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Review your procedures when you have clients who want to pay by credit card or ATM card because they are low on cash, forgot their checkbook, or used their last check. Wouldn't you prefer to receive payment when service is rendered, rather than billing them and/or relying on them to pay you in the future? When you accept ATM, debit, check or credit card payments for your professional services, you give your clients an additional methods of paying and you give yourself an additional method of billing and collecting. You also reduce your overhead and improve your cash flow.

How to lower your overhead and increase cash flow:

• Offering new payment options can quickly clear up outstanding past-due receivables.
• You can receive payment in full and still give clients the option of making payments.
• It is less expensive for you to accept a $50.00 payment by credit card, than the costs of labor, supplies and postage required to mail an invoice.
• Have patients pre-authorize payments with their credit card for the portion of their bills that their insurance company does not cover. Once their insurance company has processed the claim, you can automatically charge the patient's credit card for the balance due. You will not need to send the patient a statement or wait for the patient's response. This reduces your paperwork, the number of invoices you have to send and the number of days balances due are outstanding. You save time on the management of billing, statements and receivables, and you reduce your overhead and related expenses.
• Your percentage of bad debts is decreased, cash flow is improved, and overhead is reduced.

Historically, the benefits of being able to accept electronic card payments have been out of reach for most private practitioners. A high volume of usage has been needed in order for the benefits to exceed the costs involved in establishing and maintaining the required merchant account.

The cost and specifics vary from bank to bank, but the following table lists the typical multiple charges that can add up to substantial monthly and annual fees. The contracts for a merchant account are complex and many of the expenses are hidden until after the contract is signed. Learn more about Surprises and Hidden Charges with some Merchant Accounts.

We believe that having the ability to accept ATM, debit and check cards as well as credit card payments can be vital to your practice. That's why we have established ProfessionalCharges.com. Our program has a wide range of benefits and it is both inexpensive and simple to use.

FOR EXAMPLE: If you bill $100.00 to your client's VISA card, your total cost will be $4.25 and $1.00. The total deposited to your account will be $94.75.

Since our members are licensed professionals, we have been able to work out an agreement with the relevant financial organizations involved in the credit card processing, enabling us to provide economical credit card processing for our members. The stringent professional, ethical and legal requirements that all of our members must follow, adds an additional level of security and trust not present in a general, less defined population of users. The owners and managers of ProfessionalCharges.com are also licensed psychologists, and must also follow the same stringent professional, ethical and legal requirements as members.

We have been able to keep the costs down by automating the process as much as possible. By utilizing Electronic Funds Transfer, and by giving members access to their account status at any time, we have been able to eliminate the high costs of mailing statements.

The only fees you incur are an annual fee of $150, a discount rate of 4.25% for VISA, MasterCard and Discover, and a transaction fee of $1.00. Foreign cards and American Express are 5.25% with a transaction fee of $1.50. As long as you don't incur charge backs, where your patient challenges the transaction and the money is refunded with a $30.00 penalty, you don't incur additional fees. For only $150.00 a year you can expand the payment options you offer your clients. Then start accepting ATM, check, debit and credit card payments from your clients and reap the benefits.