Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Does anyone have any advice as to which credit card accepting application on the iphone is the best?

It seems to be a great way to cut the cost of having a mobile credit card machine.

Hello Donald.  There are a number of very good Smartphone (Iphone & Bberry) processing applications out there.  Some are better than others in terms of pricing, functionality, etc.  A couple of mistakes you might want to avoid in selecting your solution:

First, select a solution that allows you to use any merchant account you want, even your own current merchant account.  Many Smartphone apps require you to use ONLY their cc merchant account, which is always priced through the roof. An excellent example of this is the new iPhone processing app offered by Intuit/QuickBooks.  A terrible scam.

Secondly, watch out for a solution that is too bare-boned. For example, if it isn't PCI compliant, support AVS, CVV, CVV1, etc. it's going to cost you dearly out the back end no matter how good a deal it appears to be on the front end.

Finally, don't get talked into buying a software package.  If  you do, you'll be digging into your pocket every few years when they require you to update your software constantly, again a la Intuit/QB. All you need to do is purchase the rights to use the licence, not the software itself, which means you always have the latest updated version.

If you're interested, please drop me a line and we'll talk.  I can make some good suggestions, depending on what kind of business you're in.

AMSPCS

www.MerchantServices-help.com

amspcs@juno.com