Popcorn kickoff - credit card payment

[5yearscouter]

If you call the company and you have a good credit rating they may raise the $1000 limit for you, and set the hold rate at a higher amount.

 

but the reviews online are not so good for this company.

 

now, who has $18 unbelievable micro popcorn this year? ours is $20.

[Basementdweller]

The hold is only for $1000 in 7 days of sales..... If you use it as a last resort kind of thing or stop using it when you get close to the limit you would be ok.

[Eamonn]

I really can never ever not never in a million years see myself handing over one of my cards to someone armed with a smart phone.

I'm clever enough to know that the phones are very smart and I'm not.

Hackers seem to be doing a great job of hacking into just about any and every place that they have a hankering to do so.

Companies are not always very forthcoming in saying that they have been hacked and some guy half a world away is buying guns and drugs at my expense.

Sure I know there is a good chance that I might get my money back.

But there is a good chance that I could spend many happy hours listening to voice prompts while I try to fix what has happened to my identity and my credit.

All because I spent less than fifty bucks on something I don't like to start with?

I don't think so.

Far better to give the guy a fifty dollar bill and hope that he will when I ask him to put it in the unit funds do so.

If he doesn't?

Then the unit is hurt and out the fifty bucks and I'm left not knowing but still feeling good that I supported the cause.

Eamonn

Who is a lot dumber than any smart phone.

[BartHumphries]

If you don't want to use it, more power to you -- whatever floats your boat. Other people don't have the same opinion, though, which is cool, whatever floats their boats too.

[UCEagle72]

Latest on the $1,000 limit:

 

Square, for its part, appears to have removed the $1000 per week limit, or more precisely, the $1000 limit only exists for the first week as Square checks out the transactions being made to ensure they're not fishy. A company representative said that the cap originally was instituted to protect against fraud, and one presumes that the loads of transaction data they've gathered has enabled them to spot bad actors in more sophisticated ways.

 

(From an article published today in the Atlantic)

[Basementdweller]

Well it is irrelevant....the Pack committee did not want to link it to the Pack checking account or bother to setup another account. the issue is dead for our group.

[Mikemenn]

"We came out of THAT discussion with the understanding that we should use the card reader as a last resort, to save a no sale, because the money comes right out of the unit."

 

First let me clarify that I hate selling popcorn.

 

The above statement really isn't motivating me to sell more popcorn. If anything, the 2.75% should come out of the council share. The units are doing all of the legwork, and while the district/council is providing support, the bottom line is that, without the units, the council gets nothing.

 

For a complete understanding, let me inform you of the other costs that are coming out of the Council's share of popcorn. a) all council incentives like $600 club prizes, top seller locations, free-bies at kick-offs, selling material, etc. come out of the Council's pocket. b) they take on all the risk of popcorn not being paid for. a unit who won't or can't pay back the popcorn they ordered rests on Council's wallet. c) unsold popcorn if returned to the Council also gets tabbed back to them. d) more money to council means lower summer camp fees and property usage fees.

 

I don't work for the council, merely a volunteer. But losing $0.27 from $3.00 is better than not making the $3 in the first place.

[CalicoPenn]

During the event, one of the council staffers announced that they had worked out a way for us to take credit cards from folks buying popcorn, as a way to get around the 'I don't have any cash on me' problem.

 

Apparently the council staffers don't understand that "Sorry, I don't have any cash on me" is one of those polite lies that are told when someone doesn't want to buy popcorn but doesn't want to outright reject a 9 year old Cub Scout.

 

I wonder what polite lie will become common when a nine year old says "We take credit cards now".

 

That said, given the price of the product, it's not a bad idea though I would set up a separate account to accept the deposits and link it to that account and not give access to the regular checking account. I'd be worried about someone disputing the credit card charge 2 or 3 months later and the contract likely gives the processor the right to pull the disputed money from the account - far better for them to have to ask you to refund the money from your main account rather than letting them just take it automatically without informing you until the money is taken by them - especially if you're just written a major check for something and don't have enough money in the account to cover both the check and the "refund".