Get paid with credit cards?

It's still just a percentage. Do you really do business with single-digit returns? I'd get a day job, in that case. Let's assume the OP will be doing "production" detailing, and charging $100 per car. How much of that is product, and how much is labor? If he/she can justify doing a four hour job for $100 and be reasonably happy with the net revenue after job costs (product, supplies, and possibly gas for mobile operations), an added cost of $2.70 or $3 shouldn't wipe out his profit. Or he/she can just charge $105 and offer a "cash discount price" of $100.

OTOH, if the OP will be doing full detailing for a single well-heeled client on a regular basis, he/she should have no trouble building that 3% into the cost of doing business. I suspect this is what the OP will be doing.

And that is a very fair point. The key is to "know what you will be doing" and the cost of doing business. I am not against accepting credit cards. I do so on my side business as well; which is not detailing. It just works and the customers are happy when they have flexibility to choose how they will pay for services.
 
Hey guys!

99.9% of my clients pay me with cash but I was able to get in touch with a COO of a big company that wants me to start detailing his car, problem is his secretary just sent me an email inquiring for "what credit cads do you accept?" and i don't know what to do!

I'm supposed to pick up the car Friday morning. I thought about paypal but does the other person need an account? I'm assuming he will use the company's credit car

Thanks!

Tell them to set up their Paypal account - it's easy, and worth it! I can take credit cards through my Paypal account, and the cash is deposited directly into my checking account.
There are fees for purchases, but you can choose who pays the fees; and I think there is still the option of selecting something like "send money", which does not have any fees.
 
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You probably could try Paypal Or one of those one dollar accounts but that would be for online transactions. But I guess you could have to make do with that if you can't get hold on one of those devices to swipe them with.

Or if you have a smartphone, you can get a device by which you are going to attach on your phone and swipe the card with.
 
paypal will do the trick in this particular detail but if i have to detail a car for a "random" I dont think i feel comfortable waiting 3-5 days for the payment.
 
The payment is there in your Square account. It just takes a couple days to transfer it to your bank. Just like transferring money from paypal to your bank. You aren't risking not getting the money. If the funds aren't there then the charge won't clear.

Personally I like Paypal better myself. I have the debit card tied to the account so I have immediate access to the funds. I rarely have to transfer anything to or from my bank account, so it works fine. However, I have done a couple where it was a family member of a customer and they just left their card with someone else who brought the car to me and I just charge them when I'm done so they don't have to leave a blank check. I only run maybe two or three transactions through Paypal or Square per year out of the 40 or 50 details that I do, so it is just a matter of convenience.
 
Hey guys!

99.9% of my clients pay me with cash but I was able to get in touch with a COO of a big company that wants me to start detailing his car, problem is his secretary just sent me an email inquiring for "what credit cads do you accept?" and i don't know what to do!

I'm supposed to pick up the car Friday morning. I thought about paypal but does the other person need an account? I'm assuming he will use the company's credit car

Thanks!

Just tell her to mail you a check after the services have been rendered ;)
 
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