Why Even Freelancers Should Accept Credit Cards

Accepting credit card has become the norm in most businesses. But among freelancers, it’s not as popular. Most of the time it comes down to the fact that freelancers don’t want to deal with fees. And granted, that is a concern. But the question must be asked that if taking card payments is good for small businesses, why not freelancers? When you delve a little deeper into the data, you find that freelancers will probably benefit just as businesses do. Yes, they might be paying a little extra up front. But as with so many other things in business, these payments actually help generate more revenue. So what’s the bigger picture?

Cash Leads To Accounting Difficulties

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The average small business spends about two working weeks each year doing its accounts. That’s a lot of time spent doing nothing, other than satisfying legal requirements. But for many businesses the main cost in terms of time is processing cash. All other payments are automatically dealt with using software. But cash transactions have to be entered manually.

Freelancers can benefit from taking cards too. Just like businesses, they have to process cash payments. And just like businesses, they have to spend time manually processing cash payments. What’s more, keeping track of cash payments is harder than keeping track of online payments. And so when it comes to filing your taxes, you can inadvertently leave out income. And this can land you in trouble with the tax man.

Fees Are Better Than Missed Payments

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Another reason why freelancers should choose a credit card processing company is that it makes payment more likely. One of the biggest issues for freelancers is not getting a payment on time or at all. Missed or unpaid invoices put a strain on the incomes of freelancers. And there’s evidence that this is something that happens quite frequently.

That means that freelancers should be looking to do all they can to make payments easy for their customers. And the best way to do that is to accept credit cards. Sure, you might have to pay a processing fee to the card provider. But that fee is insignificant compared to lost payment. See it as a premium that makes it more likely you’ll get paid on time. Plus, it gives your clients another option, which is never a bad thing.

Fees Can Be Reduced

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Most freelancers who take credit cards, accept the accompanying fees. But what many don’t realise is that costs can be reduced. Some services allow freelancers to integrate their card processing provider with PayPal. This helps freelancers get around the traditional fees that would otherwise end up in the hands of big bankers.

It’s important to note that point of sale transactions can be a tricky business. Different companies have different relationships with banks. And that can mean that payment processing costs vary considerably. This all goes towards making payments harder to account for, and thus, more expensive. But integrating payment processing with PayPal helps to eliminate these variable costs. Fixed rates across all your transactions makes accounting easier.