Hi! I called and explained what type of group that we are and what type of fundraising that we do. He said that we fit into the low risk group and that is how we got started under the Free Terminal Program. The rep you spoke to probably doesn't understand how the "auctions" work. What your guests are really doing is buying tickets to put into the auction. I have found that a lot of people don't really understand what a Chinese Auction is. That may have been the situation here. Tell them that all sales are made face to face and that will make a huge difference on your rates. Your classification will change if you accept payments online or over the phone.
Also, we do not have a contract with them. I can cancel the service any time, return my machine and not pay any termination fees. I just reread my forms to make sure of that. That is what attracted me to them to begin with because we were not sure how much extra money could be made with this. I did put my name on this account as the responsible party along with our treasurer. We are going into our second year and can transfer it as positions change. Our PTO has been in existance for 10 years now as a nonprofit and our particular school for almost 80 years. Maybe the difference is that we put our names on it as responsible parties? I don't know how they could differ so. I didn't want to have a contract in case it didn't bring in the revenue that we hoped it would. I like having an easy out. You just have to weigh your pros and cons. Good luck with your decision and your events!
Amy- Here is the responses we got from Merchant Warehouse (and Discover Network)..was there someone specific you work wit? Your deal sounds so much better than what I am getting back from our Treasurer. My email is: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Ok,
I called both of these companies and Merchant Warehouse seems to be the best. Now we have to sign a three year contract because we are a new school (two years old) and I am not willing to hold financial liability for this account nor give my financial information to this lender. So here are the facts and the representative is emailing me this in writing.
Terminal cost(brand new $143. It can get here is 6-8 business days (we need to work fast)
$9.95 a month for statement processing.
Visa/master card processing 1.69% and .25 for each transaction
If we cancell the contract there will be a 295.00 cancellation fee, 2nd year it goes to 195.00.
Thanks for your post and I look forward to hearing back from you. Our Gala is on April 28th and we have been working feverishly to get a credit card machine for the event.
Amy,
That company looked just like what we needed. However, the sales rep guy I just spoke with, heard the word "auction" and said that they don't do "high risk" sales and referred me to a different company (First Data).
What did you tell them to get set up initially?
We've used DiscoverNetwork.com for a year now. Here's the details: The initial set-up fee was $20 which included the imprinter. We also pay $5 per month directly out of our account to Discover Network. We can use this service anytime during the year. I believe the monthly fee stays the same for as long as we stay with them. Yes, there is a transaction fee for each purchase. Ours are 2.00% + .10 for Discover Cards and 2.88% + .40 for Visa/MC. We've been extremely happy with them and highly recommend them to others.
Hope this helps,
Holly This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
I think Costco has a small business CC processing program. We're going to look into it over the summer because we'd like to draw on some of that extra money people spend when they can use credit.
We just started accepting credit cards through a company called Merchant Warehouse. They were recommended to me by my bank JP Morgan Chase.
We used their free terminal program. This program is for low-risk businesses (like us...non-profit). We have a $7.95 statement fee, visa/mc/disc/am ex auth fee of .25 and then a percentage of the transaction visa/mc 1.39%
Am Ex/Disc 1.79%. A low risk company is one that is usually nonprofit and that credit cards are scanned face to face. This helps keep fraud down by not accepting credit cards by phone or online. This is what keeps your rates down. We only used our machine once so far at our Chinese Auction but it brought in an additional $400 in ticket sales. There was no contract and we can suspend the account over the summer so that we don't have to pay the $7.95 statement fee. They have a website that you can check out:
