PayPal fees are ridiculous!

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Beautybumblebee

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Location
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I am looking at taking an online deposit for all my treatments when we re open in July
I am currently using ovatu booking software which I love but out of the options for online payments I only have a PayPal merchant account

I left PayPal over a year ago because of the cut they were taking out of my treatments, I set it up today and had my first deposit paid of £10

They took 60p!!
That is 6 percent!

I swiftly removed PayPal, what does everyone else use!???

Thanks
 
Is Stripe not an option on there? Pretty sure it is. It’s number 1 in the digital world, super simple to setup, no monthly fees and low transaction fees.
 
I also use Paypal but with the virus I wanted to get a card reader, have bought a square reader & plan on stopping Paypal when I return to work.
Anyway, it has the function of sending out an invoice to your clients, a link on your website or if they allow you to take their card details you can key them in yourself. Fees are 2.5% so for a £10 deposit you pay 25p...WAY better than Paypal.
 
Is Stripe not an option on there? Pretty sure it is. It’s number 1 in the digital world, super simple to setup, no monthly fees and low transaction fees.

I have looked into stripe but the trust pilot reviews are pretty bad and they take around a week to transfer your money to your account
 
I also use Paypal but with the virus I wanted to get a card reader, have bought a square reader & plan on stopping Paypal when I return to work.
Anyway, it has the function of sending out an invoice to your clients, a link on your website or if they allow you to take their card details you can key them in yourself. Fees are 2.5% so for a £10 deposit you pay 25p...WAY better than Paypal.

Would you need to call them to take the card details?
Sending an invoice might be an option, so after they book in do you just email them out a booking fee invoice?

Thanks
 
Would you need to call them to take the card details?
Sending an invoice might be an option, so after they book in do you just email them out a booking fee invoice?

Thanks
Yes, you would need to call or text them to get card details.
I haven’t used them yet but yes, send out a invoice once you have booked them in.
 
I use ovatu and take a deposit on booking. Some use their card details but many clients use PayPal as it’s quick and easy. I did remove it from ovatu as a payment option but clients complained and asked me to reinstate it!
 
I have looked into stripe but the trust pilot reviews are pretty bad and they take around a week to transfer your money to your account
I think it's now 3 days. I use it for all my web clients including my own clients. Honestly, they're the world-leading digital payment gateway. The process more than PayPal. They're huge.
 
I think it's now 3 days. I use it for all my web clients including my own clients. Honestly, they're the world-leading digital payment gateway. The process more than PayPal. They're huge.


I am giving stripe a go! it says a week for payments to come through to my bank account but apparently the more you use the time shortens
Have you had any problems with them at all?

Thanks
 
I am giving stripe a go! it says a week for payments to come through to my bank account but apparently the more you use the time shortens
Have you had any problems with them at all?

Thanks
Nope. Never. Like I say, I use it for a lot of clients including very large ones processing £10’s of thousands a month through e-commerce websites. I’ve also used it personally for around 5 years or more I think.
 
I recently switched to Fresha, they are a booking software and do online payments as well for a small fee x
 
Just bear in mind that lots of companies have a surcharge on lower value transactions. So you pay a percentage - anything from 0.6% and 2.9% and in addition, if the total bill is less than £10-£15 you pay an extra charge of 20-30p.

ironically, this can mean that you pay as much oa transaction of £10 as for a £20 treatment. You need to spend some quality time with the small print of your contract and think about what changes you can make. The cheapest way to take payments is to get clients to do a direct transfer into your account.

When the contactless payment limit was £30, I found I was paying a surcharge for tap n go. And since I was rebooking them, it wasn’t essential for convenience. So I put my prices up, so that most payments were above the £30 limit. We also worked hard on getting clients to pay deposits by bank transfer, which was very easy to manage.

I’m going to ask all my clients to book and pay in full 48 hours in advance. If I get them to pay by bank transfer I’ll save loads.
 
Fresha, brilliant. Great service support too.
 
Just bear in mind that lots of companies have a surcharge on lower value transactions. So you pay a percentage - anything from 0.6% and 2.9% and in addition, if the total bill is less than £10-£15 you pay an extra charge of 20-30p.

ironically, this can mean that you pay as much oa transaction of £10 as for a £20 treatment. You need to spend some quality time with the small print of your contract and think about what changes you can make. The cheapest way to take payments is to get clients to do a direct transfer into your account.

When the contactless payment limit was £30, I found I was paying a surcharge for tap n go. And since I was rebooking them, it wasn’t essential for convenience. So I put my prices up, so that most payments were above the £30 limit. We also worked hard on getting clients to pay deposits by bank transfer, which was very easy to manage.

I’m going to ask all my clients to book and pay in full 48 hours in advance. If I get them to pay by bank transfer I’ll save loads.


I tried this, I tried calling them and asking for payment over the phone which they would say "I don't have my card with me, il call you back" to which they don't.
I asked for a bank transfer which they don't seem to like doing either, they say they will.. they don't

so the only way was for them to physically book the appointment online they HAVE to pay a booking fee or it won't book.
So far I have been happy with Stripe... so we will see.

Thanks for your advice anyhow!
 
not having bookings secured with a deposit is our biggest risk/overhead. The important thing is to find a method that works for you.
 
Just bear in mind that lots of companies have a surcharge on lower value transactions. So you pay a percentage - anything from 0.6% and 2.9% and in addition, if the total bill is less than £10-£15 you pay an extra charge of 20-30p.

ironically, this can mean that you pay as much oa transaction of £10 as for a £20 treatment. You need to spend some quality time with the small print of your contract and think about what changes you can make. The cheapest way to take payments is to get clients to do a direct transfer into your account.

When the contactless payment limit was £30, I found I was paying a surcharge for tap n go. And since I was rebooking them, it wasn’t essential for convenience. So I put my prices up, so that most payments were above the £30 limit. We also worked hard on getting clients to pay deposits by bank transfer, which was very easy to manage.

I’m going to ask all my clients to book and pay in full 48 hours in advance. If I get them to pay by bank transfer I’ll save loads.
We did this too before lock down. The clients have your details stored after the first payment and seen happy to bank transfer. I have however had a client walk out saying she was doing it from her car and didn’t return so yes a learning curve for us.
 
If it helps our software has Stripe built into the booking process which allows you to take upfront payment should you wish OR just ask for card details which you can then charge if the client does no- show.
 
I use timely and they have their own payment system called TimelyPay that uses Stripe so still low transaction fees but all linked together in the booking system!
 

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