Credit Cards

[debk]

Do any of you European owners take credit cards online?

I am getting a good number of business travelers and expect to get a lot more based on my 2005 marketing plan. These people need to pay by credit card. I, too, want the convenience... especially related to handling damage deposits.

So far, I seem to have 3 options:

1. Go with a USA-based company: The US has a couple of pre-defined options for vacation rental owners and online credit card processing, but the transactions must be done in dollars. A decent portion of my guests are not Americans and it makes no sense for them to transfer to dollars, and then for me to transfer from dollars back here into Euros.

2. Paypal: Doesn't connect to a Portuguese bank so not an option for me.

3. Setup credit card processing with an international company.
I looked yesterday at a number of options and found UK-based Worldpay.com, which seems quite respectable... but not cheap. I'm not sure I caught all their fees but it looks like an €80 setupfee (normally €100 but one re-seller site, LWD, had a special link offering a discount-fyi) and €250 annual fee. (There are many other things you can pay for, such as pre-scheduled payments, etc, but these are the basics.) Finally, Worldpay takes 4.5% which is about .5% higher than Paypal, I think. The worst news is that they charge you a remittance fee to transfer money to your bank. That could add up to €235 per year if you make weekly transfers. They also sit on your money for four weeks before transferring. NET after setup: up to €484 per year (€40/mo) plus 4.5%.

Currently, I normally receive payments via wire transfer but my Portuguese bank just upped their fees to the point where the €40/month Worldpay cost is not a concern. (Sure, I could find another bank but I prefer to get credit card up and running.)

Has anyone else who is collecting funds in Euros set up online credit card processing? Who do you use? Why?

[Darren]

Debk, check out this post viewtopic.php?t=238

[debk]

Thank you for the reply, Darren. Unfortunately, this only works for guests with a UK credit/debit cards. This might be a nice option to provide for UKers -- and I will check into it since the processing cost is much lower -- but most of my guests are not from the UK.

Any other known alternatives for cards that are designed to receive payments in Euros?

[paolo]

Hi Debk,

You could check out the rentors.org merchant account offering for rental owners, which I just posted about here:
viewtopic.php?p=1555#1555

That will cost you less than Worldpay, but I am not sure if it is available outside the US.

[John Borg]

I have searched high and low for an "easy" way to get credit card payments, but I have found that an easy way dosn't exist, so till now I have stuck with my tried and tested "swift transfer" system. It's not the cheapest way, but it's safe 100%.
Charges vary from country to country and I get a few complaints from clients/guests from the UK due to high charges their banks seem to charge.
I use HSBC and I am usually charged 1.5% which is ok.
If a letting is still far off, I accept a bankers cheque, though I add 10% to the bill to make up for the extra fee involved to clear the cheque. I always insist that a minimum of 60 days elapse before I consider the deposit as "cleared".
The swift transfer system seams to be the preferred mode used by "euro countries" within Europe, especially Germany, Switzerland, France and Austria.
Paypal is not an option for me because they do not deal with Malta.

[DivineMrsM]

Probably not a bad time for me to mention www.auctionpix.co.uk. (I'm not on a commission - honest! ).

Not for credit cards, but John you mention bank charges for processing cheques - this could be a good and much cheaper option for you.

[ourinns]

What about a two step process: 1) accept paypal and 2) open a bank account in a country that they do transfers to.

A cheap option is Citibank UK; they allow you to open accounts from overseas, paypal do free transfers to UK accounts and Citibank allow almost free withdrawals with their card in other currencies.



Arnold

[Hanorah]

I got some blurb from the Villa Renters site that offers free listing but 10% commission on bookings found through their site. However apparantly they offer the facility just to put credit card payments through them from private bookings for 3.25% They also offer a automated service ie sending reminders etc. It might be an option for those that can not use paypal etc. You would need to look into it more deeply as I am not sure of how exactly it works.

This is the blurb I received.

Common misconceptions about directing all your bookings through Villarenters

1. It costs 10%...no its not it's just 3.25%

2. We don't tell you all the contact details until they pay as is the case with a MyVillarenters booking .....you see their details right away

3.Your customer will be exposed to other properties on MyVillarenters.....absolutely not.

[Ju]

We have a credit card machine which we hire from the bank. It's very much the same thing as you get in shops or restaurants and we can take all major credit cards. The cost is about 25€ per month and then 0.6% on each transaction. The money arrives into our bank account on the same day.

Have you asked your bank if they rent machines?

Ju

[debk]

Ju -

Very interesting. How do you use this? Do your guests email their credit card info to you and you manually key it in? Do you then send a receipt for their signature? Other?

Thanks for sharing,
debk

[ourinns]

You need "vente a distance" enabled on your machine (5€ a month extra) to be able to take peoples' credit card numbers by phone or fax (never ask them to e-mail them: too risky).

When that's enabled, you just key in their credit card number and expiry date plus the amount. You don't need a signature.

We use this all the time and it's brilliant.



Arnold

[Paul Carmel]

Also in France I think you need a Siret number to use this service via a bank.

[ourinns]

Indirectly, yes. What you need is a business bank account for which you need to be registered with the Chambre of Commerce or with the Chambre des Metiers or with whatever the farming equivalent is. Those give you the KBIS document which is required to open the business bank account which in turn lets you apply for the credit card machine.

Similar thing applies in the UK (and presumably elsewhere) ie that you need a business bank account.


Arnold

[centime]

Debk: The same thing applies in Portugal and you have to go to UNICRE and be registered as a buisness with the complete cards and fiscal papers. I did have an appointment with the company to discuss having it through me trading under my sole name but it was quite complicated, maybe we should try them again when you move to Lisbon later in the year. I tried this a couple of years ago but did not follow it through at the time as we had too many other things going on with getting the apartments sorted out with my husbands family. I did think of going with WorldPay as you are doing but again did not follow up on the idea, how are you doing with this company and how do you think it compares with PayPal?

[debk]

Worldpay is extremely expensive... and wonderfully easy for me and my guests. I know I am getting more bookings because of it.

But, yes, maybe we should try to take up something like this together when I move to Lisbon!

Also, are there other Portuguese rental owners out there in laymyhatland that are processing credit cards this way??? (eg, machine rented from bank or anything similar)