Most UK residents carry at least one plastic credit card or debit card.
If you're a business owner in the British Isles and you don't presently accept plastic credit cards or debit cards, read on to find out more about the pros and cons of doing so.
From the customers' point of view, having something like a plastic Visa card in their wallets is often considered a kind of "badge of honor.
" Customers who are successfully using a plastic card have many positive attributes.
For example, this type of customer tends to stick to a budget and probably prefers to use a plastic debit or credit card rather than a traditional credit card.
Benefits of a MasterCard debit card or a Visa debit card include the fact that the detailed statement customers receive helps them see where and how their money is spent.
Also, customers can set up recurring payments on a schedule that will deduct these payments automatically from the their accounts.
Wouldn't it be great if one of these recurring payments came to your business? With plastic cards, it's possible.
On the downside, debit cards don't offer any protection if they're lost or stolen.
Credit cards do.
And if you want to truly track your spending using a debit card, you'll have to avoid using cash for even the smallest purchase.
As one Internet article comments, "you may feel foolish charging $2.
65 for toilet paper from Target" [a US discount store chain], The article also points out that some places don't accept credit or debit cards, so customers may have to carry cash anyway.
Since most customers own some form of plastic credit card or debit card, doesn't it make sense for UK business owners to accept them in the spirit of providing superior customer service?