I second (or third) the Vientiennete recommendation. My only gripe with
them is they don't take credit cards I am not a cash carrying kind of guy. I
understand the reasons why restaurants don't take credit cards (newly
established and unable to get a company to handle transactions; prefer, for
obvious reasons, to be an all cash business), but I think it is a big
mistake.
One of the primary reasons that small businesses don't take credit cards is the chunk of the take that the credit card takes. (sorry about that...)
Amex is the worse, but Visa and Master Card, though lower have had a couple of suits over their rates.
As I recall, CC companies get something like 3% of the amount of the credit slip... this is really a serious impact on Philadelphia businesses because of the GBT - Gross Business Tax. It's based on the total income of the business with no deductions for anything! Truly "GROSS."
Getting a company to handle the transactions is pretty trivial -- assuming that the business has a commercial checking account (which is not always true). Virtually all banks will process the Credit Card slips for them... again for a percentage of the take.
Another particularly onerous problem for small businesses is that if they get a "disputed charge" they loose the income immediately -- or rather they never get it. Basically disputes are deducted from their "income" before they get it. It's a real cash flow issue.
Only if the establishment goes "on-line" (which is also necessary for debit cards) does that particular problem go away. But going "on-line" add significant monthly charges on top of the percentage of the tab taken by the CC company.
There are lots of "deals" an establishment can get, but when push comes to shove, Credit Cards cost the establishment money. The CC's selling point is exactly you... convenience breeds more repeat customers more often. But the establishment has to have the volume to get the lower rates and make the whole thing worthwhile. And the volume we are talking about here is in dollars, not number of transactions.
T.T.F.N. William H. Magill [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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