Accepting credit card payments is a must for any business owner. A 2018 Statista survey found that 40% of payments are done through credit cards, followed closely by debit cards at 35%.
Accepting credit cards used to be a jumbled puzzle of disparate parts — credit card merchants, processors, APIs, etc. Those days are long gone. It’s much easier to accept credit cards now.
Fintech companies have led the way with all-in-one solutions for businesses to accept credit cards. Once a customer pays, funds are deposited into the business’s checking account. Multiple companies aren’t needed to accept payments through different channels, such as phone, online, swiping, and mobile. Great support is also available to help you when things go wrong or if you just have some questions.
In this article, we’ve put together a list of processors that we think are at the top of their game as credit card payment service providers.
List of Credit Card Processing Companies
1. QuickBooks
The great thing about QuickBooks is that it’s an all-in-one system. You get bookkeeping, invoicing, inventory tracking, and a whole lot more for running your business.
The QuickBooks invoicing software allows you to easily take credit card payments online. Invoicing customers is made easy — no need to integrate APIs into your website. Since QuickBooks is already online, you can create a payment page with the click of a button right from the software.
Here are some of the features:
- Accept credit cards, debit cards, and ACH transfers.
- Mobile payments.
- Phone (keyed) payments.
- Create a web link to invoice for online payment.
- Recurring payments.
- Fees: 1% ACH. The following also incur a 25¢ transaction fee: 2.4% swiped, 2.9% invoiced, and 3.4% keyed.
What's great about Quickbooks is that it also integrates well with the top small business credit cards.
2. PayPal
PayPal is considered the original fintech company. Born from the ashes of the dot-com bust, PayPal has been around for a while.
Some may say they’ve lost their innovative spirit. However, you’ll find that PayPal payment processing can keep up with anyone out there, although their fees can be on the higher side for some transaction types.
Because Venmo is part of PayPal, you can also easily accept Venmo payments.
In addition to payment processing, PayPal also offers small business lines of credit.
One downside of using PayPal is that recurring payment customers must create a PayPal account. This is so that customers can manage their recurring payments. Or, you can pay $10/month, allowing even customers without a PayPal account to use recurring payments.
A big advantage PayPal has over other processors is its large registered user base. In Q3 of 2019, according to Statista, PayPal had 295 million users. When these users submit a payment to a PayPal merchant, they don’t have to enter any credit card information. In an age of constant hacking, not having to type in a credit card number yet again will certainly appeal to many users.
Here are some of the features:
- Accept credit cards, debit cards, and ACH transfers.
- Mobile payments.
- Phone (keyed) payments (part of Virtual Terminal).
- PayPal buttons are easy to set up for accepting payments through your website. API options are also available.
- Recurring payments, but customers must have a PayPal account. It is $10/month for non-PayPal customers.
- Fees: 2.9% online payments + 30¢. PayPal Payments Pro and Virtual Terminal is $30/month, 2.9% + 30¢. Card reader is 2.7% swiped, 3.5% keyed + 15¢.
3. Square
Square’s fee structure and processing software are all very simple, making it very quick and cost-effective to get set up as a business owner to start taking payments.
There are no monthly or startup fees. Best of all, there aren’t any chargeback or refund fees, and no American Express, corporate, or international card fees.
Square’s simple interface can be used across your devices for swiping cards via an attached reader or taking keyed payments.
Here are some of the features:
- Accept credit cards, debit cards, and ACH transfers.
- Mobile payments.
- Phone (keyed) payments.
- Accept payments through your website via Square’s API.
- Recurring payments.
- Fees: 2.6% + 10¢ for point-of-sale (used with card reader). It costs 2.9% + 30¢ for invoices and eCommerce. 3.5% + 15¢ for a virtual terminal, card not present, and card on file.
4. Payline
Payline has low transaction rates and a low monthly fee. For those with lots of credit card payments, this can save you money in transaction cost, since the monthly fee never changes.
You do need at least $2,500/month in payments and must be a U.S. business. There are no cancellation fees. Payline integrates with hundreds of software applications such as QuickBooks, WooCommerce, and Shopify.
Here are some of the features:
- Accept credit cards, debit cards, and ACH transfers.
- Mobile payments.
- Phone (keyed) payments.
- Fees: 0.2% + 10¢ and $10/month for swiping. 0.3% + 20¢ and $20/month for card-not-present. Additional $10/month for a virtual terminal and sending invoices. $90 + $10/month for a card reader.
Accepting credit cards no longer takes a team of developers and multiple applications to merchants and processors. Fintech companies have stepped up to provide business owners with fast, cost-effective methods for taking credit cards, debit cards, and ACH payments through a variety of channels.
5. Stripe
If you run an web-based business and are looking for a solid solution for web credit card processing, Stripe is the market leader. Their easy to use payment interface makes accepting credit cards on your website a cinch. They also have no monthly fees, and simply charge a small percentage of the transaction.
Stripe integrates with a variety of platforms to make accepting online payments easy.
Features include:
- Accepting credit cards and debit cards
- Digital wallet
- Mobile integrations
- Fees: 2.9% + 30¢
Robert Farrington is America’s Millennial Money Expert® and America’s Student Loan Debt Expert™, and the founder of The College Investor, a personal finance site dedicated to helping millennials escape student loan debt to start investing and building wealth for the future. You can learn more about him on the About Page, or on his personal site RobertFarrington.com.
He regularly writes about investing, student loan debt, and general personal finance topics geared towards anyone wanting to earn more, get out of debt, and start building wealth for the future.
He has been quoted in major publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Fox, ABC, NBC, and more. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes.
