JazzboCR wrote:
Brother Silm has highlighted yet another crying need in the Gulch--Chicas not taking Credit Cards. Now if they only set themselves up as an SA for, say, project development, they could easily enable CCs. They'd have to charge 4-5% more. Not going to go where you'd swipe the card--but the front desk at the popular hotels could easily accommodate. This requires some forward thinking, outside the box (Lord I've done it again!), but has to be doable.
Not as easy as you make it out to be. I know someone who went throught the procedure to be able to accept credit cards. Like most things in Costa Rica it is the procedure that is important not the result. Needless to say there were a number of hoops he had to jump through.
Setting up an SA can run somewhere between $300 and $500.00 depending on the attorney
As to having to charge 4-5% more. There is a reason merchants offer a 10% discount for cash. Credit card processing fees are substantially higher here then in the U.S.
Then there is the tax issue. Make a cash business a credit card business and the tax man will pay you a visit. That means a 13% surcharge for the sales tax and taxes on her profits. Since she is now a business that mean CAJA payments as well.
How about handling charge backs and customer disputes and keeping the necessary corporate records? What chica wants that burden and many are incapable of handling it. Do they have to pay someone to handle it?
Let see a $50.00 chica now has add 10% for a credit card fee, a 13% sales tax, perhaps a 20% tax burden and maybe a 5% charge back loss plus CAJA fees. Sounds like our $50.00 chica is now a $100.00.
Not sure any chica wants to be that far "out of the box"
