How Your Day Care Center Can Accept Credit Card Payments

Your daycare center can accept credit card payments as a means of helping your clients stay on budget, as well as to prevent interruptions in your own cash flow. Day care costs are a significant expense for working families trying to stay on budget. Payment due dates do not always coincide with parents’ paydays. By accepting credit cards, you can help them stay current on their payments and maintain your income stream. That’s important because you have operating expenses that don’t stop for any excuse.

To make the whole process even easier, with the client’s written approval, you can automatically debit their credit card account for payment at regular intervals. You get to skip the whole bounced check and waiting for checks to clear hassle. Maybe mom is paying half the cost and dad is paying half the cost; that presents no problem or inconvenience for you at all. You can charge both cards for the agreed amount.

Multiple benefits

By accepting credit cards, your daycare center will also have accurate record keeping for each client. Some kids are there every day, others maybe only three days a week. Maybe your program is flexible. When you accept credit cards, there is no guesswork and no hand written records to confuse, and an accurate statement is instantly available at all times. The statement of childcare payments may be very important to your client. When they pay by credit card, their expense statement tallies accurately.

Since child care expenses can be a big tax deduction for some families, you can provide an annual statement for them to use in order to prepare their tax return early. That’s the kind of special touch that can keep a client loyal to your business. You also have an immediate and accurate account of income for your own records, database and tax returns. It’s convenient for the customer and for the business owner.

 Credit card processing is for all businesses

Health clubs, psychiatrists, home assistants and other repetitive service providers–including daycare providers–schedule payments to be withdrawn from credit cards. It’s a discreet and sensitive way of doing business when the relationship between service provider and customer is personal.

Of course, you don’t have to operate your business on this payment model, but customers still appreciate the option of paying by credit card. Your mind will be at ease knowing the funds you need to operate your business will be waiting in your account.

If you choose the right merchant account provider, then you can also rest assured that accepting credit cards as payment for your daycare services will not require any initial outlay of money, with no application fee and no extra charge for equipment or software. Make sure to use a company that utilizes military grade encryption for internet payments to assure your clients sensitive information is safe as well as your own. And also be sure that the software or equipment for processing credit card payments are fully payment card industry compliant. Make sure that they also have technicians standing by 24/7, 365 days a year to answer your questions at no extra charge to you.

For more information on why your day care center should accept credit card payments, or to sign up for a merchant account, please call (888) 924-2743 or go to Charge.com.