Customer Finance

[Jeff]

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[mspecperformance]

There are a few industry CC's you can hook up with. I believe Napa Car Care has a program that allows you to offer CC's to customers. Bosch does as well.

[Big_K]

Maybe it's the virtue of the fact that the people that needed it, didn't qualify. I had GE Capital, and had about 15 declines, and then stopped bothering... had the program for 6 months too, and kept paying the monthly fee.

 

 

I was considering the check guarantee program, although the rates were a little bit high, and most also wanted to become the credit card processor, on top of leasing their $1500-$3000 check machine.

 

So it didn't happen, although I even have good customers asking if we finance so they can just do all the work right now, so I am still on the lookout for good solutions.

[mmotley]

There was a good article about this in R&W a while back. I can search it up for you if you would like

[Jeff]

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[mmotley]

The article also covered a woman I think who was using some form of credit card from a 3rd party (I'm assuming that's what you were referring to in your original post). I did like the fact that the cards allowed you to put your business logo on them!

 

Yes, the guy doing it in house is probably making a good bit of extra money charging 10%. Remember, I think he had them pay half up front, then financed the remainder... That should be covering your parts I would think, so essentially you're not taking money our of your own pocket (just labor at that point, which is free if you're the one doing the work). I don't recall that article mentioning what company he used to see if the person had ever written bad checks before though.

 

A strict diet of hot pockets, hungry man tv dinners, and no sodas will help line those pockets with some extra money... Only speaking from experience

[ATLAuto]

  On 1/30/2014 at 3:25 AM, mmotley said:

Yes, the guy doing it in house is probably making a good bit of extra money charging 10%. Remember, I think he had them pay half up front, then financed the remainder...

 

Good gracious ... I cannot imagine running an in-house credit card. Tracking down the no-payers has A&E reality show written all over it.

[mmotley]

Wes, in short, the guy would present a customer with a $1000 estimate. To qualify for his credit program, he would require half down ($500), then take 3 checks from the person that day. All the checks would be dated 1 month apart, all amounts being 1/3 of the remaining balance = $200 each. Thus the $500 down + $600 in checks = $1100. Before he would take the checks, he would simply need the customers full name, a pay stub, and one other piece of information (I can't recall), and he was able to see if they had ever written any bad checks in the past or had overdrawn bank accounts. Once he had a current pay stub and saw that they had never written a bad check, he would take the 50% down and 3 checks and perform the repair... Key word here is 'HE'. It's all up to him! If he didn't feel like he was going to get his money, he doesn't have to bother.

[Jeff]

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[b1qwkbird]

I use a company called EPS90 that basically does the same as the in-house financing that mmotley is describing but I get paid whether the checks bounce or not.(In theory) Of course I have yet to find anyone that wants to pay 10% more than their repair to finance for 90 days so I haven't personally seen it work but the concept and presentation was promising. Luckily I have found that most of my customers either want to pay cash or with their own cards and I have a great processing company that leaves my legs attached and only takes my right arm for a fee. I can put you in touch with the company if you are interested. They were based in Colorado if I remember correctly.

[weighit]

I used to be on the Board of directors of a small credit union while I owned a shop. The credit union had too much money and needed a way to find new borrowing customers. We ended up doing exactly what is being discussed here, we approached small business that could use our services, loans. The shop customer in need of money to fix a big repair in that shop could contact us and come in for a loan. We had staff that could evaluate the persons credit history and within 1 hour approve or deny the loan. It helped the credit union gain customers and helped the shops we had signed up as approved shops. Over the years we did this, I suspect we loaned many thousands of dollars and also gain many new customers we never would have got. That credit union was taken over by a big credit union and I lost my seat on the board, so have no idea if it is still doing anything like that or not. It would cost zero to the shop to have this system in place with a local close by credit union. Might be worth a try.