Recouping credit card fees

[Candybee]

Is anyone doing this? Lately I have been considering adding a small charge to my credit card sales to try to recoup the fees I have to pay. Just wondering if anyone is doing this or something similar and if you do how did your customers respond to adding a fee?

 

[Paintguru]

I assume this is for "in-person" sales?  I always thought (perhaps I'm mistaken) that it was illegal/against credit card rules to charge extra for using a credit card.  I think the way people get around this is to give a discount if you pay in cash.  

 

Of course, you could just raise all your prices to cover the credit card fees.  Then you wouldn't need to explain the whole two-prices deal to customers over and over again.   

[Candybee]

I didn't realize it was not legal. So that would definitely be a no. I really don't want to raise my prices. Will have to think on this some more. Still wondering if others have made any adjustments to their prices to recoup fees so if you have I'd like to know what and how customers responded. Thanks.

[bfroberts]

The laws regarding this changed a few years ago, but you might want to read up on them just to clarify.  I think it is still illegal in some states.  My fees are always built into the cost of the products.  I consider it just another cost of doing business.  We do require a minimum purchase amount to use a cc.

[Candybee]

Yes my prices are built around my COG and they are working great for me. But CC sales fees have gone up on Square so that is what is making me reconsider and rethink my pricing.

 

RE minimum purchase I believe that is against credit card company policies. Last time I read their rules they stated you can't require a minimum for a purchase. However, some don't require a signature for purchases under $10. It could have changed but I have always been careful not to require a minimum purchase amount.

[Sebleo]

I started requiring a minimum purchase for credit cards after I did one event with a lot of $2-3 cc purchases. 

[Paintguru]

21 minutes ago, Candybee said:

I didn't realize it was not legal. So that would definitely be a no. I really don't want to raise my prices. Will have to think on this some more. Still wondering if others have made any adjustments to their prices to recoup fees so if you have I'd like to know what and how customers responded. Thanks.

 

Well either way you're raising prices, either on those that pay via CC or on everyone.  Inflation is a real thing...customers shouldn't expect your prices to never change.  When was the last time you raised your prices?  I get it if you just raised them last year, but if they've stayed the same for 3+ years, a little bump shouldn't scare away THAT many customers.  

[bfroberts]

2 hours ago, Candybee said:

Yes my prices are built around my COG and they are working great for me. But CC sales fees have gone up on Square so that is what is making me reconsider and rethink my pricing.

 

RE minimum purchase I believe that is against credit card company policies. Last time I read their rules they stated you can't require a minimum for a purchase. However, some don't require a signature for purchases under $10. It could have changed but I have always been careful not to require a minimum purchase amount.

Minimum purchase requirements are allowed for cc purchases, but the min. can't be more than $10.  This was all changed with the new laws too.  This only applies to cc purchases, not debit.  May vary according to state law. IDK.

[kandlekrazy]

I would do both, raise your prices .25-.50 per item and also set a min of $10 for credit card use.  I guess if you use Square you'll need to say debit or credit.  We take credit only $10 or more but any amount on debit because our fee is so low on debit.  Credit card fees go up every year and between that and shipping fees it''s affecting even the bigger stores not just us small businesses.

[Shari]

I'm going to adjust my system for the upcoming year.  I'm going to have a 10.00 minimum credit card charge policy.  This year I got a lot of small charges and it was frustrating.    You can charge a credit card fee.  I just had a service done and they charged 3% which was 3.00 for me.  I've had other vendors at shows charging fees as well.  Not sure I want to do that.  I do need to raise my price on a couple items for sure though.

[TallTayl]

One strategy that worked well for me was to raise prices only on single item purchases.
 

For instance:

 a lip balm would normally be $3 or so. I raised the price of a single to $4, and added a multiple item purchase of 3 for $10.

Melt clams $5 for one, 3 for $12

Soap was $6 for one, 4 for $20.

a candle tin was $11,  3 for $30

you get the idea.  Everything had a “deal” for multiples that equaled the target price per item. 

result: no hard feelings or awkwardness. The small charges were covered with room to spare. Most people took the “deal” to save money.  most transactions got to my target min of $20.  that overall pricing strategy increased my year over year totals by quite a noticeable %. 

[Jcandleattic]

 

22 hours ago, Candybee said:

But CC sales fees have gone up on Square so that is what is making me reconsider and rethink my pricing.

After all the math and figuring everything out after my last show with cc sales, and the increase in cc fees charged by Square, my out of pocket increase was less than $5 total, and I sold more this year than I have in past years, so to me, that <$5 is not worth even worrying about. 

If it was in the high $$ amount, then I would just up my prices overall to cover it. However, I just raised my prices 2 years ago, so another increase so soon seems too much. 

Last I checked, it is still illegal here to charge cc fees to the consumer, but that was quite a while ago, so I guess I should check again. It could have changed... 

[Candybee]

9 hours ago, Jcandleattic said:

 

After all the math and figuring everything out after my last show with cc sales, and the increase in cc fees charged by Square, my out of pocket increase was less than $5 total, and I sold more this year than I have in past years, so to me, that <$5 is not worth even worrying about. 

If it was in the high $$ amount, then I would just up my prices overall to cover it. However, I just raised my prices 2 years ago, so another increase so soon seems too much. 

Last I checked, it is still illegal here to charge cc fees to the consumer, but that was quite a while ago, so I guess I should check again. It could have changed... 

 

I'm torn because at first the fee structure changes didn't seem to make a whole lot of difference until the next week or so when I got an increase in my CC sales. What I mean is the $ .10 per trans fee is what is making a more noticeable difference. On big sales days I can have lots of CC sales and those $.10 per trans started to really add up and I haven't done my last 3 big Christmas shows yet where I do a larger volume of CC sales.

 

Although I must admit it is not yet a large enough difference for me to have to make an immediate price increase/change. Perhaps I need to go through my Christmas sales and see if my overall sales for the season have been affected.

 

[Candybee]

11 hours ago, TallTayl said:

One strategy that worked well for me was to raise prices only on single item purchases.
 

For instance:

 a lip balm would normally be $3 or so. I raised the price of a single to $4, and added a multiple item purchase of 3 for $10.

Melt clams $5 for one, 3 for $12

Soap was $6 for one, 4 for $20.

a candle tin was $11,  3 for $30

you get the idea.  Everything had a “deal” for multiples that equaled the target price per item. 

result: no hard feelings or awkwardness. The small charges were covered with room to spare. Most people took the “deal” to save money.  most transactions got to my target min of $20.  that overall pricing strategy increased my year over year totals by quite a noticeable %. 

 

I do something very similar. I have 2 for and 3 for and 5 for special sales that are aimed at giving customers a nice discount for buying in volume. It simply costs more to purchase 1 item so my customers tend to buy the special volume sales to take advantage of the discount. I read about this in a marketing article years ago and was glad to adopt the strategy that led to a powerful increase in sales. 

[Shari]

I too already do the discount for multiples.  It's worked well.  I may just increase single purchase price.  Great idea.  Thank you!

[Candybee]

1 hour ago, Shari said:

I too already do the discount for multiples.  It's worked well.  I may just increase single purchase price.  Great idea.  Thank you!

 

I believe this is key and am glad both you and TT reminded me of this. I will take a look at my spreadsheets and see about possibly raising my single purchase prices.

[StanfordP]

On 11/19/2019 at 9:49 AM, TallTayl said:

One strategy that worked well for me was to raise prices only on single item purchases

I used this strategy to great success this year. 

 

as for credit card fees, state laws aside, most credit card processors prohibit charging extra to cover the fees. Like someone else said, it’s the cost of doing business. I find that overall, if you raise your prices a bit, the cost of processing is balanced out by those paying cash.

 

another thing I’ve seen which is definitely prohibited, is charging more tax to cover the cc fees. If you’re audited by the dept of revenue in your state and have remitted 2% less sales tax (for example) because you were trying to save on fees, they’re gonna make you pay the difference.

[Jcandleattic]

I just got an email: Starting I think it said Feb. 1st, on top of the updated cc fees in general, they are now going to charge 1.5% of the total amount deposited for each deposit. I will have to evaluate at this point if I even want to continue with Square or taking cc's in general. I might go back to being just a cash based business - just like the marijuana industry. LOL  

[TallTayl]

They want us to use their credit card versus sending to the bank

[Jcandleattic]

51 minutes ago, TallTayl said:

They want us to use their credit card versus sending to the bank

I guess. But I just went and re-read. They are already taking 1% so it really is only going up .5%, and starts Feb 7th. But still, everything just keeps going up and up and up. 

 

This last season it really didn't hurt my bottom line, however, I only do 4 shows a year. I mean, I make good money in those 4 shows, but when I eventually quit my job and expand into doing solely my candle/soap business, I'm not sure I want to deal with all the fees, that will be at that point probably double what they are now...