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Original poster

A client wants to pay me by credit card - how can I do this?

17 replies

Legacy · 12/12/2006 22:15

I'm a consultant and normally get paid by cheque or BACS. Now someone wants to pay me on a company AMEX for a small one-off piece of work.

But I'm not a retailer, so I don't have a 'swipe' system.

I thought I might be able to use my (personal) paypal account, but basically I think I will have to upgrade it to receive credit card payments, and I've read that this is a bad idea, as you then incur charges on all Paypal transactions.

Have just invetsigated Nochex, but the limit for the Seller and Personal accounts is too low (I will be paid about ?1300) and it's ?50 to set up a 'Merchant' account.

Any bright ideas? Experiences? I've been told that if they have to put me on their financial accounting system it will take about 3 months

OP posts:

TheBlonde · 12/12/2006 22:18

If it's small then they can pay you cash
or take out cash on their Amex and pay you that way

Original poster

Legacy · 12/12/2006 22:21

Cash would be a bit difficult. They are based in Europe - me in the UK. It's a company AMEX and I don't think they can make cash withdrawals.

Am a bit pissed off as I have done the work, and now they are faffing around about how they pay me...

OP posts:

TheBlonde · 12/12/2006 22:23

Believe me if they need to pay you asap they will manage it - complain and hassle them

MerrilyTooBuzzi · 12/12/2006 22:40

I would suggest they pay into your account. Or set up a business account ASAP. Email the details and ask the back how long it takes for cleared funds if you are worried about handing work over before you get the money.

AMEX charge far more than other credit cards. On our merchant account we don't accept AMEX because the charges are so high.

You need to add the charge card amount to the bill. We generally split it approx 1.5 per cent.

AMEX charges are high - for instance if you were to accept an AMEX payment on 1300 sterling you need to add approx 4 per cent ie total 1352 pounds.

There are a milllion ways to pay. They are not being very helpfull.

julienetmum · 13/12/2006 16:24

Rubbish. it is quite expensive to accept credit card payments and can take a little while to set up. Hire of the machine etc.

They can quite easily pay you by cheque or BACS on a pro-forma.

gigglinggoblin · 13/12/2006 16:26

set up a new paypal account with different email address?

Chandra · 13/12/2006 16:30

I don't think it's worth the hassle for a single transaction, I supose that you can give them the options you normally offer and allow them to find the way to pay you that way.

ParanoidSurreyHousewife · 13/12/2006 16:54

One option is to set up a one-off Paypal account - yes you have to upgrade, and you'll be charged for the transaction and subsequent withdrawal, but it wouldn't affect all other trnasactions .

Alternatively try talking to your bank to see what is on offer?

I work for a large multinational and from the other side of the table it is so much easier to pay by AMEX it is untrue. I have a £10k limit per transaction and I basically just pay and code it up electronically later. If I end up having to pay by cheque then I need to get a purchase account set up, banking to approve a new account destination for payments and the invoice approval system is fairly tortuous with invoices being processed in Poland...

If I ever have the choice between paying by card or on an invoice then it is by card every time.

fairyjay · 13/12/2006 17:02

But if you were offering a supplier an unusual method of payment, you would always check it out before the work was done.

Very very few of our suppliers offer a credit card facility.

I would be very firm on wanting payment in accordance with your terms, in a manner acceptable to you.

ParanoidSurreyHousewife · 13/12/2006 17:47

Oh yes, but similarly I wouldn't be able to change the fact that to pay an invoice by cheque could take 3-6 months...

MerrilyTooBuzzi · 13/12/2006 18:07

When I was a self employed designer i would invoice clients and my terms were that payment was due by 28 days. Full payment - by cheque made out to me. My payments terms were on each invoice. Big letters.

I had a good working relationship with about 12 or so clients each month and most single invlices were for less than Legacy's amount. But I never had a problem.

I had to pay my suppliers so when you first start up you can be in debt for about the first 3 months!

Best advice for next time is to get the T&C sorted out before you do the work. Leg what is it that you are charging for?

DoesntChristmasDragOn · 13/12/2006 18:13

Have a look at PayPal carefully - I think you used to be able to upgrade your account to accept CC transactions and then downgrade it - you could only do the downgrade once though.

Or set up a "business" PayPal account like gigglinggoblin said

ParanoidSurreyHousewife · 13/12/2006 18:17

But in practice you can't just dictate T&C if you want more work from them. Yes, legally of course you could go to court to try and get compensation for late payment, but practically it will cost you mor than you get to do this and you won't get any more work. I'm certainly not suggesting that this is "fair", but any negotiation on rates and T&Cs have to reflect both party's bargaining position.

Agree that it is a pain though. I would probably try and work out a solution this time but also get myslef set up as one of their suppliers to make it easier for future work (they may feel shamed into this by the hassle beign caused!)

MerrilyTooBuzzi · 13/12/2006 18:22

It did reflect both paties and it worked for all concerned. Never had a non-payer or late payer and customers still came back.
Paypal wasn't an option back then. So give it a try.

ParanoidSurreyHousewife · 13/12/2006 19:23

Yeah, but if you're a self-employed consultant and your client is BP or Vodaphone, then it tends to be their T&Cs that lead the way - at least if you want to do business with them! In fact most companies who run SAP are a mare to get set up with, so I suspect that your clients aren't those sort of companies? Of course you can get smaller companies to pay by cheque, but cheques are becoming a far less common way of doing business. Anyway way OT now, though perhaps there is a separate discussion on whether all big businesses are trying to push the small people out.

fairyjay · 14/12/2006 14:27

Our clients are some of the larger multi-nationals. Our quotes normally incorporate a significant discount (as is normal in our market), but only on condition that invoices are paid against our specific terms.

It's amazing how discounts can focus the minds - even of larger multi-nationals!

Original poster

Legacy · 14/12/2006 14:38

Thanks for all the answers!

It's a big multi-national company. I'm not yet a 'registered supplier' on their database and it will take about 3 months for this to be done - as SurreyHousewife says- baking refs, credit cheques etc. The client is moving jobs soon and I think he wants to make sure that this particular piece of work is sorted out and paid for before he goes, so it's actually partly in my interest. If I wait to be added to their system I won't be paid until about March!
Until recently I worked as an employee for this sort of company, so I know the score - as someone said, it's not as simple as "here's my T&Cs" if you want to keep working with them.

Re the AMEX charges - does anyone know if I will have to pay these if the client pays into a Paypal account? I had assumed that the 3.4% PayPal charge would be the only one?

OP posts:

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