Hair Salon Credit Card Processing

At BNG Holdings, our goal is to find the processing option that fits you and your business, not the other way around. We know that not all hair salons are created equal, what works for you may not work for the hair salon/stylist across town. Hair salons need a few unique features when processing credit cards, which most retail establishments do not use. That’s why BNG provides several options and features for taking payments. With most of our processing solutions, BNG Holdings is able to provide you with free equipment to use, eliminating the hardware cost of the set up process. No application fees, annual fees, long-term contacts, or cancellation fees. This makes BNG Holdings a clear choice for your payments processing. The following payment options are the ones we feel work the best in hair salon environments.

Available Features

Tip Adjust

The ability to accept tips is imperative for all stylists. BNG Holdings offers a couple of options for processing tips on credit card transactions, Tip During Sale and Tip Adjust. Tip During Sale allows you to enter in the tip amount at the time of the initial swipe. This method is less common, because it requires you to know the tip amount prior to running the transaction. Some stylists do not feel comfortable asking the customer for the tip amount at the time of swipe.

The more common method is Tip Adjust. This method allows you to swipe your client’s card and print a receipt with a tip line on it for your client to write in the amount of desired tip. After your client completes the receipt, you would then go back into the terminal to adjust the amount to reflect the tip. Most stylists prefer this method, since they do not ask the client for a tip directly and it is less confrontational.

Multi-Merchant Accounts

A Multi-Merchant Account allows several stylists to share one terminal. This is an outstanding option for salons that have independent stylists who rent space. BNG Holdings will provide a free countertop credit card terminal for multiple independent stylists to share. When you are ready to run the transaction, the stylist chooses their account on the terminal, and swipe the card. It’s that easy.

Each stylist has their own merchant account, and all the benefits associated with it. The account is linked to their bank account; funds are deposited directly into their bank accounts 24-48 hours after the terminal is batched out at the end of the night. Local customer service is provided by BNG Holdings, as well as live phone support 24/7.

Mobile Processing

BNG Holdings

offers mobile credit card processing options for stylists who need the convenience of being mobile. Whether you are at a trade show, or you do not have access to a phone/internet line at your salon location, BNG has mobile processing solutions to fit your needs. From smart phone applications to wireless terminals, BNG has you covered.

Processing Options

Phone Swipe

For stylists just starting out, Phone Swipe is an excellent option. Weather you have 2 clients or 20, the ability to accept credit cards shows you are a professional and serious about your business. With a smart phone and the free encrypted Phone Swipe card reader, you will be able to offer the added convenience of paying by credit card.

Phone Swipe is very popular for stylists who are working to grow their client base. It is important to make payment convenient for your clients, a lot of whom do not carry cash. The tip adjust feature is available on Phone Swipe, as well as the ability to email your client their receipt. Phone Swipe provides the convenience of credit card processing, without some of the fees usually associated with Merchant Accounts.

Phone Swipe delivers the benefits of having your own Merchant Account, without monthly fees or minimums, for a low 2.69% per swipe. Your funds are deposited directly into your bank account within 24-48 hours after the daily end of business batch. Phone Swipe provides a free encrypted card reader that works with over 40 mobile devices, offers 24/7 live support, as well as no contracts or cancellation fees. BNG Holdings also provides in person, local support, for all of our merchants.

In our recent post comparing Phone Swipe and Square, we explained the superiority of the Phone Swipe product.

Wireless Credit Card Terminals

For stylists renting space and do not have access to an internet or phone line, wireless processing is the way to go. Perhaps you travel to retirement homes or trade shows, you will need to be able to take payments everywhere you are doing business. BNG is able to provide you with a free Wireless Credit Card Terminal, allowing you to process payments nearly anywhere.

Stylists who use BNG’s wireless processing solution will each have their own merchant account, linked to their own bank account. Deposits go directly to your bank account within 24-48 hours after the terminal has been batched out.

Wireless terminals provide the convenience of mobile processing with the benefits of a countertop terminal. These terminals work by using a cell phone signal, if your cellphone works so will your terminal. Transaction speed is right around 2-3 seconds, keeping the payments process short and sweet. With the wireless terminal, you are able to print out a paper receipt for your client, giving you added credibility and professionalism. These terminals support the tip adjust feature.

As always, BNG Holdings provides all the support you may need with local, in person support, and 24/7 live support.

Countertop Credit Card Terminals

Countertop terminals

come in all shapes and sizes, and are the kind of terminals you typically see in most stores. These terminals need to be hooked up to either a phone line or an internet connection. When hooked up to an internet connection these terminals will be significantly faster processing transactions than when hooked up to a phone line, or dialup connection. Terminals running on a dialup connection have to connect to the internet each time a transaction is run. Remember how slow dial up internet use to be? Well, it still is!

Countertop terminals supports both the tip adjust function and the multi-merchant function, making them an excellent terminal option for busy salons. BNG Holdings provides the countertop terminal for the primary merchant account for free. Depending on which terminal is best for your salon’s needs, 10+ stylists can share the terminal. This clears up valuable countertop space. Can you imagine 10 terminals on your counter?

BNG Swipe Software

Now this option is cool. Swipe Software runs on your computer and is tied to a Payment Processing Gateway. This allows you to take payments on your computer! BNG has several options for card readers which attach to your computer through the USB drive. The BNG Gateway has phenomenal reporting capabilities, and can even tie in with QuickBooks. If you are the owner of busy salon, you need to check out this option!

BNG has the salon payment solution for you!

BNG has been providing leading payment solutions for salon owners and stylists for many years and currently works with hundreds of independent stylists and salons throughout the country. Since our company philosophy has always centered around giving the best service, the best solution for the best price we look forward to creating a long term relationship with you and your salon. Take a look at some of our video testimonials from some of our long term customers. Then feel free to contact us.

Written By: Ryan Theis & Katie Gjerde

Square vs Phone Swipe Review - Credit card processing on your iPhone, Android smartphone or iPad.

Phone Swipe or Square?

Mobile credit card processing

is gaining widespread popularity, and for good reason, smartphone technology has come a very long way in the last few years and has proven to be a good fit for some merchants to accept credit card payments on their phone. It also makes accepting cards more accessible to the micro businesses that before smartphone payment options could not justify any monthly costs, or pay for expensive equipment to take credit cards on a more traditional means. There are several different options available today. Most, however, have monthly fees, minimum processing requirements associated with them, and or long term contracts. Square has been hitting the marketplace hard with advertisements promising no monthly fees and a “low” per swipe percentage, and was the first to market an uber-simplified fees program that made sense to people that could not justify monthly or confusing traditional payment solutions. North American Bancard (NAB) in partnership with BNG Holdings, Inc. has released a similar product. Phone Swipe, and is set to give Square a run for it’s money with equally simplified pricing, better support and faster more dependable funding.

Square and Phone Swipe are not for everyone, even though recent marketing from Square would want you to believe that it is. The main reason is the super simple pricing model. Most people don't really know but when it comes to credit card processing, all processing companies even Square pay interchange costs at the exact same rates from the card associations. To get to a simplified strait percentage point you have to bundle hundreds of card types into a single rate and to make it still profitable. To do that you need to find your highest cost card types and at the very least cover that cost, so at 2.75% the high end cards are covered but there is a large profit margin on the less expensive card types like debit.

First off Square or Phone Swipe are definitely not a good solution for businesses that consistently run more than several thousand dollars in credit cards per month and have an average transaction of over $15. That would be most any full time business if you really think about it. Now if you have a part time business with inconsistent sales or average $5 transactions and can afford to rely on your smartphone to take payments. Or need a mobile solution then Square or Phone Swipe might be a great solution for you.

Comparison of Phone Swipe and Square

The following post is an “Apples to Apples” comparison of Phone Swipe and Square. They are extremely similar in many ways but we will explain the differences. We (BNG Holdings, Inc.) are attempting to write this post as impartial as possible but the reality of it is we do sell Phone Swipe because we truly believe in most circumstances it is a better product for most people that fit into the "Square" market. If you contact us and have a unique situation where Square is better, we will be the first to tell you to stick with Square.

Support

The most important thing, as a merchant, is to keep the process of taking payments as smooth as possible. Technical support is a vital part of taking mobile payments. With technology there can, at times, be problems. Instant support is extremely important. A lot of customers do not carry cash, if you are unable to process their credit card, you lose sales.

Square offers only online support, via their Self-Service website, email or twitter.

BNG’s Phone Swipe offers the support of a 24/7 Customer Technical Support phone line, as well as online assistance. Even better, is local face to face and national phone support from BNG Holdings, Inc.'s office. With BNG’s Phone Swipe, you have all the benefits of a full merchant account without any of the monthly fees or minimums. This means you are entitled to all the customer service and support that goes with a regular traditional merchant account.

Aggregate Account VS Merchant Account

One thing that always bothered me when Square first came out was figuring out how they were able to offer such a one-size-fits-all solution and how they were able to manage so many micro accounts without being an established processing company. I found out later that its because they are not setting merchants up with a merchant account of their own. Instead they are giving them access to a large aggregate account that is in Square's name and not the merchants. One thing Square conveniently leaves out of their advertisements is when you sign up with them, you get an aggregate account.

An example of how an aggregate account works is as follows:

XYZ Holdings Company opens a “master merchant account.” They then “sell” the use of it to thousands of merchants. So everyone is sharing the same merchant account. XYZ Holdings Company collects all of the money the several thousand merchants process, and then pays each merchant their share of the funds. By the way, XYZ Holdings Company reserves the right to hold these funds as they see fit since technically it is theirs at this point. The other problem that comes into play with an aggregate account is that since Square is not a true processing company they are getting the aggregate account from a third party processor that also has the right to hold the funds, if they hold the risk on the account.

Square claims to deposit your funds the next day. If you read the fine print, your deposit is initiated within 36 hours. After the deposit is initiated, you still have to wait for the banks to move the funds, resulting in an additional 24-48 hours before you receive the funds into your bank account. Also keep in mind the federal reserve and your bank do not transfer money on weekends so with Square you could run a sale on Thursday afternoon, the 36 hour initiation period would not trigger until some time on Saturday and the funds would start transferring Monday morning and might not show up in your bank account until Wednesday. In that very real scenario it took you six days to get payed. How many people can wait that long to get payed and have a sustainable business?

Keep in mind, this is for SWIPED transactions. With card not present transactions, Square can, and will, hold your funds for up to 30 days if you process more than $2002 in a trailing 7 day period.

With Phone Swipe, you have your own merchant account and your own merchant number. NAB will deposit your funds within 1-2 business days after they are run, with no holding time like Square. This is regardless if they are swiped or card not present transactions. There is no cap on the amount of business you can do. The amount you are funded will be the total transaction amount less the processing fees. This results in much more consistent funding and is roughly twice as fast. I have worked with thousands of merchants over the years and I can't think of any that would want to wait an extra 36 hours to get payed, especially ones that need to order products or pay employees with that money.

Pricing

At first glance, pricing for both options are relatively similar.

Square promises 2.75% for all swiped transactions, no monthly fees or minimum processing required, no cancellation fee, and a free card reader. The key here is SWIPED transactions. If you are keying in any transactions, your rate will be 3.5% and $0.15 per transaction. If for any reason your card reader doesn’t work, you will be paying the higher MOTO (card not present) rate of 3.5% + $0.15.

Phone Swipe promises a rate of 2.69% for all swiped transactions, no monthly fees or minimum processing required, no contract or cancellation fee, and a free card reader. The MOTO (card not present) rate is 3.49% and $0.19 per transaction. Phone swipe has proven to have a more reliable card reader device, thus eliminating a lot of downgraded transactions falling into the MOTO rate.

Reliability and Supported Devices

At the time of this post, Square currently has 19 mobile devices with known issues. They also do not support any Android devices running on Honeycomb, or any modified versions of the Android software. The reader requires a 3.5 headset jack with microphone to operate. If your mobile device has a “small screen classification” you are out of luck. You will need GPS enabled, access to the internet, and access to Google Play (for Android devices). Square requires Apple devices to run an iOS 4.0 and up, Android devices to run an OS 2.1 and up, and BlackBerry is not currently supported by Square. (See Square’s supported devices.) Square also has support for cash drawer and receipt printer integration when used with the iPad.

Phone Swipe had over 40 supported devices, and only 4 with known issues. The reader requires a 3.5 headset jack with microphone to operate, but if you don't have a supported jack you can still use the phone application for MOTO transactions. Android devices are required to have a OS of at least 2.1. Phone Swipe is compatible with Apple, Android and BlackBerry devices. One really cool feature is that Phone Swipe supports store and forward a feature that allows you to swipe and store a transaction when you do not have a phone signal and lets you upload that transaction when you get to a place where there is signal. Phone Swipe also has support for a cash drawer and receipt printer integration when used with the iPad, stop by our office and we would be happy to show you our demo.If you find you don't fit that model give us a call and we can point you in a better direction. We have solutions for virtually any type of business from entry level solutions like Phone Swipe all the way up to custom programed payment software integrations and touch screen POS systems. We have our hands in every type of technology related to payments processing and are truly experts in payment processing. Contact Us

Written By: Ryan Theis & Katie Gjerde