Why take credit card and give up 3% when you can install an atm machine and get $3 every time someone uses it.
i don’t think you understand; the restaurant doesn’t make any money off it. the provider of the ATM does. the difference is that instead of the restaurant paying the margin, the customer does. AND the profit margin is a lot better. AND if everyone uses the ATM for cash to pay, the gross sales amount is rounded UP to the nearest $20. of course, you have the initial capital outlay (but depreciation takes a big hunk out of that), maintenance, servicing (replenishing $), etc. but getting a vendor to get an ATM is typically a good source of residual income for the provider.
the card issuer collects their basic interchange rate. that ranges from maybe 1.6% up to 3.3%. the more rewards the cards offer, the higher that rate. that’s why vendors are more reluctant to take the cards that offer rewards of any sort - the vendor pays for those rewards. in a best case scenario, the processor adds their service charges on top of that. the real profit comes when processors offer their customers tiered rates instead of simply adding their margin on top of the interchange rate. then vendors can be charged 5% or more.
but even on margined rates, vendors get ripped off on relatively small purchases because of the flat fee per transaction. call it 25 cents (it’s actually around 17 cenns, but the math is easier). 25 cents of $100 is an extra 0.25%. on $10, it’s an extra 2.5% on $20, it’s still an extra 1.25%. that adds up fast. but if you take only the 1.6% interchange rate cards and average $100 per ticket, you can pay as low as 2.2% overall including processor service charges. but if someone’s running a small business with small ticket sizes, i’d recommend going with square who offers a flat 2.75% surcharge rate on all credit card purchases.
BTW it’s not lawful to add a processing fee to a credit charge. customers may file for a refund if they keep their receipts. given how much they lose on small orders i can understand why businesses have resorted to that. however, it is lawful to jack up overall prices 3% and offer a 3% discount for using cash.
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i know you’re severely opinionated, but you need to think this through. say you have an ATM. who supplies the money? you? ok. fine. you want to go through the hassle of replenishing the machine with clean money as needed. what happens when the machine breaks or needs servicing? i doubt you’re qualified to fix it. and even if you are that costs $.
how do YOU get the issuers of each card to reimburse you for each charge? THEY have to be notified by the ATM. how do you think that happens?
someone else has to provide the infrastructure for the ATM to work. and THEY set the rate of how much to charge you for the service.