Tink's Mom

I accept cc's at craft shows, but I'm also a legitimate business, collecting sales tax, etc...and I have had lots of bounced checks over the years...
It is a costly price of business...you can check out some of the info regarding fees thru Sam's Club or Costco.
If you are just starting out, why not stay with Check and cash for awhile...When I get to a location, I always will look for the cash station, so I can direct the customer.

fmd36

I take cc's at shows and use ProPay. You must join and pay the fee. I believe for me it has been worth it for my higher ticket items and on custom orders. With checks get the info off the drivers license. I use a carbonless receipt pad from staples. They sign the receipt...this is a must. You check the signatures. You wait about 1 week for the $ to be transferred.to yur accounts. No knuckle buster and no phone hook up needed. Try to restrict their use of cc on items $20 and over. It works for me.

newbie1001

Thanks so far. I think for the time being I'll avoid the credit card thing. Some of these other vendors said their sales increased 30 % after they started accepting credit cards. With my price range I'll stick to cash and checks.

Deborah12687

When I sell things at fairs and shows etc I never take checks cash only. I have been burned several times and lost a lot of profits. It is really hard to collect the money from an NSF check and you have to pay money to get it collected.

Tink's Mom

Check with your state's Attorney's General. In Illinois, if I turn a bad check over to them after making an attempt to collect, the police will show up at the persons home and take them in. It is illegal to pass a bad check. You can recover the amount of the check, plus up to 10 times the amount of the check and expenses (certified letter cost, etc.)

Elizabeth-Liz

I only do cash and checks when I do a show. No one so far has ask if I took credit cards yet, and I have only taken a couple checks. I do this show about twice a year and I have a friend that has been doing things like this for years and if someone wants to give me a check I check with him, cause he really has a good sense of people.

mayday

I personally would never take CCs BUT have lost a sale because of this------think the woman was hard up and wanted to stretch her payment on plastic!