Credit Card charges

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Hi Michelle,

You mentioned that we are billed at the end of the month for the credit card charges, if we use your credit card service. Presently, I have a LOG with everything on it, giving me a GLANCE of everything I need to know about the renter and payments, amounts due, etc. It is my BIBLE, basically. In this log, I have the credit card fee for that rental, which affects the price received and base price. I use this for my monthly filings of State taxes.

My question is, can I see the actual charges accrued, throughout the month, for each transaction, so that I could plug those amounts into my LOG and get the real tally? Or would I have to wait for the month to end to get these charge amounts?

For example, with Paypal, it is instanly on the website. I just plug it in, once they pay.

Also, if someone pays August 1st, when would I get this charge on my account? August 31? September 1? Is there a report that is generated and sent to my email with all the details? Can I go online and look at the charges?

Thanks,
Claudia

Great question. The credit card fees are not charged by us. They're charged by the merchant account provider. If you use the merchant account provider that we are partnered with (Cornerstone on the Sage Payments gateway) you will be charged by Sage at the end of the month. There is a separate virtual terminal and reporting website, that Sage provides for you, that shows you payment reports for all your credit card transactions (including holds, captures and voids for security deposits). I do not know if there is a report in that site that shows the fees; I'd have to ask our merchant services people about that and get back to you. But there is definitely a lot of transactional information there that is available in real time.

You might have answered this in a previous letter, but does the money go into your account? I think you mentioned that it would take 2-3 business days. However, the money goes into your account and then at the end of the month the charges are deducted?

Claudia

Hi Claudia,

When a guest pays you by credit card, the payment goes directly from their bank to yours, via your merchant account. That's what a merchant account is - a virtual account that links interchange (Visa/MC/Discover) with your checking account.

We (OwnerRez) do not touch, hold or handle your money in any way. Interchange takes about 2 business days for Visa, MC and Discover payments to settle. Amex takes 3-5 business days.

-Michelle

Thanks. That is what I thought, I just wanted to confirm. I think some places hold it until the end of the month.

Claudia

Other vendors hold the payments because you aren't really using your own merchant account. You're using THEIR merchant account and they're assuming the risk on your behalf. We made the conscious decision to NOT go that route and instead require each user to bring their own merchant account or set up one with our bank partner. We want each user to be responsible for their own merchant account and the underwriting associated with it.

-Michelle

Hi Michelle,

I am curious about the credit card processing - I used to have a merchant account and I couldn't figure out how much they charged me - well actually I could if I subtracted the amount I charged and the amount they deposited into my account. I have a few questions:

1. If I use your CC processor (Sage) do they deposit the full amount and then at the end of the month take the fee? Or do they take their fee and then make the deposit? Kind of like Paypal does except they don't deposit into your account but their own account which you need to transfer to your account (after they have released their hold on your money).

2. Are the fees the same whether the customer uses a reward card or not (most people now use only reward cards of some sort), what about across credit card companies? I remember MC, VISA charged the same amount (as long as it wasn't a reward card) and Amex was a separate arrangement and fee but processed with that credit card company.

3. I'm sorry if this is on the site already but since we are on the credit card topic, what credit cards does your processor (Sage) support? I imagine Visa, Master Card, ???.

4. Echecks will be a feature that interests me - would a debit card be allowed and how would it be considered - an echeck?

5. We don't need to see the customers credit card info correct? I disliked so much having to take the customers credit card information when I was taking a charge, that is another reason I switched to Paypal - the customer had full control of the information and dealt with Paypal directly. But if we need to charge them using Sage from the security deposit we do have a way to do so without having to see their CC information?

6. What happens if the charges are over the security deposit and the customer as per the rental agreement is responsible for that amount - how do we get payment then? Maybe this belongs in the security deposit topic?

7. How might a wire transfer be dealt with? Not that I have any at the moment, but I do get Europeans every once in a while and (I believe) they tend to deal in wire transfers as a norm.

Sorry for all the questions.
Thanks, Silvia

Michelle,

I look like a piece of cake after the above post. :)

Claudia

Silvia, I'm going to break up each part of that into multiple questions...

The full amount is deposited into your account and the fees come out at the end of the month. In the payment processing industry, this is know as "100% deposit". Back when we were picking a payment vendor to use, we made sure to require this. We don't like when fees are taken out of each deposit because is gets very hard to reconcile your payments with your bank account.

If you use our 2.95% flat rate (with no other fees), then it's the same rate for all MasterCard, Visa and Discover transactions. Doesn't matter what other kind of card they use - business, international, debit, rewards, etc.

We also have a lower 2.25% rate deal but it contains fees for monthly, PCI, per-transaction and all the different card types.

In my opinion, the 2.95% flat rate is the better of the two.

And of course, you are free to go get your own merchant account from any of the many thousands of online resellers that are out there. As long as they are on Authorize.Net or Sage, we can integrate with them.

Yes, Amex does their own fees and statements. When we set up your merchant account - if you choose to go with us - we always turn on a new Amex account for you unless you don't want that. Amex sets their own rates and fees, and we have no control over that. It's usually 3-3.5% and a statement fee of $5-7 per month.

The merchant account we offer, through Sage, includes MasterCard, Visa and Discover. We can turn on Amex for you too but you get a separate statement directly from them.

Technically, our merchant accounts also include JCB and Diner's Club too, I believe, but I'd have to check into that to be sure.

A debit card that has the Visa or MasterCard logo on it would be accepted and work just like any other Visa/MasterCard card. If it isn't backed by Visa or MasterCard, than it wouldn't work.

We currently do not have any eCheck options but that is something we're considering adding in the future.

If added, that would basically be where the guest enters the routing and account number for their checking/savings account, and it would be debited directly. Sort of like how your utility company does with "auto-draft".

No, you do not ever have to see their credit card information unless they are giving it to you over the phone and you are manually entering it into the system.

The vast majority of the time, they will enter their payments directly and the scheduled payments and security deposits will be collected based on that same credit card info.

You could bill them another payment, using the credit card info they submitted previously, but you would of course make sure they understood and agreed to that. You could also contact them to send you month offline.

In the case of a wire transfer, you would take it offline and then record it as a manual payment in the system.

How would you do this, charge them if you damages were over security deposit?

Claudia

Hi Claudia,

You could always adjust the charges (enter a new line item saying "BROKEN WINDOW $300") and then collect a regular credit card payment for it, using the payment area. You can collect as many payments as you like.

Now remember, if you don't have the guest's permission to use their credit card and you begin to process extra payments, they may complain to their bank about you and file for a chargeback.

It's always best to come to an agreement with the guest first on what all they're paying, and then get their confirmation that you'll be using their credit card again.

-Michelle

Sounds good, Michelle.

Thanks,
Claudia

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for all the replies.

How would the booking proceed if the customer insisted on using a different method of payment than you currently support, for example using AMEX card(though you support it, it's an extra charge, etc) or via check or via Paypal or wire transfer? I guess since the booking may have originated in your system or not, how does one go about collecting and recording that in the system, would this be a manual entry? Is there a featuer to bypass the payment request - though I suspect we may not know of the conflict until the customer is ready to pay.

Thanks, Silvia