As a leader in the merchant services industry, PayFrog is here to help businesses, non-profits, and government organizations across the nation process electronic payments in the most efficient way possible. PayFrog has the knowledge and resources to help you decide what merchant services will be best for your company and your customers. Merchant services is a banking system that allows merchants to accept debit and credit cards as a form of payment from patrons. To help you better understand your options, we’re going to take a deeper look at some different available modes of payment.
Payment Options
As a business owner, you’ll have to decide what type of payments you’ll accept from customers. For example, some grocery stores won’t accept checks and some small businesses only accept cash. Each method of payment has pros and cons for your business. While you want your business to be as accessible as possible to potential customers, you need to take into consideration which types of payment will also be best for you.
- Mobile Payments
- One form of payment that’s growing in popularity is mobile payments. Instead of using checks, cash, or cards, customers use their mobile devices to complete payments. An example of mobile payments is Apple Pay. So, when a customer is ready to check out, they would hold up their phone to your point-of-sale device and the payment would go through. The customer has their card information loaded onto their phone, so it’s like having a digital wallet instead of a physical wallet. As a business owner, mobile payments are a great option because it means that you won’t have to have as much cash on hand. Plus, it makes it simple for foreign visitors to pay for goods and services. One of the biggest drawbacks to consider when deciding if you want to accept mobile payments is that Apple will create a one-time usage credit card number for the transaction. It can be refunded later if necessary, but it cannot be saved and recharged on a future recurring subscription or a repeat order.
- Debit And Credit Cards
- One of the most common forms of payment is debit and credit cards. Debit and credit cards allow your customers to make large purchases securely. It’s also quicker to complete a transaction where a customer is using a debit card or credit card than if they were using cash or a check. Similar to mobile payments, accepting debit cards and credit cards means that foreign customers will be able to complete transactions with ease. When deciding if you want to accept debit and credit cards as a form of payment, remember that you have to wait until the transaction clears before seeing the money in your account. Usually, this takes between 1 and 3 days. You will probably also have to pay transaction fees, which is a small percentage of the total transaction. Debit cards usually have lower fees than credit cards.
- Cash
- Another form of payment is cash. Most customers will expect you to accept cash at your business. One of the biggest advantages of accepting cash as a form of payment is that there are no transaction fees associated with it. Although it would be a smart move for you to accept cash at your business, remember to consider that you will need to keep your registers stocked at all times and you will need to take time each night to count your registers and balance your receipts and make frequent trips to the bank for deposits all while taking a risk of theft from employees or outsiders.
Preparing Your Business To Accept Payments
As a business owner, you’ll need to consider the positives and negatives of all of the different payment options available when deciding which forms you want to accept. You’ll also need to consider which modes will save your employees and company time and resources and will be the easiest for you to manage and maintain.
Step 1: If you decide that you want to accept non-cash payments, which you probably will, you’ll then need to speak with your merchant services provider who will set you up with a payment processor and a merchant account. A payment processor is a company that enables financial transactions and a merchant account is a type of bank account that allows money from transactions to be processed and deposited into your business’ bank account.
Step 2: Next, you’ll need to choose a point-of-sale device. A point-of-sale device is a piece of equipment where your customer will either swipe their card, tap their card, tap their phone, or insert their card to complete a transaction. When choosing a point-of-sale system, your system will most likely consist of hardware and software. Hardware can be anything from a cash register to a card reader that plugs into your phone while the software is what actually stores and analyzes your business transactions.
Learn About Your Options With PayFrog
Whether you need help choosing a payment terminal for your business or you want to learn more about various fees associated with accepting credit card payments, PayFrog is here to help you! As a family-owned-and-operated company, it’s our goal to help you become the most efficient business possible. We offer various hardware and payment processing services to be able to help all different types of industries. To learn more about how PayFrog can help you and your business, make sure to contact us today!