I’m am new to the business and working with a friend to start the business. Our big “hang-up” is the payment platform. How do you collect payment? We were thinking of using a 3rd party such as square, Paypal, etc. In addition we are planning to accept bank issued money orders as “paper” payments. We do not want to get stuck with bad checks. Any thoughts and advise would be greatly appreciated.
I use check cash, venmo, and zelle. I don’t think that they can beat you with the last 3
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Venmo doesn’t support business transfers when I checked a few months back. Paypal offers a free card reader with a 2.7% fee (lower than square by a little) when the card is present, more than 3% when manually entered. Paypal charges even more for Paypal payments which disturbed me so much that I opted not to use that method. Google Pay is free to businesses. I have no issues with cash or check but find that most people opt to pay with credit card so plan accordingly when determining your fees.
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I accept Square, check, cash and CC. Havent had a problem in over 5 years.
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Nobody is going to want to pay you with a money order. You will lose clients if you don’t accept personal checks as payment. I got one fraudulent check in 4,000+ inspections. That’s less than 0.025%. That’s <25 cents out of $1,000.
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Hi Joshua. If you are going to be accepting credit cards, I’d suggest Guardian Financial. They serve only home inspection companies and have very good rates. Call Aaron there at 800-608-7363. https://www.smallbizguardian.com/
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If you are using an inspection software that has integrated payments you are going to want to find out what processor they recommend. Having payment links in your booking email as well as with an inspection report (that is locked unless they click on the link and pay) saves you a lot of time, money and hassle. If you want any help please feel free to call me as well. I’m the founder of Guardian Financial and for over a decade, 100% of our business has been with home inspectors. Even if you don’t end up using us, I’d be happy to help with any advice . Aaron 1-800-608-7363 ext 605
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Thank you all for the feedback!
When I started 15 years ago all I took was cash and checks. Now, I would estimate half my customers pay with credit card prior to the inspection. I have had a total of 2 bad checks in 15 years. Both instances the customer admitted their mistake and issued me a new check, covering any and all bank fees. I also put a penalty clause in my contract for checks that don’t clear / insufficient funds, etc.
I have about the exact same percentage as Chuck. If they want to pay via credit card I email them a PayPal invoice and add 3% credit card fee. I am not like the retail world that already has their prices inflated to cover credit card fees, handling charges and loss due to theft and spoilage.
I use Wave software. It is free and very user friendly. Most of my customers pay as soon as i email them an invoice. They take 3% but it also breaks it down in the software. So a 300 dollar payment shows up as 291 proffit and 9 bucks in the red
The first thing I will tell you is that when I first started, I decided not to take checks. Next thing I know, is that I’m taking checks. I think it’s a mistake not to accept them. I haven had one bounce yet, thank god. But that’s a business decision you will have to make. I think that if you decided to not take checks, than eventually there will be reasons to keep throwing your own policy out the window like I have.
I have been using Authorize.net and have been very happy with them with zero issues.