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If your gross profit (not including rent and other fixed costs) at a restaurant is, say, 80%, do you still think 1% CC fees are silly? To me this seems like rid

If your gross profit (not including rent and other fixed costs) at a restaurant is, say, 80%, do you still think 1% CC fees are silly? To me this seems like ridiculous premature optimisation. If I go to Germany and I'm having a meal with clients I'll phone ahead and see if they accept CC and won't visit if they don't.

kuschku 9y ago
> If your gross profit (not including rent and other fixed costs) at a restaurant is, say, 80%, do you still think 1% CC fees are silly? That's a question, but that's not what things look like. Many German businesses are operating at razor-thin margins, or even at losses. From farmers (which lose around 13ct for every liter milk sold) to small restaurants (often making losses on all of the food, and only minor profit on the drinks) to any other kind of business. If you are a 4 people company and you're trying to compete (and do so successfully) with american multinational chains, then you don't have enough profits to pay 7% CC fees. You'll be lucky if you can afford the 30€/month + 0.125% EC fees, and many businesses can't even do that. > If I go to Germany and I'm having a meal with clients I'll phone ahead and see if they accept CC and won't visit if they don't. Trust me, these businesses prefer not having your business. You'd only make losses for them.
- martinald 9y ago
  7% CC fees? Are you crazy? The EU regulated it at less than 1%.
  - kuschku 9y ago
    The EU regulated VISA and MasterCard, and only since a year ago. AMEX still takes 7% fees, even today, and even MasterCard and VISA could take those fees in 2015 still.
    - martinald 9y ago
      Ok, don't accept AMEX then (that's common for a lot of shops to not accept in the UK). It's definitely not 7% though, considering Stripe offers AMEX processing for 1.4% in the EU. Can't see any reason not to accept MC/Visa now though.
      - kuschku 9y ago
        > Can't see any reason not to accept MC/Visa now though. Still 10 times higher fees than with the German card systems. If your profit margin is 1.4%, you can't afford 2.2% credit card fees. And if you increase the price, all customers go to the cheaper competitor. German stores are in a reaaaaal close competition with these things.

kuschku 9y ago

> If your gross profit (not including rent and other fixed costs) at a restaurant is, say, 80%, do you still think 1% CC fees are silly? That's a question, but that's not what things look like. Many German businesses are operating at razor-thin margins, or even at losses. From farmers (which lose around 13ct for every liter milk sold) to small restaurants (often making losses on all of the food, and only minor profit on the drinks) to any other kind of business. If you are a 4 people company and you're trying to compete (and do so successfully) with american multinational chains, then you don't have enough profits to pay 7% CC fees. You'll be lucky if you can afford the 30€/month + 0.125% EC fees, and many businesses can't even do that. > If I go to Germany and I'm having a meal with clients I'll phone ahead and see if they accept CC and won't visit if they don't. Trust me, these businesses prefer not having your business. You'd only make losses for them.

martinald 9y ago
7% CC fees? Are you crazy? The EU regulated it at less than 1%.
- kuschku 9y ago
  The EU regulated VISA and MasterCard, and only since a year ago. AMEX still takes 7% fees, even today, and even MasterCard and VISA could take those fees in 2015 still.
  - martinald 9y ago
    Ok, don't accept AMEX then (that's common for a lot of shops to not accept in the UK). It's definitely not 7% though, considering Stripe offers AMEX processing for 1.4% in the EU. Can't see any reason not to accept MC/Visa now though.
    - kuschku 9y ago
      > Can't see any reason not to accept MC/Visa now though. Still 10 times higher fees than with the German card systems. If your profit margin is 1.4%, you can't afford 2.2% credit card fees. And if you increase the price, all customers go to the cheaper competitor. German stores are in a reaaaaal close competition with these things.