The United States economy depends on people spending money. These days, the economy needs all the help it can get. With a local economy, extra benefits are obtained when shoppers buy goods and services in retail stores, rather than online. Better still, patronizing locally owned shops, rather than a national chain store or restaurant, will keep even more money flowing in the local area economy.
We have all heard that you should help your local area by shopping in locally owned stores. This is true. Many cities have even setup websites to list and promote locally owned businesses. A chain store certainly provides jobs and pays taxes. But when you purchase goods at a chain store, much of that money is sent to its corporate headquarters, which is probably not in some far away city.
To maximize the positive effect that your purchase will have on the economy, those purchases should be paid for with cash, checks, or even debt cards. Not a credit card.
To put it simply, the use of a credit card strips money out of the pocket of the retailer or service provider. Somewhere between 2% to 6% of your credit card purchase is kept by the banks and the credit card companies. That’s money taken out of circulation (i.e. the economy) and stuffed into the pockets of the bank.
For example, suppose there is a local store or restaurant that does $1 million in annual sales. Not $1M in profit, but $1M in annual sales. That’s an average of about $2800 of sales per day, which is easily obtainable by many successful businesses. After subtracting normal business expenses (employee salaries, taxes, insurance, utilities, rent, advertising, inventory, etc) the final profit may be $100,000. Pretty good profit actually.
Now if the sales of that store were made using credit cards, then about 3% of those sales are taken away and sent to the bank. Remember, its 3% of the sales, not 3% of the final profit. In our example, that’s $30,000 removed from the pocket of the retailer, and out of the local economy. Looking at it this way, the business’ profits are now reduced by 30%.
What’s an extra $30,000? It’s the ability to hire another employee. Or two part-time employees. This is not from extra sales, just the same sales paid by cash. This example is just one store. Multiply this scenario in all the stores in your area, and the numbers are staggering.
Also, your personal economy is enhanced by keeping your credit cards unused. Without using credit cards, you will not be paying extra interest or other fees. Interest paid is just more money out of your pocket, sent to the bank. For nothing! Just wasted money.
Think about this the next time you pull out your credit card. Help your local retailer and economy by putting that credit card back. Pay with cash or check. If you like the convenience of a credit card, consider using a debt/check card. Be sure the clerk processes the transaction as a debit card. Processing the debit card as credit will cost the retailer their 2 – 6 %. If the retailer cannot process your transaction as a debit card, then return to the old standby. Pay with cash.
The retailer pays a small transaction fee when accepting payment via a debit card. It’s a flat fee, and usually very minimal. Nowhere near 2% – 6% of your purchase. This is why some stores will offer cash back when using a debit card. It does not cost the store any extra money, and it may save you a trip to the ATM, and perhaps an extra ATM fee. Which is more money sucked out of your wallet. Wasted.
Watch the video related to credit card services
American Express Up More Than 70% This Year; Analysis and Discussion with Robert Napoli of Piper Jaffray (Bloomberg News)
Help answer the question about credit card services
looking for military star credit card services?it is a credit card used at military exchange stores
I would rather write a check. This way, I will have a good prove backed by the bank that I did make a payment for the services.
I would find it highly suspicious if a payment needs to be made in cash. Usually, contractors who cheat on the income taxes do that. I would rather not give my credit card number. The reason for that, I am not sure at all how privately the contractor will store this information, and if it will be easily accessible by others.
Personal check would be the best way for me to pay.
I worked there for about 3 months in 1999. Like the other person said the pay is decent, but I left because I wanted better hours and not have to work every other weekend. If you don't mind people calling to yell and cuss you out about their bill statement, then you will do just fine!
just use it say once a month n pay off in full each month, it will look good on ur credit file
It depends whether your bank has closed shop completely, or they closed shop and sold your account to another bank.
If they closed shop, then they might be declaring bankruptcy. I don't think you'd be impacted.
If they sold your account, then the other bank has the right to collect on the money that you owe.
Either way, it's simply like this: as long as you have a balance on your [credit card] account, you WILL be charged interest.
Yes, anywhere Visa is accepted.
find and contact a korean business group and ask them
Hi. I had the same decision to make when I was starting my online business so I know what problems you are facing.
At first I used paypal, but then my sales were increasing very quickly and I knew I needed to switch to a merchant account/payment gateway setup to handle the larger volume.
I came across this website, http://www.electronictransferservice.com and they really helped me learn a lot. There's plenty of information on their pages and I discovered so much about how all this works with processing credit cards. Their FAQ section is definitely worth a look.
I'm not recommending you sign up with them in anyway, but I did contact them and was able to get all my questions about merchant credit card processing answered from a real live person. That was pretty cool.
I eventually went with a different company, but at least I was armed with much more knowledge than when I first started.
I'm thankful to say that my business and sales have been doing well and making the switch was, to me, a good choice. You'll have to determine for yourself if and when you will make the switch.
One thing though, if your volume of sales is not enough to cover the costs of processing fees, then I would go with paypal and just wait till it does.
Hope that helps and good luck!
No.
check out propay.com I use them faithfully and have never had a problem with there service or the fees. The annual membership amount depends upon the amount of processing you think you are going to do. You also have the choice of transferring your money to your checking account or a debit card.