Look, how secure are you going to feel when someone takes your card and swipes it on their cell phone? No signature, no receipt, NO WAY. If you want to team up with square and you don't swipe any volume, it's like pay pal, made for the NON Professional. Manufactures like Nurit Hypercom etc. even gateways that allow your laptop to run transactions, (e-mail the receipt, if no printer)are the much more professional way to go. Signature capture, recurring billing, Signature appearing on the printed receipt, and if there's a tip situation or adjusted balance, no problem. Be diligent, be professional, if you want wireless, use a wireless terminal, if not, there are many other options available.
What's the difference between swiping it on a cell phone and swiping it through some gadget behind the counter? Or better yet, when the waitress takes the card into the backroom for minutes? At the end of the day, you can dispute any charges you didn't sign for ...
Since you're on the go from job spot to job spot mobile credit card processing is probably the best choice. I heard of people using square but I didn't like how flimsy their credit card reader was so I went with pay anywhere ( http://payanywhere.com/) It works fast and is easy to use.
> I went cold turkey through my bank. The swipe machine ran about $125 and Amex takes about $7/month, Visa/MC $10 each and Discover, Nada. They also take a percentage (1%?). I advertise that take cards but it only happens about 5% of my transactions. It's mostly a way of advertising my business.
That sounds very strange. I've never heard of a monthly fee for Visa/MC, let alone one that's higher than AMEX.
I accept Visa/MC/Discover through Intuit Payment Solutions. They charge a percentage, which varies depending on whether the customer uses a business or personal card, with a minimum fee per month. So if I have no transactions in a month, I still have to pay $20, but these days, I always have more than $20/month in processing fees, so all I pay is the percentage.
AMEX, on the other hand, charges a $5/month fee in addition to the percentage. I haven't signed up for that. In 3.5 years, I've only ever had one person ask me about AMEX, and that person simply used another card when I said I didn't accept AMEX, so I haven't bothered with it.
