Some roofers choose not to take credit cards for their roofing jobs, and want everyone to pay with a check. However, not everyone has enough cash in their checking account to cover the roofing job. If you don’t take credit cards, you can lose business to a roofer who does take cards. Secondarily, taking credit cards offers a trust factor for your customers. They know that if the job isn’t done well, they can chargeback their card. So when you accept payments with credit cards, it allows you to close the sale with their trust, and simply ask for a down payment on their credit card.
Rate factors for roofers to consider when shopping for a credit card processor:
- The rates for credit card processing. All card processing fees include a percentage rate, and transaction fee. Since roofers have high dollar tickets, the transaction fee is insignificant, and the rate is the most important factor.
- Swiping a card versus taking a card number over the phone can be the difference of 1 percent on the rate! So consider taking payments via a mobile phone.
- Commercial cards have higher discount rates for card processing than consumer cards. If you do commercial jobs, look for a processor who can show you how to lower that rate with what is called, “Level 2 and Level 3 Processing.” Electronic Money Company has advanced technology to qualify the card automatically at the lowest Level 2 or Level 3 rate.
- Consider passing the credit card fee off to the consumer. Many roofers charge a “Non-Cash Adjustment” for people who do not want to pay by check. Electronic Money Company has such a program, called a custom fee that allows you to charge a percentage or flat fee on top of the invoice amount. Typically, roofers charge 3 percent, which is an average cost of accepting credit cards.
- We suggest that you work with a processor that has interchange cost plus pricing. This will keep your costs down to the lowest possible. Debit cards have the lowest discount rates. Credit cards are the next highest. Rewards cards form the next highest tier, and corporate cards carry the highest discount rate. So “Interchange Cost Plus” enables you to have the advantage when the consumer pays with a debit card. Flat rate processors or tiered rate processors, (qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified rates), have to pad the rate high to cover themselves in case you get all rewards and corporate cards, which is not necessarily the case.
You will want to make payments convenient for your clients by accepting card payments in different ways — in person, or over the phone, via online invoices, or onsite using a card reader connected to your mobile phone. Altogether, a good merchant services provider should offer invoicing tools, quick books accounting integration, mobile payment apps, virtual terminals, and other features that can optimize day-to-day operations and keep revenue flowing.
Electronic Money Company does not complicate your life. Our purpose is to ease the confusion and pain of merchant services from the beginning through the life of a merchant’s business. We serve with honesty, integrity, transparency, respect and care. We aim to be the best choice for merchant services, period! Don’t you deserve the BEST? Get started NOW! Call 505-296-2847 today!
