Grow Your Business with a Credit Card Machine (cont.)
Contributed by Victoria Knox
You need a phone line or wireless connection to use a credit card machine.
To check if credit is available, a credit card machine needs to communicate with the card processor. So, you will need to hook the machine up to a phone line to check for approval to accept the credit card. Newer machines offer wireless cellular connections, but have a more expensive price tag. You need be in range of your wireless service for them to work.
Cost involved with credit card machines.
Aside from the actual cost of the equipment, which can be few hundred dollars, there are other costs to consider when accepting credit cards. The bank processing your card transactions may charge a set-up fee. Plus, merchants have to pay a transaction fee (around 20 cents) for each transaction and a percentage of each sale usually between 1% and 3% for the privilege of accepting credit cards. Beware of chargebacks as well. A chargeback is a reversal of credit card transaction.
Chargbacks happen due to errors or customer disputes. Too many chargebacks can increase the percentage the merchant has to pay per sale, and can even lead to the closing of the merchant account altogether.
