vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
"It's really not an ""either-or""... it's BOTH.  They each have their place &amp; use.  * 2-sided business cards are best thought of as **""miniature advertising brochures""** (shirt pocket/wallet-sized) -- great for certain types of businesses -- and for being generic (and cheap) handouts at show booths, conventions, etc. (Plus you can issue a stack of them to ANY employee -- 2-sided cards should be ""company"" cards, *sans* any individuals names or contact info -- just the general company phone number, website, etc).  *Other than being mere ""advertising"" one useful option is to make the back of the card have something VALUABLE on it (something that makes the person KEEP it) -- calendars, industry reference info (chart/table/common calculations, etc).*  * 1-sided business cards are **personalized ""calling cards""** (logo, person's name, title &amp; SPECIFIC contact info, phone + ext, email, etc -- in addition to base company info) -- you use them when meeting people SPECIFICALLY &amp; PERSONALLY -- and you want the back to be blank for you (or them) to scratch notes, etc. (in fact even leaving some white space on the front is a good idea).  EDIT: ***[This guy's got it nailed!](http://www.reddit.com/r/business/comments/2cjxja/one_sided_business_cards_or_two_sided/cjg8jox)***"
Thanks for the info! It seems the consolidation option is the best; switching to the new merchant services provider and getting the discount from our POS on gift card software  Can you give me a but more info about the customer loyalty/marketing info?
Store cards also tend to have a fairly low credit limit so depending on how much money you spend on the card, your credit utilisation might be a lot higher than desirable.
"Checks sold as ""business checks"" are larger than checks sold as ""personal checks"". Personal checks are usually 6"" x 2 1/2"" while business checks are 8 1/2 "" x 3 to 4 "". Also, business checks typically have a tear-off stub where you can write who the check was made out to and what it was for. In this computer age that seems pretty obsolete to me, I enter the check into the computer, not write it on a stub, but I suppose there are still very small businesses out there that doesn't use a computerized record-keeping system. These days business checks are often printed on 8 1/2 by 11"" paper -- either one per sheet with a big tear-off or 3 per sheet with no tear off -- so you can feed them through a computer printer easily. Nothing requires you to use ""business checks"" for a business account. At least, I've always used personal checks for my business account with no problem. These days I make almost all payments electronically, I think I write like one paper check a year, so it's become a trivial issue. Oh, and I've never had any problem getting a check printer to put my business name on the checks or anything like that."
I have a job and would like to buy equipment for producing music at home and it would be easier for me to pay for the equipment monthly I just want to address your contention that it would be easier to pay monthly, with an interest calculation.  Lets say you get a credit card with a very reasonable rate of 12% and you buy $2,500 of equipment.  A typical credit card minimum payment is interest charges + 1% of the principle. You can see how this is going.  You've paid nearly $200 to clear about $100 off your principle.  Obviously paying the minimum payment will take forever to wipe out this debt.  So you pay more, or maybe you get 0% interest for a while and take advantage of that. Paying $100 per month against $2,500 at 12% per year will take 29 months and cost about $390 in interest.  At $200 per month it'll take 14 months and cost $184 in interest.  Also note, you'll probably get an interest rate closer to 16 or 17%. It's always easier to pay small amounts frequently than it is to pay a lot of money all at once, that ease has a cost.  If you're buying the gear to start a little business, or you already have a little business going and want to upgrade some gear, great; disciplined debt handling is a wonderful skill to have in business.  If you want to start yourself in to a new hobby, you should not do that with debt.  If interest rates are low enough financing something can make sense.  0.9% apr on a car, sure; 15% apr on a mixing board, no.  Credit card interest rates are significant and really should not be trifled with.
PenFed Platinum Cashback Rewards Visa Card is another good choice. Pros: Cons:
In 5 years it is nice to look back and see ""never paid late; mostly paid the entire amount each month; never went over limit; never went into collections"" and so on. In my experience you can tell they like you because they keep raising your limit without you asking them to. If you want to buy a $2500 item and your credit limit is $1500 you could prepay $1000 onto the credit card and then use it. Or you could tell the vendor you'd rather use your debit card. Or you could pay $1500 on the credit card and then rest with your debit card. Lots of options. In my experience once you get up to that kind of money they'd rather not use a credit card because of the merchant fees they pay."
It is not only merchants that charge for credit card purchases but also service providers. Have you looked at your phone bill lately and even your Council Rates. Most of them charge a small %, usually about 1% on Matercard and Visa, and closer to 2% on Diners, Amex and American Express cards. However, the merchants and service providers that do charge a fee for credit card use, must also provide alternative ways of paying to their customers, so that the customer has the choice to either pay or avoid paying this fee.
Wow, I had never heard of this before but I looked into it a bit and Mikey was spot on. It seems that if you don't pay attention to the fine print when making credit card purchases (as most of us tend to skip) many companies have stipulations that allow continued charges if they are recurring fees (monthly, yearly, etc.) even after you have cancelled the card.
"In the US, usury is complicated and depends on the type of account, the bank charter and the where the bank makes credit decisions. Most major US credit cards are issued by entities in Utah, South Dakota and Delaware. None of these states have usury limits. Many states have usury limits. In New York, for example a loan may not exceed 16% interest, if the institution is supervised by the State.  Credit card issuers are usually chartered as ""National Associations"" (ie Federally chartered banks regulated by the Comptroller of the Currency). There is no Federal usury statute, and Federally chartered banks are allowed to ""export"" many of the regulations of the state where credit decisions are made. Small states like South Dakota basically design their banking regulations to meet the needs of the banks, which are major employers."
Quikrupee is an SME lending platform providing loan against card swipes. Businesses having swiping transaction of minimum 2,00,000 is eligible for the loan. It will be greatly useful for retail traders, hospitals, hotels, supermarkets and other retail business having swiping transactions regularly with or without even having IT returns. For more details visit our website - https://www.quikrupee.com/ and also like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/quikrupee/. Contact us - 9840388445, 7358059579
What I do is that I set a small transaction to automatically go on the card and then set an autopayment.  Example for one card is a monthly $8 donation to the local animal humane society.  The autopay is set to pay in full.  *Solved - card stays active.  Some payers will cancel your credit card if they don't show activity.
MoneysavingExpert has a regularly updated page about the best cards to use outside the UK.  At the moment Halifax has a good credit card but you will pay interest on the cash withdrawal. I have a FairFX pre-paid card but that requires a UK address for the card delivery (at least) and can be topped up online from a UK bank account.
So for Schwab, a $3 ATM fee isn't expensive, it's cheap - compared to the cost of serving you any other way. There may also be behind-the-scenes agreements where the bank that charged you $3 refunds some of it to Schwab after they refund you. It doesn't really cost $3 to do a foreign ATM transaction. Most debit cards have a Visa or Mastercard logo. Many places will let you run it as an ATM card with a PIN entry. However everyone who takes Visa/MC must take it as a credit card using a signature. In that case, the merchant pays 2-10% depending on several factors.** Of this, about 1.4% goes to the issuing bank. This is meant to cover the bank's risk of credit card defaults. But drawing from a bank account where they can decline if the money isn't there, that risk is low so it's mostly gravy. You may find Schwab is doing OK on that alone. Also, don't use debit cards at any but the most trusted shops -- unless you fully understand how, in fraud situations, credit cards and debit cards compare -- and are comfortable with the increased risks. ** there are literally dozens of micro-fees depending on their volume, swipe vs chip, ATM vs credit, rewards cards, fixed vs online vs mobile, etc. (Home Depot does OK, the food vendor at the Renaissance Faire gets slaughtered). This kind of horsepuckey is why small-vendor services like Square are becoming hugely popular; they flat-rate everything at around 2.7%. Yay!"
You may be using the wrong method to get your money back.  As others have said, this is not a valid use for chargeback; that is when a fraudulent charge occurred, or when a merchant charges you incorrectly. However, many cards have various kinds of guarantees, one of which might cover this situation. Particularly in some european countries, such as the United Kingdom which has Section 75 allowing you a recourse, services are included with goods.  Goods are typically the only covered elements in the US, though, but check your credit card agreement to be sure. Second, you can go through the FTC.  They will provide you a sample form letter to request a refund of your money, and if the merchant is not cooperative might choose to help you directly (especially if many others are in your situation).
Please don't waste any more time feeling bad for merchants for the charges they incur. I don't know who supported the lobby for this rule, but issuers no longer can demand that merchants accept all transactions (even the unprofitable ones).  I discussed this at length on my blog. Merchants accept credit cards for one reason, and one reason only: it brings them more business.  More people will buy, and on average they'll buy more.  They used to take the occasional hit for someone buying a pack of gum with a credit card, but they don't have to anymore.  The new law restricts issuers from imposing minimum transactions that are less than $10. I use a rewards card wherever possible.  I get a cheaper price.  In most cases I don't care what the merchant has to pay.  They've already factored it into their prices. But if you are concerned, then as fennec points out in his comment, cash is the way to go.
What I should have done in the first place was just ask them.  From their customer support team: Thanks for writing in and for your interest in Square. It is perfectly acceptable to use Square for personal business, such as a yard sale. You do not need to have a registered business to take advantage of Square and the ability to accept credit cards. Just please note that it is against our Terms of Service to process prepaid cards, gift cards or your own credit card using your own Square account. Additionally, you may not use Square as a money transfer system. For every payment processed through Square, you must provide a legitimate good or service. Please let me know if you have any additional concerns.
The funny thing is that mom &amp; pop type establishments usually prefer cash due to the merchant charges they have to pay to the credit card companies. Some of these are percentage-based &amp; others are fixed like a per-transaction charge. In the long run, accepting 10k USD wouldn't be enough. They would lose more than that in people who don't have a card on them vs accepting both cash and cards.
In the United States there are 3 main types of cards. There are organizations that push a credit card with their branding. They aren't a bank so they partner with a bank to offer the card. In the US many colleges and professional sports teams will market a credit card with the team or universities colors and logo. The bank handles the details and the team/university gets a flat fee or a portion of the fees. Many even have annual fees. They market to people who want to show their favorite team colors on their credit card, and are willing to pay extra. Some of these branded cards do come with extra perks: Free shipping, discounts on tickets, being able to buy tickets earlier.  There are 4 other types of cards that have limited usage: What makes it confusing is that large business can actually turn a portion of the corporation into a bank. Walmart has been doing this, and so have casinos.
Not necessarily. You can issue credit cards without a bank involved, although companies which do so may have additional legal complications, such as usury regulations. As an example, AmEx is a network which also issues cards themselves. The company is not a bank; they sold their banking subsidiary in 2007. It's also possible to get a bank-issued credit card without banking with that same company.
"I think your confusion comes from the negative impact when a creditor writes off your bad credit and ceases attempting to collect it. ""Chargebacks"" as you call them are an attempt to undo fraudulent charges on your card, whether from stolen credit card info or from a merchant who is using shady business practices. For what it's worth, if you joined on December 20, January 20 seems like a reasonable date for the next billing cycle, with the December 31 date reflecting the fact that their system couldn't automatically bill you the day you joined. I also think it's reasonable for you to ask them to refund the bill for the second month if you do not plan to use their gym further. So the dispute seems like a reasonable one on both sides. Good luck."
From the business side of credit cards, Discover and American Express carry their own risk. AmEx has lent their logo to banks such as Bank of America (BofA) to use the AmEx transaction network, but the financial risk and customer service is provided by BofA. Visa and MasterCard let banks use their logo and process through their respective networks for a fee. The financial risk of fraud, non-payment from merchants, etc is the risk that the individual banks carry.
Typically Banks look for a steady source of income or savings based on which they issue a credit card. If you can't show that build a cash balance and show it. For Example if you have an PPF account with say SBI, they issue you a card with a limit of around 50% of the balance in PPF. No other documentation is required. Similarly if you have Fixed Deposits for a large amount quite a few Banks would give you a Credit Card. My wife has a credit card because she had a good balance [around 100,000 INR] for around a year, the Bank kept calling her and offered her a card.
The answer is the next sentence from the Wikipedia article: The precise manner in which interest is charged is usually detailed in a cardholder agreement which may be summarized on the back of the monthly statement.  Your previous question on credit card interest rates quotes the sentence after this. You have to review what the agreement for your card says. Also keep in mind the bank wants to make money from you. The more interest and fees they collect, they better they like you. If enough card holders adjust their behavior, to minimize interest and fees; the bank will then adjust the credit card agreement to get money a different way.  Yes, you are right it would seem fair to only charge interest on the smaller amount, but that doesn't allow the credit card issuer to maximize profits.
"Anytime you do work without any payment until the work is complete, you are effectively extending credit to the party receiving your service. How much credit you are willing to extend will vary greatly, depending on the amount and the trustworthiness of the party. For example, if you are charging $50 for something, you probably won't bother to collect money upfront, whereas if you are charging $5,000 you probably would collect some upfront. But if the party you are working for is a large financially sound company, the number may be even much higher than $5K as you can trust you will be paid. Obviously there are many factors that go into how much credit you are willing to extend to your customer. (This is why credit reports exist for banks to determine how much credit to extend to you.) As for the specific case you are asking about, which may be classified as a decent amount of work for a small business, I would default to having a written scope of work, a place in the document for both parties to sign, and specify 50% upfront payment and 50% payment at completion. When you receive the signed document and the upfront payment (and possibly even after the check clears), you begin work. I would call this my ""default contract"" and adjust according to your needs depending on the size of the job and the trustworthiness of the customer. As for your question about how to deposit the check, that depends on what type of entity you are. If you are a sole proprietor you should ask for the checks to be made out to you. If you are a business then the checks should be made out to your business name. You don't need ""in trust"" or anything similar because your customer, after paying the upfront fee, must trust that you will do the work you promise to do, just like you have to trust that after completing the work you will receive the final payment. This is the reason the default is 50% before and after. Both parties are risking (roughly) the same amount. Tip: having done the ""default"" contract many times in my career, both as a sole proprietor and a business owner, I can assure you there is a big difference between a potential customer agreeing to something in advance, and actually writing a check.
The idea is old as dirt, and some millions of people had it before you. Credit card swipes cost you between 2.4 and 4.5%, depending on the cards, the provider, and the amounts, plus potentially a fixed small amount per swipe. Of course, a 2% cash back card cost more than 2% to swipe; and a 3% cash back card cost more than 3% to swipe; those guys are not morons.
"There are two things I can think of that might be different in other countries: Until 2013, American Express, Visa and MasterCard prevented businesses from charging extra for credit card usage, and credit card surcharges still illegal in several states. Since credit card companies add a surcharge to credit card purchases, and merchants can't pass that onto credit card users, they just make everyone pay extra instead. Since everyone gets charged the credit card surcharge, you might as well use a credit card and recoup some of that via ""rewards"" points. Almost all credit cards here have grace periods, where you won't be charged interest if you pay back your loans in full within some period of time (at least 21 days). This makes credit cards attractive to people who don't need a loan, but like the convenience that credit cards provide (not carrying cash, extra insurance, better fraud protection). Apparently grace periods aren't required by law here, so this might be common in other countries as well."
The truth is that Visa does not require a merchant to enter the cvv number before authorizing a transaction.  The only information that is really needed is the credit card number and expiration date.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/12/13/small-bank-in-kansas-is-a-financial-testing-ground/ Citizens Bank of Weir might allow you to do this, their experimentation in speeding up bank transfers was pushing money over the debit card network.
In my experience dealing with credit cards and store cards, you may find that the store card is much more flexible than the credit card in terms of the enforcement of the card agreement.  For instance, I've missed payments on credit cards and only been 1 day late and saw a rate increase, but on a store card when the same thing happened, it was like they didn't even notice.  Granted, this was a 100% store card with no VISA/MC logo on it, and it was through their bank. This may not be true of all store cards and your experience may differ, but I felt like the store card was more of a tool for acquiring the merchandise and helping the store make a sale than it was for some big bank to make money off of my interest. With credit cards, you are the product, and the bank makes money purely from interest. The store, on the other hand, makes money from selling the product, and credit helps increase sales. My suggestion is to avoid credit altogether as all debt is risk, but if you must use credit, you may have a better experience with the store card. Of course, don't forget to consider the interest rates, payment plan, and other fees that may apply as they may affect your decision in terms of which to go with.
"When you buy something with your credit card, the store pays a fee to the credit card company, typically a base fee of 15 to 50 cents plus 2 to 3% of the purchase. At least, that's what it was a few years back when I had a tiny business and I wanted to accept credit cards. Big chain stores pay less because they are ""buying in bulk"" and have negotiating power. Just because you aren't paying interest doesn't mean the credit card company isn't making money off of you. In fact if you pay your monthly bill promptly, they're probably making MORE off of you, because they're collecting 2 or 3% for a month or less, instead of the 1 to 2% per month that they can charge in interest. The only situation I know where you can get money from a credit card company for free is when they offer ""convenience checks"" or a balance transfer with no up-front fee. I get such an offer every now and then. I presume the credit card company does that for the same reason that stores give out free samples: they hope that if you try the card, you'll continue using it. To them, it's a marketing cost, no different than the cost of putting an ad on television."
"I have a merchant account and accept Visa, Mastercard, and Discover but not AMEX. I don't take AMEX because they want me to go through another approval process (on top of what was required to get merchant status) and their fees are a percent or two higher than the other cards. This doesn't sound like a lot - but for a business that grosses $1M per year, an extra 2 percentage points is $20K. I don't gross $1M, but the additional cost for me to take AMEX would still use the word ""thousand"" and I don't see any reason to jump through extra hoops and fill out more forms for the privilege of giving extra money away. I haven't found anyone yet who wanted to pay me with AMEX who can't pay me with another card or a check instead."
As long as the fine print permits this, it's a quick 2%. Be careful that your credit score may drop momentarily if you use the credit and for that cycle have high utilization.