Credit-card processing vs. ATMs: Who wins?

If you are not accepting plastic in your business yet, you are missing a huge opportunity to increase your revenue.  Many merchants ask us if they should get an ATM machine or just use credit-card processing. Here are the differences so you can decide what would be best for your business.

Credit cards

When accepting credit cards, you have two components: the card reader that you swipe the cards through and the cost of the transaction.  Your upfront cost for the card reader is very low.  But your long-term costs for processing the credit card can be the hidden killer!

If you do any kind of volume on your credit-card machine, you will pay in several ways:

1. A percentage of every dollar that is run through your terminal;
2. A fee per transaction;
3. A monthly statement fee;
4. Often there are other fees and charges as well.

The transaction fee is usually tiny unless you have a very low average ticket (like a package of gum); then it can be quite costly.

Automated teller machines

With ATMs you invest more upfront, but it’s usually much more affordable in the long term.  You make money on every dollar instead of paying a fee on every dollar.

You can increase your revenue in 4 ways:

1. Increased spending and customer traffic
2. Reduced number of bad checks
3. Elimination of credit card fees
4. Surcharge revenue (the fee customers pay to withdraw money from your ATM)

Which is better for me?

Given the different cost structures, we recommend an ATM if you have more than 100 customers per day coming through your business. If you have less than that you may want to start with the credit-card machine and either add or switch to an ATM as traffic increases.

You’re an ATM company. Why should I believe you?

We offer both ATMs and credit-card processing, so we’re somewhat neutral on the subject.

Feel free to contact us for a free business evaluation to determine which would be the best option for you, or to find out about our full range of merchant services, including check collection. Call us toll-free at 1-800-929-0228 or fill out a contact form.

Tags: ATM surcharge, ATMs, Credit-card fees

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 10:18 am and is filed under ATM benefits, Products and services. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.