card service international, you can set up one of two credit card handling accounts, First is called a nano-merchant account, there is no monthly fee at all, but they charge 3.42% of the total, and I believe either .40 or .50 cents per transaction, this can get rather costly on a higher dollar purchase, but if you are looking for something that you can easily work with, and not use on a daily basis, this is the one, SECOND, is a regular merchant account, the do charge a 19.95 per month fee, (and if you wish to accept American express/discover, they charge a one time 25.00 set up fee) the percentage per trans action is considerably less, as well as the per trans action fee, I believe it is about .20 cents Both require a application, and unless you have purely rotten credit, they will accept you. Both deposit directly into your bank account, the nano account takes about 5 or 6 business days to hit the account, the other, usually 48 hours----John
posted on August 19, 2002 06:24:39 PM new
As to a minimum amount, credit card companies say you have to accept any amount, even one cent. Of course, the smaller the retailers average sale, the higher the percentage you pay. So when I had my retail empire, I did post a sign that said $10 minimum charge, and if anyone challenged it, I knew I had to accept a lesser charge.
Over the years I found most credit card processers hated mail order sales, or online sales. My agreements with them strictly forbid it. I think it is a high risk area for them. My percentage was 4.5% when I began, and a decade later it was 2.15% BUT that is a deceiving figure.
Processors like to charge for the card swiping machines, and even if you buy it outright (up to $1200 or whatever the market will bear) they still wanted 6.95 or 14.95 for "maintenance". Then there was the $5 for the monthly "statement" and .35 a day for whatever, and .25 on top of the Amex and Discover percentages for processing, etc.
In the end I was delighted for Paypal and Billpoint, because they were a bargain compared to what I had to pay x 4 stores (4 machines, 4 statements, 4 daily fees etc. etc.)
My shops are now closed and my overhead is reduced by 95%. I still don't understand how sellers can complain about the percentage Paypal and Billpoint take. It is a bargain compared to the mugging I was taking from traditional processors. Guess they had no idea how carniverous the real world of credit card charges is.
Visa has certain regulations that all merchants that accept Visa cards must follow. One of those rules is that Visa merchants are not permitted to establish minimum transaction amounts, even on sale items.
Another MasterCard acceptance rule prohibits merchants that accept MasterCard cards from establishing any minimum amount below which the merchant won't accept payment via MasterCard card.
posted on August 19, 2002 08:00:02 PM new
So a small online auction site that charges a 5% FVF actually loses money on very small individual sales? Therefore if a seller only sells one item in a one month period and owes the auction site a hypothetical 20 cents FVF on a $4.00 sale then that site is probably losing money if it has to pay a 25 cent transaction fee because a credit card was used for payment.
Gotta be a tough business to be in for the owners of sites with low trafic and sales.
