Anyone using ATX merchant services?

[David]

Does anyone who is using ATX merchant services have any feedback? I might consider purchasing it if it is worthwhile.

Thanks.

[Terry D EA]

Not using ATX Merchant Services. When I inquired about the services, I was directed to the website for information which is what I called sales for. Crappy attitude from sales = lost customer. If you are a NATP member, you can sign-up for thier merchant services through CoCard. It cost me 5.00 per month plus 1.99% + .25 authorization fee. Yes, there are liittle hooks it does cost more if you key in transactions and I think it would be a little cheaper for debit cards with a pin pad. If you don't want to pay for a terminal and pin pad, then they do have a PC based program that cost about the same as ATX. However, I think the support with CoCard would definitely be better. Hope this helps

Terry D.

[joelgilb]

Using Quickbooks Merchant Services and their Billing Solutions. The combination allows my clients to pay me by credit card directly on the web and automatically sends payment reminders with no effort on my part. Also puts the payment directly into my books and I don't have to take the extra step to record it.

Discount fees are competitve and helps me get paid by those slow or never pays.

Joel

[David]

Thanks, guys for your input.

Joel, do you mind telling me what your fees are for QB merchant services?

Thanks,

David

Using Quickbooks Merchant Services and their Billing Solutions. The combination allows my clients to pay me by credit card directly on the web and automatically sends payment reminders with no effort on my part. Also puts the payment directly into my books and I don't have to take the extra step to record it.

Discount fees are competitve and helps me get paid by those slow or never pays.

Joel

[joelgilb]

Thanks, guys for your input.

Joel, do you mind telling me what your fees are for QB merchant services?

Thanks,

David

First I must state the caveat. I HATE INTUIT!!!! That being said, I do like there Merchant Services and Billing Solutions.

Been taking credit cards for years and only signed up with QB about 2 years ago.

Monthly fee for the Merchant Account fee is $9.95 (special for accountants - everyone else I believe pays $19.95) and I think you may be able to get a better rate if you become a Quickbooks Advisor. Discount rate varies depending on how you get the credit card. If scanned it is cheaper at 2.44% and if keyed in or online it is 3.27%. TO scan you need to purchase a card reader. Although there are cheaper ones I purchased the one QB sells because I felt I would have fewer problems setting it up, but I forget the price ($80 to $100 I think).

As for the Billing Solutions, this is a separate service, that I think is worth its weight in gold. At $19.95 per month, it lets me create PDF's of my bills and load them online, through the QuickBooks software. Once online, the bill is emailed (they see my email addy) to my clients, allowing me to keep and get paid by my clients when they move out of State and when I relocate in the near future. It also lets me limit appointments and be more electronic, something my clients seem to like. Once uploaded, the online system automatically sends billing reminders without my input. I have it set to remind every 2 weeks.

My collections have improved with each service and an admin burden has been lightened.

Couple of concerns:

1. QB has an email / PDF bug in the QB software and a lot of people are having trouble creating the PDFs.. I resolved a problem I had, through no help from Support. In my case there was a conflict with their PDF software and a Fax software on my PC called Faxtalk.

2. QB tech support sucks as it all untrained support in India and QB here does not always alert them to known issues. On the other hand Merchant Services and Billing Solutions support is good

3. Control of the online account is limited, and you can not see what your clients see online. Nor can you correct online errors.

4. You can set the online to be manual, but it works best when you set reminders automatically. That said, this could cause clients to get reminders you don't want them to and I have had to explain that I don't have much control. A minor inconvenience considering they pay quicker.

Still all things considered and having used 4 or 5 different Merchant Services in the past, I think I made the right decision.

Hope this helps.

Joel