As a retailer or business owner, you have probably heard of all the benefits of credit card processing.
Increase in sales, widens consumer market, convenience in payment processing, protection and security - these are only some of the advantages you can expect from the service.
But there are always two sides of a coin, as they say.
So this begs the question: are there possible cons that will offset the pros of credit card processing? The simple answer here, of course, is an affirmative, but these disadvantages are not definite and can be avoided.
These cons will only happen due to lack of planning on the retailer's part.
One of the said disadvantages to credit card processing is the additional cost.
The service does entail some cost, but the idea here is that the benefits would offset the cost.
What you should do is make sure your establishment is ripe for the card processing.
For instance, if the goods you sell are within a price range that would make sense for the service, card processing can be advantageous to your business.
Take note that apart from the discount rate, you also need to pay a transaction fee.
The discount rate depends on the price of your goods, while the transaction fee is fixed.
So you should ask yourself: with the items you sell, is the transaction fee of the credit card processing service practical? Another possible disadvantage is fraud.
When you only allow cash purchases, the only fraud you have to deal with is counterfeit money-and this could be detected using the proper tools.
Credit card fraud, on the other hand, is another story.
Still, the possibility of credit card fraud can be derailed using the proper tools and techniques.
There are various services that can help you verify transactions, in addition to the various fraud red flags that can help you detect fraudulent transactions.
Like most things, processing of this type of card is not a perfect service.
It has a few flaws (such as the inability to immediately detect and block credit card fraud), but the benefits, when used properly, can surely make up for the cons of the service.