Do you accept all credit cards (4 major)?

[Shane]

We have a wash in a very small town. Currently we accept the four major cards (Visa, MC, AMEX, Discover). Our total card usage vs cash in the automatic is on average 26%. The breakdown of each card's usage is as follows:

Visa 49%
MC 46%
AMEX 4%
Discover 1%

We are considering only accepting VISA and MC based on usage. We have only had the wash a few months so we are still sorting out the true monthly fees to accept the different types of cards.

I am just curious if everyone accepts all four regardless of use or have you gotten rid of any?

Thanks!
Shane

 

[Tom Thumb]

Do not accept American Express or Discovery because of the cost.

 

[vinh]

I have similiar numbers as you and do accept all credit cards. They (AMEX and Discover) are your regular customers with highest average ticket price. Why would you not take their money for an extra quarter?

 

[Waxman]

I accept all cc's in my wash as well as detail operation.

Why the heck not? Sure, there are fees, but would you rather make the sale and pay the fees or avoid the fees and lose the sale?

To me, accepting some cc's and not others is a bit silly. We need to be as service-minded as we can right now in this business.

Every time I get the chance to address a cutomer problem/complaint I'm really going for it lately, attempting to create a 'customer for life'.

I just did this very thing, in fact. Got a call yesterday afternoon; customer didnt get his wash. Sounded like an older fella and I guessed it was customer error. He just came in and I refunded his $$, no questions asked. I then took the time to show him the wash, explain exactly how it all works and guide him into the wash. I comped his wash today (a deluxe). He was ecstatic and my guess is he will become an excellent, repeat customer and will tell all his friends about our service and quality.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Compared to the impact CC fees have on my gasoline profit margins, the impact they have on my wash margins is negligible no matter what the card.

 

[Shane]

All,
Thanks for the feedback. We are still getting the feel for credit card usage. I guess as long as it's only a small portion of each transaction that we have to pay each month then it's probably not a big deal to keep the low use cards. I was thinking (not sure why) that I'd have to pay $20 or more per month for each card that we use which would make it difficult to justify the low use cards.

 

[Sequoia]

Low volume CC

If you go for a certain time without any activity from Amex cards, they will start billing you monthly-- for the non-usage.

In a year of operation I have had zero Amex transactions.