We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but we can no longer accept debit/credit cards.

We are doing everything we can to keep our cost down. There is a surcharge (charged by the credit card companies) which was added to your payment (that was the 3%) so that didn’t cost us. However, when our customers pay by DEBIT card, no surcharge can be added to the payment by the credit card company or us. However, while they CAN’T charge the card holder a fee, they CAN - and do - charge US a percentage PLUS $0.25 for each transaction. This cost us hundreds of dollars each month with no way to pass that charge on to the debit card user. We could raise our rates to cover that cost, but that would raise everyone. Since we offer ACH (at no charge) and accept checks, we don’t feel that higher prices would be fair to the majority of our customers who pay by these other means.

There are convoluted ways that some companies can use to cover these cost such as charging a “convenience fee” (which must be a flat rate - not a percentage), or raising rates and then offering a “cash discount”, but these are not legal if all conditions are not met (which our type of business cannot do).

If we find a simple, legal way to pass this expense along to the card user so other customers don’t pay for a service they aren’t using, we’ll start accepting cards again. And, no, we can’t accept credit cards and refuse debit cards…that’s illegal.

If you have any questions, please call the office.