About 70% of people will regularly use a credit card by the time they’re 65 years old. Of those people who use credit cards, they’ll likely have 4 separate credit card accounts in their name.
These statistics shed light on the fact that American consumer’s love of credit.
Why does that matter to you as an entrepreneur?
Because in today’s credit heavy age, if you’re not offering customers the ability to pay by card or are not doing so in a way that’s cost-effective to you, you could be setting yourself up for failure.
Fortunately, the explosion of the consumer credit market has brought an explosion of options for accepting credit card payments. Our goal with this article is to describe to you some of the most popular ways sellers accept credit cards so you can pick the best method for your business!
1. Square
Square was one of the original mobile credit card accepting solutions available to business owners. Its trademark small square dongle can plug into a user’s phone’s headphone jack which then enables the swiping of cards.
Even as competition has increased for Square, their product has held up. They have ultra competitive rates at just 2.75% of your transaction per swipe + $0.10.
Beyond its signature square card reader, Square also has card readers that allow payment through Apple Pay or other mobile phone payment mechanisms.
2. PayPal
There’s no name bigger in online payments than PayPal. Quickly after some competitors got into accepting mobile payments, PayPal followed suit and created extremely powerful credit card accepting solutions used by thousands of entrepreneurs.
Where PayPal stands out as far as the ability to accept credit cards go is its reliable stability given the company’s size, its different pricing depending on if your transaction is for nonprofits, education and other unique enterprises, and its competitive rates.
Right now, PayPal asks entrepreneurs to pay 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for most sales.
3. Stripe
Stripe is an ultra-streamlined “how to accept credit card payments” solution with some awesome features. With Stripe, not only can you accept payments on the go via credit cards, you can also accept ACH debits, Bitcoin, Alipay and more!
The platform is also notably customizable. This makes it easy for business owners to modify it to suit their specific needs.
Stripe boasts a pricing structure similar to PayPal. 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
4. High Risk Solutions
If you’re a retailer who has been rejected by other credit card processors in the past, the High Risk Merchant Processor by High Risk Solutions could be the answer you need. High Risk Solutions offers a robust suite of credit card processing solutions. These are all targeted at businesses who have struggled to get approval in the past.
High Risk Solutions boasts working with companies in 174 different countries and has very flexible fee structures you can read more about here.
5. QuickBooks
Many small businesses already use QuickBooks to manage their day to day accounting needs. If you’re one of those people, you’ll be happy to know that QuickBooks offers its own POS credit card processing solution!
With QuickBooks POS, you’ll get the core features you need to accept credit cards. In addition to that, QuickBooks comes with advantages in the way of easily syncing all of your sale data with your preexisting QuickBooks account.
If you’re an entrepreneur looking to keep all of the tools you use to manage your business’ financial health under one umbrella, QuickBook’s credit card accepting solution could be for you!
It also comes with a ridiculously low 2.7% per transaction flat rate for most sales!
6. ProPay
ProPay has flown under the radar in comparison to a lot of the other credit card accepting solutions on this list. Its relative obscurity is not for lack of a quality product, however.
ProPay offers users a full suite of payment solutions. These include mobile swipe, email invoicing, donations, web shopping carts, virtual terminals and more.
Where ProPay falls short is with its confusing pricing. It has varying fees depending on cards accepted which are generally low but are then upped by its annual fees (up to $69.95). You’ll need to review the fee table closely to figure out if your business is likely to benefit from ProPay’s complex costs.
7. Authorize.net
Bookending our list of methods to accept credit card payments is Authorize.net. This company built a name for itself in the crowded credit card processing niche by going above and beyond industry standards for consumer security.
With Authorize.net, your customers will enjoy advanced fraud detection which can significantly decrease the risk of their credit card information being intercepted by 3rd parties during mobile transactions. This can also be helpful to you given that data breaches can be costly for businesses.
Still, given the high bar for security standards, companies take towards mobile payments and most credit card’s 0% fraud liability, you have to wonder if Authorize.net’s higher fees for better security are justified.
The service costs $25.00 a month + 2.9% and $0.30 per transaction.
Wrapping Up the Best Ways to Accept Credit Cards
As an entrepreneur, your ability to accept as many payment methods as possible will have a direct impact on your success. If you’re trying to get into or optimize your credit card accepting solutions, start by trying the companies on this list.
Each works exceptionally well. They offer robust features and competitive prices.
At the end of the day, no matter which you choose, your offering customers the opportunity to accept credit cards will be an investment that pays off in the way of more sales and higher revenue!
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