When I first started my photography business I accepted only cash or checks. Finally, one of my clients convinced me that I needed to accept credit cards. Since then, I've gone through several merchant accounts. Quite honestly, I think it is the sleasiest business around. They sell you the service on their supposedly low rates, which are invalid as soon as you accept cards that get miles or points, or when the whim strikes them. They sneak in all sorts of hidden fees without telling you they're doing it. An extra $5 statement fee per month for this card or that starts showing up, high fees for keying in a card rather than swiping it, and other fees that they just add without telling you. They make their statements just about impossible to decipher, and I really think they do so intentionally so that you will throw up your hands and avoid questioning them about the fees. For several years I worked with a merchant credit card company who NEVER EVER answered their customer service number. I learned that the only way to get someone on the phone was to call their sales office.
I've most recently been using a merchant account that wasn't too terribly sleazy, but I still felt somewhat in the dark about what I was being charged. The guy who signed me up said "these are the fees today, but I can't promise you they won't change them or add new fees after you sign the papers." What the heck is that? And because the only way to use this service is through their credit card terminal that needs to be plugged into a phone line, I was being charged the higher keyed-in fee for every transaction because I would have to write down the client's card info while at my studio and then come home and key it in. I don't have a phone line at my current studio.
So, I was really excited when I started hearing rumblings about Square. Their website is www.squareup.com. When you sign up they send you a nifty little plastic square thing that plugs into your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or Android. This little square thing is free, by the way. You download their app, sign up for an account, verify your bank account, and you're good to go. For swiped transactions in which you swipe your client's card through the little plastic thing, your fee is 2.75% of the transaction. If, on the other hand, you enter credit cards manually, it is 3.15% + 15 cents per transaction. And by the way, they're not some little rinky-dink start up but were founded by one of the guys who started Twitter.
I started using Square a few weeks ago, and I still get excited every time I run a card through the little thing and hand over the iPad to my client to sign their name with their finger. I love it that the client immediately gets an email receipt of the transaction, and that I receive an email telling me the exact amount of the transaction fee so I can enter it into my Quickbooks account right away. You can stop using Square at any time and there is no cancellation fee. No startup fee, no cancellation fee. No monthly statement fee. Which is completely opposite most merchant account vendors, who can hit you with huge startup and cancellation fees. When I called my merchant account provider to cancel a couple weeks ago they tole me it would be $175 to cancel. That is, until I told them my contract says "no cancellation fee," and then they backed off. I told you merchant account vendors are sleazy.
So, is Square right for you? I think it probably depends on how many credit card transactions you do, and the size of them. Regular merchant accounts can offer much lower rates on swiped transactions, which can be huge if you frequently run large orders. These days, I'm finding more and more of my clients paying by check, and since I didn't have a way to plug in my terminal at my studio, I wasn't getting the advantage of lower rates on swiped cards. If you're thinking about accepting credit cards, and Paypal doesn't cut it for you, I think it's definitely worth looking into Square.
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Mary Lynne Ashley is a professional photographer specializing in creating portraits of newborns, babies, children, maternity and families in her Colorado Springs photography studio.
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