Eight Ways to Save Money – Method #1

Swipe Customer Cards Whenever Possible

I run into many businesses that are calling in their transactions and see no use for a terminal. This may work for businesses with very little volume, however if you are doing over $10k a month you are paying at least an extra $31 a month by not swiping the credit cards. How do I know this? The surcharge from Visa and MasterCard for keyed in or card not present transactions is .31%. So every time an employee keys in the card information instead of swiping it the business pays an additional .31% and that number is higher if you do not have straight pass through.

Often employees are not trained about the importance of swiping the card. I saw this in person when I went out to see a potential client which was winery. I signed up for their wine club and instead of swiping my card they keyed it in. My card was present, the employee had it in her hand and still she keyed it in. The profit on my membership dropped on the spot by an additional .63%. That was the surcharge they were paying on top of their base rate for keyed in transactions.

What You Can Do

Obtain a card reader or replace malfunctioning equipment.
Make sure your readers are cleaned regularly so they capture all the magnetic strip information.
Train sales personnel to avoid unnecessary keypad transactions.

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