I wanted to make it clear first that I am not here to tell you, you should or should not except credit cards. But to lay out the pros and the cons of both decision and let you make the choice, especially because a small business owner has to make decisions that will affect your bottom line. The decision to except or not to except credit cards as a form of payment for your product is one of those decisions. Since businesses are different it would be more adventitious for some and not for others.

Pros

The first Pro of taking credit cards is that it is continent. More and more people are using credit cards for purchases on line and off line then they ever have before. Even debit card usage is becoming more popular, although the old fashioned payment of checks and cash are becoming less popular.

So for the convenience factor can increase your revenue. If you have an on line business sales over the web are expected to grow steadily and are estimated to reach an estimated $230 billion dollars in transactions by 2010. And on line retail sales will account for close to ten percent of the United States retail sales by 2008.

Another Pro for accepting credit cards is the credibility. To be able to obtain a merchants account is not the easiest thing to do particularly for on line ecommerce. So if you are able to obtain a merchant account stasis then the customers may see you as more reliable.

Cons

One of the biggest disadvantages of accepting credit cards is the fees that you will occur. These fees can range from many different places. If you are accepting credit cards face to face it will be anywhere from $40 to $1000 just for equipment. You will have transaction fees from anywhere from $.5 to $.50 per transaction. If someone use a charge back that can be from anywhere from $30 to $50 for every return.

You are even charged for your monthly statements. Now I know that some of you are saying $.5 to $.50 per transaction does not sound like very much, but they can add up very quickly and eat into your bottom line. Let me quickly explain charge backs. A charge back is when you either have a fraudulent purchase, an error that happened at the bank or just miscommunication with the customer.

The funds will be refunded from your account back to the credit card before you can even agree on the transaction. The credit card company will hold the merchant fully responsible for the transaction even if you fulfilled your part. Another con for accepting credit card payments is the amount of fraud that you will be facing. You will still be held responsible for the fraud even if you get proper authorization for using a credit card.

The last con I will be speaking of is the time you have to learn how to use this technology. It is critical that you learn how to use this technology because any mistakes in the process and you will loose money. Now that you see the pro and cons it is up to you to decide if it is right for your business.

Many people go through life, using credit cards and buying items with other forms of credit, thinking that whatever the credit bureaus say is what’s truth. Then, there are people who never give the credit bureaus any credit(no pun intended), believing that they are always right and the system is always wrong. To be honest, neither of these parties are completely correct.

However, neither of them are completely wrong. Believe it or not, the credit bureaus, though they do their job relatively well, sometimes make mistakes. These mistakes often show up on your credit report, which reflects your entire credit history, your payment history, the mistakes and the improvements you’ve made, and sometimes, even mistakes that are not even your fault. In the case that your credit report shows something counting against you that you really are not accountable for, of course you want to correct this mistake, but how?

1. Find the Mistakes

You want to be sure that you have nothing on your report that does not honestly belong there. The first thing you have to do to fix those mistakes is to find them. Copy your credit report and, on the copy, highlight the items that you do not believe are correct. This will help you to present those mistakes to the credit bureaus.

2. Bring it Up

The credit bureaus, though they are probably doing the best job they can, do not have time to call in every once in a while and ask how your credit report is looking. You have to notify them in order to sufficiently get the attention you want. Nothing will be done about the errors if you do not make them known to all three of the major credit reporting agencies.

3. Prove it

Make sure that you have proof of that whatever is on your credit report is not rightfully charged to you. If you call in with a complaint, and not a detailed argument that entails proof, the process will take a lot longer, and you may end up keeping the mistakes on your credit report, whether you feel they belong there or not. Make sure that you have documented proof of and that you can back up the argument you are presenting.

4. Be Persistent

There are so many people with complaints, and so many other things that credit reporting agencies have to deal with, that even if you report your complaint to them, they may not follow through as quickly as you had hoped. If you do not see any changes within an appropriate time period, make sure you call them again and find out what progress has been made on the correction and what you need to do to further that progress. You cannot sit quietly and assume that what you have done is enough if you have not persistently inquired about your report.

People, and credit bureaus, make mistakes. It is up to us to fix the mistakes that reflect on us. Know how to do it, get it done, and get on with life.