Pianotech

I am cash or check. I have thought about getting set up for a card for anything over $500. Since I'm a CAUT, I rarely get outside jobs that big or refer them to collegues. Too much time! I usually just tune over lunch hours or Saturday mornings.

It's a good point that credit card payments are ubiquitous.  I use my debit card a lot.  However, credit card companies can put the screws on small businesses.  Because there are just a few companies involved and a lot of people have just one card, places like restaurants can't drop, say, Visa as a payment option if Visa jacks up their rates.  As a matter of principle, I pass on most of the fee that my payment processor charges to the customer.  My processor charges 2.75%, and I ask my customers for 2%.  Customers who have the card out ready to go often switch to a check to avoid the fee, even well-to-do types to whom the fee should be trivial.  This indicates to me that people perceive it as an issue of fairness.  2% sounds like a lot, even though the actual dollar amount isn't that much.   A check costs a customer maybe 10 cents, and they often have it written when I'm done packing up my tools, so it usually takes less time than using a card. 

My processor charges 2.75%.  Let's say I'm depositing $1000 worth of checks (I usually use a phone app).  Using a card, the fee on this amount would be $27.50.  What exactly is the credit card company doing that has a value of $27.50?  It takes me maybe 10 minutes to deposit $1000 worth of checks, so by taking the checks instead of using the card I'm effectively making over $100 an hour. 

Folding credit card fees into your standard fees to customers is understandable – lots of companies do this dozens of ways.  But then it's a substantial hidden fee that everyone pays, not just the customers that use credit cards.  It seems to me this is something like health insurance.  Employers subsidize health insurance so most people aren't fully aware how much it costs.  I'm aware because I'm self employed, and it's unbelievably expensive.  If people had to pay the full share of their health insurance, they might be more motivated to take action to address health care costs. 

Several years ago, I started to accept card payments when a client told me she no longer used checks. For me to get payment from her, she had to call her bank and request a check to be sent to me. I now tell clients I will take payment either way but prefer check. I checked my receipts for last month. About 15% paid by card. Now an increasing number of my clients ask if I take payment by Venmo or other methods of payment. One technician in our area recently told me that Venmo was his client's preferred method of payment. I don't even know how that works but I am thinking I am going to have to find out. I think payment by check is on its way out.

Keith Kopp

801-235-8077

pianokopp@comcast.net

KG7PHU