How to Take Credit Card Orders
- 1). Establish a merchant account with your local bank or lending institution. A merchant account is a bank account specially created to receive credit card payments. Each credit card transaction your business logs will appear in your merchant account, minus the appropriate fees for your credit card processing company.
- 2). Sign up with a credit card processing company. Credit card processing is a competitive business, with average fees totaling from 2.5 percent to 5.5 percent of gross sales. Be sure to shop around for a credit card processor with competitive rates and a track record of good customer service.
- 3). Purchase credit card processing equipment. Most credit card processing companies also offer equipment leases or sales, but you will save money buying used processing equipment online. At a minimum, you'll need a credit card terminal that allows you to swipe or enter the card number, expiration date, your merchant number and amount of purchase. (Online-only businesses using an online processor will need no equipment.)
- 4). Connect your credit card equipment to a working telephone line. Your credit card terminal must dial the processor to authorize sales and print receipts. Be aware that sharing your business's main phone line may cause customers to get busy signals while your credit card terminal is in use.
- 5). Enter the appropriate data each time a credit card order is received. While you may have software that submits this data automatically, manual credit card terminals will require that you manually enter your merchant number, the credit card's expiration date and the amount of the sale each time a credit card is used.
- 6). Reconcile the credit card payments you've received at the end of each business day with your credit card processor. Each processor provides instructions for using your equipment to "close out" the day's sales. Process your payments every day to ensure that the funds are deposited into your merchant account as quickly as possible.
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