Over the past decade or so, credit cards have become an integral part of our daily financial lives. Aside from making retail shopping more convenient and streamlined, they’ve also allowed for the rise of billion dollar e-commerce and Saas companies.
Thanks to technologies like Apple and Android Pay, not only have we become a largely cashless society, but we’re increasingly becoming a walletless society as well. With new technologies from cities allowing our mobile wallets to hold everything from driver’s licenses, to our transit cards.
As a result, you would probably want to accept credit card payments as a small business. This article will highlight the negative side of accepting credit cards, despite the obvious benefits of accepting credit card payments.
So... Should your business accept credit cards?
Keep reading for a full list of pros and cons of accepting credit card payments, some of them may even surprise you.
A credit card's convenience can't be questioned, whether you're tapping your card at the store or having your favorite browser fill in your card details on an online order. As a result, not accepting credit cards may result in customers leaving your store. Online shopping exacerbates this problem. Suppose you are checking out only to find that bank transfers are the only payment method available to you. Most likely, you would leave the store and go to a competitor.
Online payment processors such as stripe, have made it easy to accept payments from other cities, countries and even continents. This in-turn unlock a whole new market for you to sell your goods and services in. As a result, you broaden your customer base and can generate more revenue.
Credit card processors deposit funds within 1-2 business days. Unlike invoices and money transfers, which can take up to 14 days to be paid and deposited into your account. This can have a serious effect on a businesses cash flow and even cost business owners a lot of money in interest through the use of short term loans.
Accepting credit card payments at your store isn’t free. Infact, depending on the credit card used and your agreement with your payment processor, a credit card transaction can come with a fee of up to 3%. On top of this, you may be charged a monthly fee to rent equipment and POS systems. At the end of the month, these “small” fees can add up.
Customers in-store seldom insert their card and input their pin, they simply tap their card and take their purchase. Similarly, online shoppers rarely need to verify a pin, and simply inputting the credit card information is enough to make a purchase. This opens the door to fraud. Although credit card companies often take on the majority of the losses, your business is still on the hook for chargebacks, processing fees and other charges related to fraudulent transactions.
As previously stated, fees on credit cards vary massively on the network (amex, visa or mastercard). This opens the door to complexities in your bookkeeping processes. With every transaction needing to be manually checked and double checked to ensure that costs are properly kept.
Even with the few drawbacks associated with accepting credit card payments, credit cards have become an integral part of society. Not accepting them can be a serious limiter in the success of your business.
With that being said businesses which deal with fewer transactions, and larger sum payments can potentially get away with only accepting wire payments or cash.
Overall, it’s safe to say we are rapidly moving to a cashless society, and not accepting credit card payments would be a huge mistake.
