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I am looking to start accepting cards to open the opportunity for more business and I know there have been too many bait and switch stories and hidden or rising fees. 

I use Mitchell1 for my shop software and online data and they offer their integrated payment system called XCharge and I spoke to a sales rep over the phone who said there were no monthly fees, 1.6% on credit cards, $0.29 across the board for debit and bla bla. Of course I believe that manual entry was more and also amex/discover I think was more. They also have a program called First Mile but didn't ask about that.

Any thoughts??

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Posted

I’m probably out in left field but I’ve been using Square for 4 plus years and get along great. I know it costs a bit more but it’s so simple. No hidden fees, no contracts and no machine rental. 

Posted
On 2/18/2019 at 7:50 AM, Richard Ehler said:

We are about to change to Protractor which offers x charge and 360 and first mile. Who do I choose? 

I use Protractor and do NOT have integrated CC processing.   As a result, I pay an additional fee of $0 for this level of integration!   You'll likely be better off without bundling as you can pick your CC vendor independent of the software.  In turn, you lose software integration.    If paperless is your goal, integration is better.   When I post an invoice, I must manually enter the amount into the CC machine.    Because they are separate, Protractor cannot store any return data from the machine.     We use a signature capture pad on our computer to capture, in Protractor, signatures on our repair invoices, when required.   It also captures Work Order Authorization signatures when required.   If the CC slip needs to be signed, this is a separate step for the customer.   Debits don't require any signature.    I'm content with this lack of integration.

Personally, I would like to have CC integration, but I value this at $1/month.   Anything more than $15/year and I'm not interested.   We make a very small number of mistakes manually entering the numbers. 

For CC provider costing comparisons, you can use a site such as:  https://www.cardfellow.com/  

If this helps you, for 2018, my transaction breakdown was:  Debit: 40%, CC: 53%, Cash 7% by counts.   By % of sales they were:  Debit: 35%, CC: 59%, Cash: 6%.    Fees for 2018 ended up at 1.7% of combined CC & Debit transactions.    NOTE:  My CC machine prompts for debit pin numbers by default, so it encourages more debit transactions.

One more thing about integration.  If your software is connected to the CC machine, then you will have a bit more difficult set of requirements for PCI Compliance.  I have my CC machine on a VLAN (different IP subnet) all by itself.  So, I do not need to certify my PC's as PCI compliant.    PCI compliance is all about placing blame when something goes wrong.  Lowest guy that's not PCI compliant gets blamed!   Ask them about how the integration impacts your PCI compliance audit.   They might still be able to be on separate networks, but it depends on implementation.

(We're off topic re: Mitchell X-Charge)...   May need to start a new thread to continue.

 

 

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      It always amazes me when I hear about a technician who quits one repair shop to go work at another shop for less money. I know you have heard of this too, and you’ve probably asked yourself, “Can this be true? And Why?” The answer rests within the culture of the company. More specifically, the boss, manager, or a toxic work environment literally pushed the technician out the door.
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