Hi, I spoke with a friendly corporate accounts rep Ron at WRL on Tuesday, as planned, to discuss how they could meet our requirements.
Here are the important takeaways from the chat (except for one, see below): Pricing ======= * Per-order cost: $2.95 per card plus $21.95 shipping * Under the program we're planning to do, there would be no time-based fees (e.g. recurring maintenance charges) * Setup cost: $500 (covered by SPI general funds not Deb* funds) * The ability to restrict usage by MCC is new, so Ron needed to investigate what any costs are related to that. It also might cause us to receive MasterCard instead of VISA, but the two card brands are 100% interchangeable for our purposes, including pricing and acceptance among restaurants. * They don't usually share residual amounts left over on cards for purchases under 500-1000 cards, but Ron will ask about it for us. * There is no special rate for 501(c)(3) nonprofits, and they don't charge sales tax on the cards. Tracking and controlling usage ============================= * We would be able to put names on the cards at no extra cost * We can view online which card numbers (last 8 digits) correspond to which person, and which have been activated, at no extra cost, but we can't see their balance or transaction details due to privacy laws. We can also have them mass-activated if we want. * They will see if they are able to implement a shorter validity period than the usual 6 months, since we don't want them to be valid post-DC10. * They don't have the ability to put sub-limits on per-day/per-card purchases Overall quite a positive chat. He said he'd get back to me by close-of-business today (Wednesday); since he didn't, I'll follow up tomorrow. (<-- ACTION ITEM) The one big question: Ron said that many restaurants authorize the card for an additional 15-20% to allow for a tip. If the customer tips less than the excess authorized amount or tips in cash instead, the remainder of the money goes back on the card in 5 business days, which obviously doesn't work for us. I've heard about this practice, and I had assumed it didn't apply where tipping is uncommon like fast-food and counter-service restaurants; he said it was even true at Burger King. It's possible that it may be common elsewhere in the US but not in NYC. Can someone who has actually used a debit (not credit) card at such places in NYC clarify what actually happens? If we can resolve that question, I think we're good to go on this for weekends and the daytrip day. (For reference, I told him that we'd be ordering roughly 185 cards, which I calculated by adding sponsored-food + sponsored-food+accom + prof/corp in Richard's registration data text file, and that $150 would be the most common amount per card. In retrospect I realize I meant $75/card; that's 6 meals averaging $12.50 each.) - Jimmy Kaplowitz [email protected] _______________________________________________ Debconf-team mailing list [email protected] http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
