Small Business Credit Cards

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I am in the position of opening a small foor business. We are looking at doing credit card proccessing and i have talked to 2 different people. I talked to one man from the bank, who gave me a higher rate but claims that the small independant companies give you a low rate that gets higher because of hidden fees and whatnot. He says that the bank only has one transaction to do to get the money. The small company i talked to says that the bank goes through them and they only do one transaction. Can some explain how it really works, perhaps someone who is nuetral and/or owns their own business. thanks in advance

Best Answer

Hi, welcome to the club! This is a difficult decision. Banks will charge multiple fees, depending on the credit card. So do the smaller merchant companies. There are just a few true processors, and you cannot generally go thru them unless you are a big wig. There are different fees for visa/mastercard personal, corp, rewards, auth users, and prepaids. You generally cannot tell which card is which until you learn the number system, and even then it is very difficult. Have them all provide a complete list of fees, the rental for the machine, the processing of batch fees, the breakdown for types of cards, fees for chargebacks (when a customer disputes whether you charged a valid amount) and any other fees. I would recommend getting a sample contract. Then, look at the average amount to be charged and the average number of charges per month. Rates can be variable, depending on how long it will take to get deposited. We went with the processor that offered a medium rate because it filled more of our needs. Do you need online access? Do you authorize and then charge cards? These will both cost you extra. I know this answer may look confusing, if you need me to explain anything I wrote, please feel free to email me. Best of luck. PS I have found banks are generally the most expensive to use, but will deposit faster than 2nd party processors.

Is it normal practice for credit card companies to send, pre-approved or not pre-approved, small business credit cards to people who do not own small businesses? Have you ever received one?

Best Answer

I have received several and I can never figure out why. I don't need any more credit cards, much less business ones. I don't run a business.

How do you go about researching the best small business credit card for you business?

Best Answer

Check with bank where you have your business account. If it is a larger bank like Bank of America, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, etc, those banks can offer business lines of credit (like a credit card) or you can apply right at the bank.

I am about to start my own LLC and need a small line of credit. Instead of trying to get a business loan, I was thinking of a small business credit card. I only need about $5000.00. Does anyone know how long a company needs to be in business to qualify for a decent small business credit card?

Best Answer

I have heard two years, but I got one after a year or so. Be prepared to enter personal information, too. That can help your chances of getting approved. There are some good FAQs here: http://www.e-wisdom.com/credit-cards/ business-credit-cards.html

My small business accepts credit cards when we travel to trade shows around the country. Last year I was contacted by e-mail and told that I needed to purchase a plan from a company to protect the information from my customers. They said I needed to be PCI DSS compliant. Is this a scam? Is this something I should keep doing? How does something like this protect anyone? As I recall the cost was several hundred dollars. It is time to renew, and I want to be sure that this is legitimate.

Best Answer

Is your company big enough that you have to worry about one of your employees stealing a customers information? In all honesty, A small business where only a select few have access to such info is something I would not delve into this. I personally when taking orders have not ever had one customer ask me if I used any type of insurance protecting their information from being stolen. So unless you have a company large enough that you do not personally know your people that are accepting the credit card info (and afraid they will steal it for whatever reason) I wouldn't worry about it right now. Also, if you want to use that as a "hey customer, we have this in place to protect you" to help your business, then do it. I personally do not use this service as my company isnt big enough that I dont know who I employ personally and I have yet to have a customer inquire if I am insured if their info is stolen thru my company. Also, I would tend to steer away from an unsolicited email proposing to sell me the program. If you didnt request that information, then that is one of those emails that hope that can get your business. Goto google and type in "PCI DSS" and you will find lots of legit companies that will be able to provide you the insurance you need. It is NOT a law anywhere that you must have this. It does protect a company if someone runs off with all your customers information. Also, when you search google or yahoo for that above term. do not just go by the first few results, those are paid to be there which is fine. But ALWAYS compare a few of the companies and then goto the BBB online to further investigate to be sure you are safe.