Okay, this has been a strange week and it's not over.
My Tuesday was goofy.
I was to have my last IV. They called and I had to move my appointment to Thursday at lunchtime. They ran out of glutathione. How does a doctor's office do that? No inventory?
Wednesday was so miserably hot here ...again. Dang.
95 degrees and humid. I am not ready for fall but I am ready for a bit cooler. Not cold, just 70's, please.
Then our merchant card services sent us something that made me crazy.
They are raising our rates.
So each time a credit card is taken more money goes to them.
That made us do some work on Thursday night.
I so love working after the office is closed.
We will have to raise our rates for the first time but it has to be done.
Everyone is taking more and more from us and we can't eat if this goes on without raising our prices. Peg and Rick like to eat.
I know it's the cost of doing business but it sucks.
Our new rates are 2.6%+10cent per transaction if the card is handed to us at the job site.
80% of the time I get the card over the phone because the homeowner isn't home or it's a contractor or it's a God forbid realtor.
So I have their card number and I run it when the job has been completed.
That transaction will now cost me 3.5%+ .15cents per transaction.
Now that might not seem like a lot to you but it adds up big time.
You build your prices on the cost to do the job with supplies, labor, gas, tolls etc.
But now that tolls have tripled, credit card rates have risen and our suppliers have increased their prices and recent notices of others charging more in November has made us have to go over all our costs with a fine-tooth comb. Last night we decided what our new prices would be to offset this all. Basically the same profit, not more, just raised our prices to offset all the increases of doing business. So it's not like raising them will get me richer faster. Trust me we thought about that but we have to remain competitive as well.
This all begins on November 1st so the prices will reflect that come November 1st. Banks are far higher and they won't allow American Express or if they do they charge double. Because most of our contractors use Amex I need to be able to take that card without even more penalties like the banks like to give us. Thankfully other business people understand all this but residential customers do not get it. They don't even seem to know that when you use your card at the store, with a contractor, hairdresser, whoever is not getting the full amount.
Just like they think clicking something on google is free. Free to them not free to who you just clicked on. That is a cost each and every time you click on our name.
I equate google clicks or bing clicks to the yellow pages back in the day.
Those ads no matter how big or small cost something to the business. Most paid monthly (I worked at Yellowpages once when I was downsized) So you have monthly fees for the yellow pages or for google today. Same exact thing.
Rick just did a kitchen (cabinets) and while it was a nice chunk of change several hundred dollars went to the merchant card service because of fees. That kills me. It was enough to make a truck payment for Pete's sake.
When people on the phone ask me if we prefer a check or credit card I always said whatever works best for you. From now on I will say a check is preferred but we also take all credit cards. Hopefully, we'll get a check. But honestly who the hell has checks anymore so it will continue to be mainly credit/debit cards.
A couple of weeks ago a man paid Rick $1,990 in cash.
Thankfully it was Rick. We don't usually have employees take cash and have that sitting in the vehicle while they are working. But it was Rick and if he lost it he could fire himself. Who the heck has that kind of cash on them? I guess richer people than me.
Speaking of cash...
Last year at the end of winter our gas fireplace stopped working. Rick did all he knew how to do. A company came out and told us that it would be $1500 to repair. I said I'd wait. We knew if we took out this colonial looking insert and got a new more modern one that fits our taste it would be the same amount so why not just get a new one. We thought we'd wait since winter was over.
Now winter is on its way and I called another company to come out to give me an estimate. He said on the phone it was $200 - $400 to repair. HUH?
I said that is a lot less so I would like you to come to see if that is indeed all it needs. So, on Monday he will be here to see about our fireplace. $200 to $400 is a lot less than $1500. I find it hard to believe it will be less because that is not how my life works but excited to see if he can fix this for that price none the less!
I just hope I don't have to turn on that fireplace anytime soon.
I'd like to wait until January if possible but something tells me we are in a for a hurtin' this winter. You know how Rick predicts winter each year I've known him and he has never been wrong yet. I can't wait to hear his prediction.
The squirrels and acorns tell him all he needs to know.
I think the guy is just squirrely and each year I have laughed at him.
But he is always correct. He has a better record than the farmer's almanac.
Me? I can't predict anything. Except that I hate winter and I will this year too.
How is that for a forecast? I will have to wait for Rick's prediction later this month.
Oh and my prediction you ask? Yankees in 5 this week.
17 comments:
I always use checks or cash to pay for things. I only use a credit card for buying on Amazon. Maybe it's just that we're in a different geographical area but I've never had a service person care that I give them checks. To me, it feels safer than having my credit card number out there floating around to who knows where. The smaller the merchant the easier they are to hack or so I've heard. We are all starting to feel the effects of Trump's tariffs. Vendors like you have no choice but to pass the extra costs on to the consumers.
Since my husband had his own business I was made well aware of the costs of doing business. He would laugh when people assumed everything they took in was profit and especially when people said it must be nice to be able to make your own schedule and take off whenever you want. It was not an amused kind of laugh, more a why is this idiot so clueless kind of laugh.
I forgot to say I was giving serious consideration to firing up the gas fireplace last night, but being somewhat cheap I wrapped up in a blanket instead.
Olga, since being self-employed I don't get a real vacation. If I don't work I don't make money and that isn't good. I still deal with the phones and I still book people or we'd come home to no work and no mortgage being paid. I don't get how people think we work less. The self employed work far more. I'd have gone with the blanket over the fireplace since it's only October. I'm cheap too.
Jean, we would love it if they gave us checks. We'd get the full amount. But it won't happen. As I have said no one I know uses checks except a few bloggers. Everyone uses their debit cards, free for them, and no checks to buy etc. Businesses tend to use more credit cards than residential.
But if you think you are safer because you only go to Amazon that might not be true. They can get hacked. The men don't see a number when their card is swiped. At amazon and other online stores, I have been hacked. My card is on file at amazon and someone used it to buy a lot of stuff that I didn't order. gaming things which we don't take part in. Amazon worked with me on this and I got my money back but I took my card off file.
Jean,on file at amazon due to prime.
I get the credit card fees ~ while I was working for my previous boss, we shopped for different banks to run our credit cards. We always got a lower fee, but your situation might be different. I also informed my current co-workers, that getting all the info on a phone payment makes a difference on the fees we pay (address, card code, etc). They were surprised. Clueless. Raising fees for service is necessary. You can't start losing money.
I have plenty of intuition but it doesn't go so far as to allow me to figure out what the weather is gonna do. But I can predict who's going to pull in front of me with inches to spare, or a patient that will not show up for their appt. :-)
Yvonne, banks are always the most expensive route to go with credit card processing today. We really like square and made the move from a bank to square in 2009. We saved $700 our first month of switching from a bank to Square. I did the shopping around and trying to find who could do what. It's an eye-opener for sure.
Square is by far the one who charges the least and they have great service and other amenities we use. As for predicting no shows - I can do that too. Not a great thing to have but I get a "feeling" I usually can feel when there is going to be an issue with payment too. I wish I got a feeling on the lottery numbers. :-)
I'm sure all companies build credit card fees into their prices. So as a customer I lose money if I don't use my credit card. There is a gas station near my house that knocks off 5 cents a gallon if you pay cash. They've been doing that for a long time.
Mike I am terrible at math but wouldn't that just be about a buck in savings for the consumer if 20 gallons? Not worth having to go get cash for me. But then again, my math is probably 99% not correct too.:-)
I always carry a blank check in my purse. When I ask if they take debit or credit cards and they tell me it will jack the price up, I pull out my trusty check and save a few bucks. DMV and the tax collector are famous for that. Thanks, now I know why.
Hope the fix of your furnace stays reasonable.
Yes, there are costs to doing business and it's a bummer when they go up outside of your control. I hope you get your fireplace repaired at a reasonable cost. See what the squirrels...er... Rick predicts.
Patti, most will never tell you and most should never charge more at time of service. it should just be built into their prices like the dentist, hairdresser, doctors office etc. you are paying it whether they tell you yes or no.
Abby, your state has already gotten snow! it was 95 yesterday,but only 77 so far today so its changing quickly.
I think we like the same weather lol.
Everything is so expensive. Our electric is almost double what it used to be. We need some new windows and now it's almost like a have to so we can actually open them instead of using the air. Before I used to be like eh it's worth it to run the ac but not so much anymore!
I remember when we started taking credit cards at the law firms I worked at. One just upped the fee to cover the charge (although I seem to remember different cards had different %) and another one said the fee is $___ plus __% for the credit card. Sometimes clients were very surprised but there is a cost for using credit that they forget about or assume will be charged to the merchant.
Barbara, yes they are still all over the board depending on the cards if you go through a tradional bank. Some other merchant card service companies as well. But the newer companies are doing a flat rate across the board. We went that route because as I stated, so many contractors use American Express and that one by the banks etc is very very high. But with Square, it's the same as a Visa or Master Card etc. Our bank charged more for AMEX and then a fee if it was a rewards card and got points. It was crazy! And of course, I wouldn't know if it was a rewards card by the number so I never knew what I was being charged until I got the bill. Hated working with the banks. Everything was secretive. They knew but didn't share. I didn't think that was playing fair so we left the banks.
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