Thread: Help! Client wants to pay with a credit card

Hello,
I am trying to book a gig with a hospital and the woman organizing said that she needs to pay with the corporate credit card and that issued checks take forever. She said she could pay me out of pocket, but it will be several weeks before she gets reimbursed.

Who takes credit cards? How do you do it and how can you set it up? I am under the impression that if you have a regular account with PayPal you can only take bank transfers, plus the woman doesn't want to set up a paypal account for the hospital.

I really don't want to lose this opportunity because we can't figure out how to set up credit cards.

Please help! ,f::

You can take credit card payments via paypal. Plus, she can use her own paypal account but just use the hospital credit card (the hospital doesn't need its own account).

This article might help: How to Accept Credit Cards Online | Retail > Retailers from AllBusiness.com

Good luck!

I use ProPay. The fees are reasonable and there is no monthly minimum.

Been really happy with them.. https://epay.propay.com/

Originally Posted by andalee-oriental

Hello,
I am trying to book a gig with a hospital and the woman organizing said that she needs to pay with the corporate credit card and that issued checks take forever. She said she could pay me out of pocket, but it will be several weeks before she gets reimbursed.

Who takes credit cards? How do you do it and how can you set it up? I am under the impression that if you have a regular account with PayPal you can only take bank transfers, plus the woman doesn't want to set up a paypal account for the hospital.

I really don't want to lose this opportunity because we can't figure out how to set up credit cards.

Please help! ,f::

If she's not willing to set up an account for PayPal or other online service you would have to have your own merchant account to process it.

~~Kimahri

Hmmm....as a manager in one of our healthcare facilities, when I book an entertainer and submit a check request, it generally takes about 2-3 weeks for me to receive it (plus I also indicate when I need the check in my hands). Perhaps you can ask to call and talk to someone in Accounts Payable and sort it out with them. Part of this also depends on when you would be performing too. I should also add that I was informed yesterday that the band that I booked for an event in a couple of weeks, needs to fill out taxID paperwork. Never in the past two decades I have had to have an entertainer do that, but I guess in this day and age, everyone is being more cautious. Good luck!

I have had this happen and I just waited 2 weeks for the check. But I am not in this millenium yet.

She doesn't need a paypal account to pay with paypal, as long as you have one.

You can send her a Paypal invoice and she can pay it with the credit card. See this chart:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/we...ile-comparison

If I were you, I'd charge her a 3% surcharge for the processing since she's the one who needs the convenience of paying by credit card.

Unfortunately, my PayPal account is on hold. I put a stop payment through my bank on a particular PayPal purchase and now it blocks everything from PayPal. I removed the block and I am just waiting for PayPal to restore my account.

If you generally don't have the need to take credit cards, setting up as a merchant seems like a lot of PIA for one gig, and depending on the timing, might not get the cash in your hand a lot faster; on the other hand, if you think you'd have a lot of use for credit cards (you run a lot of classes yourself, sell merchandise yourself, and get a lot of gig requests for credit card) it might be worth it...you just have to weigh the pros and cons.

Honestly...if you don't have a lot of other reason to set up as a cc merchant, and if PayPal isn't a good idea (because of both your account issues and her reluctance to set up an account)...then maybe you should just have them sign a contract with them, and have them process a check for you, acknowledging that it probably means you won't get paid until sometime after the event. Find out about how long you can expect the check to take (so you can bug them if it goes on too long), and then have them mail it to you.

On yet another hand (how many is that...?) If she still resists...hmmm...well, it could be she doesn't want to process it through central AP for some reason and would rather do it through an expense report. Maybe she just doesn't want to be responsible for all the paperwork that could be involved (tax forms she might be told she needs to get from you, etc.) or maybe she's afraid someone in the food chain will stymie the request and she figures it'll be easier to get reimbursed for something that's already been done/paid for than to get permission to make the expenditure. (In my experience, corporate credit cards are typically assigned to a named *person*--even if the company gets and pays the bill directly, it works more like an expense report than the typical approval/check cutting process.) In that case...your options start to narrow.... If you can get your PP account working again, then, as Lauren said, you can send her an invoice plus processing fee and she doesn't even need a permanent account.