Since I only recently (just before Christmas) openned my own merchant account (sub-account on salon's primary account) for the first time-- here's some of what I have learned! First-- DO NOT listen to a word out of the sales guy's mouth! READ THE CONTRACT for yourself before you sign anything! This means taking time out, away from any clients you may have on your schedule, to pay close attention to the set up process. When our salon changed merchant service companies last fall, the rep was in one day. Since Mom and I work together we figured there was no reason for us to both have our own accounts and pay double the fees-- we'd just set up one account and whoever got the money could pay out the other one... hey's, she's my MOM, I can trust her, right? So, since Mom wasn't busy and I was at the time, we opted to have Mom set up the account so all monies would automatically be deposited into Mom's account. Meanwhile, I'm asking the guy all kinds of quetions: Is there a contract? What is the term? Is there any cancellation fee? How much is the monthly fee? Is there a seperate statement fee? Is there a transaction fee... blah blah blah. WE WERE TOLD that there was NO minimun contract term with NO cancelletion fee... so imagine our surprise when just a few months later Mom had to cancel the account due to her health issues-- disability issues and so forth and they charged her $300 for early termination! WOW! Did we have to go a few rounds to get THAT cleared up! Nevertheless, I still opened my own account (I just now know that I have to keep it open for 3 years!) And have been pretty much ok with the way things have been going... until last month I checked my statement fee ($9.95 a month plus 1.69% discount fee) to discover they had debited my checking account $92!!!!!! WTF?! On the phone in a flash-- and the guy tells me that since I'm set up as a sub-account, my account has all the same terms and conditions as the other accounts in the salon. Excuse me... let me just take a moment to say DUH!, but how does that explain this debit on my account? Then he informs me that there is a $79 a year membership fee. Oh, I don't think so. He says, "It's in the contract that you signed." I'm thinking to myself, "No, no, I don't think it is." But MY copy of the contract is about illegible from the crappy fax job they did so good luck finding anything in there that I can read! So I made him mail me another copy of my contract... Guess what? The part about the annual fee? CLEARLY CROSSED OUT on my contract-- I'd like my $79 back, please! (which they agreed to without arguement, in all fairness, they have been good to deal with.) Point being... the guy who set up our accounts no longer represents the company. And I'm glad to hear it, because there's a lot of contradiction between what he told us vs what is in that fine print. Oh yeah-- and, I also found out that business credit cards and debit cards for business accounts? Visa/Mastercard-- the actual company, not the processing companies-- have higher "discount rates" for business accounts than personal ones. That means, in my case I have one client who uses her business debit card on occassion-- which shows up on my statement as the 1.69% fee PLUS another 2 point something % to make up the different of what it costs my processing company to process the business card. OUCH! I had no idea I was screwing merchants out of an additional few percentage points everytime I use my business bank card!
Maggie Franklin: Attitudes Salon; Visalia, CA Now Blogging for Nails Magazine online! http://blogs.nailsmag.com/maggie/ http://www.nailsbymaggie.biz "Visionary rebel dreamer; obviously way ahead of my time." --- On Thu, 3/12/09, Melody C Montgomery <[email protected]> wrote: From: Melody C Montgomery <[email protected]> Subject: NailTech:: Merchant Accounts Etc To: "Nail Tech Group" <[email protected]> Date: Thursday, March 12, 2009, 7:25 PM Ok Gang, I know we have had a million discussions about merchant accounts and who to do to what and what for… but my question is: The outfit I am about the sign up with (I think….) says here are the charges: The owner of the salon owns the machine and I will be paying him like $7/mon for providing the service… The data company charges: $10 /mon (base fee that is charged whether I run any cards or not) 1.9% of transaction plus base fee of 0.15 cents per transaction (2.25% if I key the card in instead of swiping…? WTF?) And a startup fee of $50 However, there are no contracts I have to sign. I can pick up and go whenever I choose. So, tell me……. How does this company sound? The salon I work at has been using them for a couple of years.. (and he mentioned that he would really like to find someone cheaper….) but would I be stupid to use them? I currently have my checking/savings accts at State Employees Credit Union… and they do not do business accounts so I do not have one and most credit card companies require a business account. This particular company can run it into my existing checking. So….. comments and opinions please! Thanx! Melody C. Montgomery Manicuring Professional/Nail Artist Everything Nailz Ink Salon 535, Ayden , NC www.everythingNAILZink.com 252-217-8221 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NailTech" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/NailTech?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
